Family Reunion

Kaylee and I went down to Arizona this past week for a family reunion. Unfortunately, Robert couldn't come with us because he was busy working but we still had a great time.

We headed down on Tuesday with my parents, and it was a LONG drive. Kaylee handled it pretty well and, even without air conditioning for half the drive, we all made it there alive.

Taking a break while the car was being worked on.

I was very surprised by how well Kaylee slept even the first night there! Usually in a new place she needs a night to adjust.

The next day we all hiked in the morning and then played in the creek and swam all afternoon. That is pretty much how things go at the cabin. Swimming and hiking. It was great to have all my mom's family there at the same time. It was pretty hectic though with most everyone sleeping in tents outside (the cabin only has 4 bedrooms and there were over 30 people) and trying do work around a very old overused septic system.

I got to go with a bunch of cousins to a swimming hole with a rope swing that I hadn't been to since I was about 14, and it was great! Not like I remembered it at all, but much better. I can't wait to go there with Robert.

The weather was really hot most days and it didn't rain every evening which would make those nights REALLY got and muggy. But the hot days made the creek SO enjoyable and inviting. One of the days a bunch of us went up the west fork trail to a small area of super slick rocks and little pools. The water was so warm that even Kaylee was happy to play in the stream. I had a stupid mom moment when I went down the main slide rock with her and I had forgotten that it is too deep for me to touch at the bottom, so I had to hold her over my head while I tried to swim to shallower water. She got really nervous about that, but then had fun once she wasn't on the verge of being dunked.

Kathryn and I hiking west fork trail (we took Daniel's picture up so he could be with us)

Kaylee and I at the mini slide rock

Wading with her "cousin" (my cousin's daughter)

It was pretty cold that day

As you can see by my face in this one

and this one

All the cousins had a fun time stopping the water for as long as possible before letting it go rushing down the slide part.

I took Kaylee down the slide, but she thought it was a bit too cold. Her face in this one is kind of pathetic

Some more "cousins" (my mom's cousin's boys) They caught these fish with a stick, some line, and a hook baited with a blackberry.

The seriousness that is Risk

Me, Ely, and Kathryn

Hiking up the "rim" trail. I didn't go on this one, but will next year.

Mom and Dad

Family Tree

Kaylee and Samuel playing the Piano

Happy early birthday to Evie!

Back rubs (I really was enjoying myself!)

Kathryn's friend from Anasazi

Last day, hiking to the "bat cave"

The Hansens

Sisters and the next generation of cousins

I had a wonderful time re-connecting with my girl cousins who I haven't talked to in a long time. We went on hikes together, swam, skinny-dipped (and got our clothes stolen), hiked, and shopped together and talked LONG into each night. It was hard being the only one there who had a baby on a really set schedule because I felt more tied down than the other 3 moms there. I am so thankful to have wonderful parents who were willing to watch her for me while I played and had a great time.

Kaylee took HUGE steps towards actually walking while we were there. Two of the other babies there were walking and she followed their lead. At one point she was walking down the sidewalk and around the corner with no help at all. I was only about 6 feet, but it was an amazing thing to watch. She fell a couple times after that and got a little nervous, but I know she will be walking soon.

Early on Sunday the fun ended. Kaylee woke up at midnight puking her guts out. My cousin's daughter had been sick two days before, and one other person had gotten sick so I was expecting it to hit her eventually. I had just hoped it wouldn't be in the middle of the night. It was heartbreaking to see her so terrified by not knowing what was going on with her body. I am sure her stomach hurt, and she hasn't every really thrown up before so that was scary for both of us. She was up sick for almost 4 hours before she was able to stay asleep longer than 15 minutes without puking. It was so bad that at one point I had to put her on the rug on the floor because there were no dry spots left in her pack n play. I would have put her in my bed, but I didn't want her puking on there and then not having anywhere to sleep for the rest of the weekend (there wasn't a washing machine). Am I a bad mom for putting her on the floor rather than in bed with me? The rest of the day she slept a lot, didn't each much, and was mostly miserable the whole day.

Luckily she was feeling slightly better for the drive home on Monday, but I was starting to feel a little sick. By the next morning, I was sick, and she had a pretty high fever and we were both miserable beyond belief all day.

Robert and I are headed down again next week with some friends. I can't wait, but am nervous to leave Kaylee for that long :(

Better late than never!

I finally got some picture of our Mirror Lake camping trip, so I thought I would post them. Enjoy!

Kathryn and Kaylee

I think it was raining in this one.....

Hmmmm, I am thinking maybe Kathryn was stuck with Kaylee a lot?

I was a bad mom and forgot her Jacket (mine too) so we had her wear Robert's sweater.

I have to admit, it made a nice handle.

Kathryn

Kaylee on a warmer afternoon

Waiting out the rain

Kathryn showing us all how she started fires for the whole summer. She worked at Anisazi and was out "surviving" on the trail most of the time.

More Cody

Here are more pictures of Cody

Goodbye Old Buddy

Cody - 1998-2010

I said a final goodbye to the last of my childhood dogs last night, and this morning he was helped across the rainbow bridge.

Cody was such a wonderful dog to grow up with. My mom has always had Irish setters and he a great one. Many people think of Irish setters as crazy, brainless, hyperactive balls of fur. Yes, many of them are, but when you get a sane one they are amazing dogs.

Cody was more of a hunting bred setter so he didn't have all the long feathers of a show dog, but he hated being brushed so it was better that way. I was 14 when we got him and we were best friends. We went to some "training" classes, but sadly they were the " yank your dog around until they are too scared to leave your side" classes so we mostly just used books and common sense. I trained him to sit and down in German because I thought it would be cool.....it was.

