Little St. George

My mom's family (the Little's) had a family reunion type thing in St. George a couple weeks ago. Jake and I drove up there after I got off work at 8pm. We were supposed to get there by 3 AM, which isn't too bad for us, we're usually up until 2. But we didn't get there until 6 AM. We missed the exit to Vegas and ended up in CA. ARGH! Poor Jake drove the entire time. He's so amazing! Activities started at 9 the next day so Jake was running on 3 hours of sleep that day. What a trooper!

The trip consisted of hiking, talking, more hiking and eating. We went to Zions because I guess my grandpa used to drive the tour buses through there. The next day we hiked up through a little canyon with a river. It was really beautiful and made me appreciate the desert again (see previous post...). Before we took off we were able to visit Jake's cousin Roy and his cute little family. Jake and Roy used to sell alarms together so we know them pretty well, it was nice to catch up with them again.

I love my family (on both sides!!) Family is what makes life worth living! Here are some pictures from the trip!

This picture perfectly shows how tired he was!

First stop on hike #1 @Zions. We are standing under a waterfall.

Everyone has such funny faces in this one!

Stop #2 at the middle pools. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of them.

Stop #3, upper pool.

Cliff Dweller :)

One of my favorite parts of the trip was playing with Emery! She is so cute! And the funniest thing she did all weekend was scream at Carson. If he ever walked too close or tried to hold her she'd scream at him! It reminded me of the bird Kevin from Up who is always screeching at the dog.

Hike #2 Red Cliffs in Leeds, UT.

My favorite picture from the entire weekend. Oh brothers.

Arthritis Walk

Several weeks ago Jake's work sponsored an arthritis walk at the Phoenix Zoo. Jake signed up because we'd get free t-shirts, but BONUS! We also got free admission to the zoo all day! The walk was probably just about a mile, and it took us on a loop through the zoo. It was awesome being there so early because it wasn't hot yet and most of the animals were still active (like the big cats who normally just sleep all day). So here are some pictures from the walk. We want to go to the Wildlife Zoo sometime soon, so if anyone wants to come with us just let us know!

Learning to Appreciate the Desert

Sorry it's been so long! I have tons to blog about, but I have the hardest time motivating myself to do it. So I'll try to knock one out each day until I'm all caught up.

I wanted to write this post before it gets too hot here and I change my mind! But I've been trying to be more optimistic about living in the desert. A few weeks ago Jake, Cleo, and I went hiking up South Mountain, on the Mormon trail! It was super fun! Cleo did really well and it was nice to do something different. I also started to pay attention to the terrain and found some interestingly pretty flowers. So I took lots of pictures in hopes that they will remind me that there are some good things in this ridiculous climate we live in.

Allergies=Suck.

I NEVER had allergies growing up. I think they first started when I moved to MA, but they have never been this bad! Jake and I both hate taking any kind of medicine (unless absolutely necessary), but last week I had to give in. Itchy eyes, itchy throat, frustratingly annoying runny nose, everything was so fuzzy!! So now I basically can't get through the day without some form of allergy medication. I hope this allergy season is almost over. On the bright side, allergy season brings beautiful things like this...

These pretty trees were all over our complex a few weeks ago, and I couldn't help taking a picture. This desert of ours will only be pretty for so long!

Cleo Complex

So... we got a new dog a few weeks ago. I've delayed blogging about it because it's still sort of up in the air if we will keep her or not. We found her at a shelter and instantly liked her. She was loving and happy and liked lots of attention. She was listed as a Chinese Shar pei mix, but we can't see the resemblance. So Jake and I decided that she looks more like a mix between a border collie and a pharaoh hound. We named her Cleo (Cleopatra) because of how Egyptian she looks. She really is a gorgeous dog.


Well about a day or two after we got her I started having second thoughts. I don't think I was ready for a new dog (I still miss Jitters) and especially not a bigger dog. I was having the hardest time adjusting to a big creature that I couldn't pick up and move it where it wouldn't bother me. I hated taking her outside because whenever we saw a dog she'd freak out and jump all over the place. I didn't enjoy playing with her, because she could jump high and nip at me (where the worst Jitters could do was scratch at your shins). I couldn't sit on my couch because she was constantly in my face, and whenever I pushed her away she would think I was playing and came back for more. And to make matters worse our cat hates us again. I knew that getting a bigger dog would take some adjusting, I just wasn't willing to do that.
On top of that, I lost my job a week after we got her. So we had a dog I didn't want, and we couldn't afford.
Things are slowly getting tolerable. I started a new job yesterday working as a receptionist at a cosmetology school (so there goes the "we can't afford her" excuse). And she is getting better. Or maybe I'm getting better haha. The only thing that really bothers me now is how she reacts to other dogs. Whenever a dog gets too close she nips at them. I also miss my cat. She lives under our bed these days.
So if any of you out there know of anyone looking for a dog, we've got one for ya! She really is super sweet and loves to play. And I know that over time I'll learn to love her but right now she just seems like more a burden or a chore. I think she'd do better in a house with a yard, and someone who could give her lots of love (now that both Jake and I work nights she's locked up all night). But for now I just need to suck it up and learn to live (and be happy) with this decision we made.

This is my favorite thing about Cleo. Her ears! She is a short haired dog, but her ears are really fuzzy. It's cute :)

Home Again Home Again

Well, a couple weeks ago we made the trek up to UT again to visit my family. Jake needed a break from work and I missed my family so... yeah! I honestly can't even remember doing a whole lot, and we hardly took any pictures, gr! But here were some highlights of the trip.

• We were able to visit my friend Megan and her new husband Randy. I'd never met him before and it was nice to see them together and visit them in their home.
• SNOW! We drove through a storm on the way up and on the way back. It was lovely.
  

• Cool rock formations! We drove a different way this time and found this neat little place on the side of the road. Jake had fun running around and being goofy :) I told him this place is NOTHING compared to Goblin Valley. So next time we drive up to UT we'll be stopping there so he can see its wonderment.

• On the drive up we stopped in Taylorsville to visit Rory and Rebecca. They just got a German Shepherd puppy named Mowgli. He is super cute and HUGE (and of course I left the camera in the car). I'm glad we visited them then because they were both pretty sick that weekend or were busy with work so we hardly got to see them.
• We got to spend lots of time with Emery! I haven't seen her walking yet so that was fun. She is such a good baby! We took her swimming which she loved, and when we all went to play tennis (in 45 degree weather :D) she was happy just to sit on one of our laps and watch the others play. My favorite part though was her falling asleep on me while we were watching a movie. Love love love. I'm so glad we were able to visit on a weekend that Taylor gets his daughter.

• Learning that we have a new nephew! Of course he had to come on the one weekend we're out of town! Braxton was born on March 7 (11-ish weeks early) he is still in the hospital but is doing great! We were able to visit him the day after we got home, what a cute little bugger he is!
  
• On Sunday we had both the Zaugg and Little Grandparents over, which was nice! The original plan was to have dinner in Logan but my grandparents decided to come visit us instead. This was kinda a bummer because I was planning on visiting some friends in Logan... but I guess that will have to wait for the next UT trip! Dinner was great and it was nice to have both sets of grandparents in one place.

I know my mom looks funny in this one, but it's the only one I could find with my grandpa and dad looking normal. That's how awful I was at taking pictures this trip, that is 1 of 2 pictures of my dad, and this is the good one.

• Learning new card games! Oh how I love playing games with my family. I think Jake is getting used to it, he seemed to enjoy playing them more this trip (or he just faked it). He's so good to me!
  
• We played a lot of Wii. Funniest thing is watching my dad bowl. Best technique ever haha. And my mom is a pro BTW. They have finally found a video game where they can beat their children!

Taylor golfs sitting down :)

• We saw the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I think Jake enjoyed it more than he was expecting to, which is awesome! If he can live through that then I think there will be many more musicals in our future!
• Before the play we went out to eat with our good friends the Krebs. I haven't seen them since our wedding, so it was nice to catch up.
• Rainbow on the drive home! It was a nice ending to a great trip. Really we didn't do anything monumental, it was just fun to get away and relax.
  

• And last but not least, coming home to a clean house! Seriously it feels so good to walk into a clutter free space after being cooped up in a car for 12 hours.

New Job and Finished Art. Sort of.

So Jake got a new job! Sort of. He's with the same company, but he is now answering emails instead of answering phones. He started today and he was so excited not to have to deal with obnoxious people on the phone. He has to work in Gilbert though, and his schedule is back to 3:30 to midnight, but it'll be worth it just knowing he enjoys his work that much better! I'm really happy for him and so proud! I've got such a talented guy!

And I finished this piece. Sort of. I'm still not happy with the field, and her one arm disappears weirdly, but I got sick of working on it and called it quits. It's called "He Loves Me." Also, I'm kinda taking a break from the digital stuff because I really need to work on illustrating my mom's book and that requires lots and lots of sketching. So probably no art for a while.. sorry!