He was my first agility dog, and I didn't even know what agility was. I would tip over picnic benches and tables and have him jump over them in a pattern. I think I saw an agility trial once at a breed show and got the idea from that. I remember wanting to train him to do the pattern all by himself on verbal cue only. Lol, that didn't work, but we had fun trying! He loved playing with me, and tried everything I asked him to do.

He was always pestering our older rough coated collie "Heidi" and she was always a grump about it. Then when she passed away we got another setter......one that was crazy.......named Kelly. She became his best buddy for a while until we got Patriot and two puppies was too much for Cody. He became the grumpy one and never liked puppies after that. Eventually it was just him and Patriot (Kelly went to a more active home that had the time for a dog like her) and they loved being together. Cody sulked when Patriot went to "college" and then rejoiced when they were reunited 4 months later.

I am sad to say that he took a back seat in my life after I got Patriot. I still loved him, but Patriot is my Heart dog and I wasn't good at sharing my heart with another dog. Now I wish I had been better about it.

Cody turned 12 a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful birthday full of hiking and pampering. He had been going downhill for a couple months, and finally started having trouble breathing and lost his appetite this past week. It was time, especially with my family going out of town for two weeks later this month. I will miss him, but I am glad he is in a better place filled with all our other setters who have crossed the bridge.

I am getting a bunch more pictures of him together that I will post later this week.

Goodbye Cody, you were one of the best and I will never forget you! Say Hi to "Brandy", "Esty" and "Heidi" in heaven for me!

Camping.....with no pictures

Robert, Kaylee, and I went on our first camping trip as a family this past weekend......and I forgot to take a single picture. Yep, I get the bad mom award for that one!

Camping was an interesting ordeal. It was fun, hard, exhausting, and crappy all at the same time. My mom, dad, and sister Kathryn came with us, and we each brought a canoe. We left the boys at home being watched and fed by my friend Sandy. Kaylee was set with everything any baby would ever want. We even bought her her own full sized tent!

We got there Sunday evening, and had a wonderful dinner and Kaylee stayed up until it got dark around 9:30. I was expecting a LONG night of her waking and having issues, but she slept until 7 the next morning! Her trouble started after she woke up though. She started throwing up for no apparent reason and nothing really came up. Just a bunch of gross saliva and gagging noises. I think she was just really hungry or she got too cold.....another bad mom award! She was happy after she got some warm food in her, and then was content to play on the ground while the grown ups got ready for a day of fishing.

We went out on the lake before we even ate breakfast! It was very relaxing to just sit and fish for a while. Especially since the fish were not interested in becoming anyone's dinner that day. It seemed like no one on the whole lake was having any luck. My mom caught a little one that had to be released, but that was it. Bummer. We all (except Kaylee) went out on the canoes for fishing and quiet time. Kaylee mostly walked around, assisted by someone's finger of course, played on the ground, or took shoulder rides on Dad and grandpa's shoulders.

I took her around the lake once in what has become my new favorite baby accessory!!

It is the new child carrier I have been saving for, and I love it already. It is so comfortable to carry her in, and she is slowly getting used to longer and longer walks and hikes in it.

She ended up taking a very good nap in the middle of the day, which was also a big surprise to me. I was impressed and relieved that she was handling it all so well. Then things with her started to fall apart. She drank a bunch before her nap that day and then refused to eat more than 5 oz TOTAL for the next 24 hours.......and was not a happy camper (no pun intended).

A nice "catch and release" family ended up giving us the 4 fish that couldn't be re-released for whatever reason, so we got to have yummy fish for lunch that day. I am not a huge fan of eating trout, but it is part of camping and fishing. Kaylee had a couple bites of fish, and I think it may have given her a tummy ache because it was after that that she wouldn't eat anything. Later that afternoon and evening Robert was able to catch two fish of his own! I guess he was the lucky one of the trip this year. Last year it was Kathryn. Maybe next time I will get some fishing luck!

The evening and night was no fun at all. Kaylee was acting completely exhausted (and starving) so we decided to put her to bed early. She fell asleep really easily and I was hopeful she would stay that way. She was up after an hour, and then kept waking every 10-15 minutes. She was miserable, hungry, and didn't want her bottle.

It was obvious that if I was going to get any amount of sleep I needed to be by her, which wasn't an option because she was in her pack n play. So we rushed to empty out the back of my parents' suburban and set up a bed for me and her. It was surprisingly comfortable and comforting to sleep with Kaylee within arms reach. She woke up countless times during the night, but only required a few pats on the back to go back to sleep. I can't imagine how awful the night could have been if I had had to get out of my bed and tent and into her tent for every wake up. Plus it poured rain and thundered all night so I was glad to be in the car.

Am I pathetic that the car is my favorite place to sleep when camping?

The next morning Kaylee still didn't want to eat, and was not a happy girl. She was all out of sorts from being away from home and being in a rough sleeping situation. Kathryn and I went out on the lake in the canoe one more time, and had some time to talk which was greatly needed. I miss being close to my sisters, and need to make more of an effort to stay in touch with them.

Once we got home Kaylee ate a whole 11 oz bottle of food and went to sleep for a good long time. I guess the little girl was just homesick. That doesn't bode well for my 6 day trip to Arizona.......

Oh, I got the picture situation worked out and will continue to be able to post them. Yay!

No More Pictures?!?

In the middle of uploading the rest of the birthday pictures I got the message that I had "exceeded my total photo upload quota" and now I can't post anymore pictures. Aparently the photos are stored in Picasa Web Albums and when your storage is full you can't post any more pictures! I can't delete the ones in Picasa either because they will get deleted off my blog! I can BUY more storage on there, but it is a yearly fee.....which is crap.

How do people have years and years of blogging with pictures? I don't know what to do about this because I don't want to pay to post pictures on my blog for the rest of time!

Any suggestions people?!?