Buster

Our Buster boy went to the great beyond last week. I took these photos right before he passed. He was such a wonderful dog, we were so happy to have him for almost 5 years.

He was really good at snuggling, not so good at selfies.

 Ara really loved snuggling him and spent so much time cuddled up on him.

 Papa and Buster had a special bond as well.

 Family portrait (minus our other dog blue).

He liked to lay in the sandbox on hot days.

 He truly was a gentle giant.

 He would just lay there and love to be pet by the kids.

 We went on a fun excursion to the blackberry farm. You can see his tumor on his right leg in the middle stages of it's growth.

 Cheers to you, Bust, a huge 150 pound dog. You would always eat our food off the counter, up until the last month. You would always protect us through the fence and then goose new people or lean on them until they would pet you. You only had a few folks who you weren't sure about their energy, and you would communicate that clearly and safely. Kids were your favorite, maybe because they were a gateway to food. Either way, you were so loving, so fun, and so docile. You had to have been in so much pain but did not ever once whimper. You limped along the last few months and we knew when you were ready to go. We were not ready to say goodbye but you were ready to go.

Here are some of my favorite/interesting memories of you~
1. When we first adopted you, you were 2.5 and we thought you weren't a puppy anymore. Then you ate all of Chris's work shoes. Maybe you smelled all the other people and their cooties? I dunno.
2. Since you kept eating shoes when we were gone we gave you a whole bedroom. We wouldn't leave you in there too long, but one time we were gone for about 4 hours. When we came home, we entered into a smoky house. A wooden fruit bowl had been moved onto the stove burner, and the burner had been turned on, and you were loose in the house. As soon as I saw that smoldering fruit bowl I knew exactly what had happened. I had made some amazing homemade chicken stock that morning for a baby shower and I didn't totally clean up as I had to go to the amazing baby shower. At some point during the afternoon after Chris had left, Buster broke out of the room (faux doors, darnit!) and had sniffed around the stove/counter.  I bet there were some awesome scraps on the counter. The counter was an easy jump up and those giant clumsy paws could easily knock the stove buttons on, as well as knock the fruit bowl onto the burner. WHAT AN INSANE thing to come home to, a smoky house and utter confusion as the smoke alarms weren't going off. We sent 2.5 year old Owen outside and we opened all the windows. It was a smoky mess that we cleaned up over the next few days AFTER we bought a GIANT dog crate.
3. You would always try to eat food off the counter, once I found a whole butter stick, wrapper and all in your poop! Gross!
4. You were the favorite at our boarding place, many employees would say that they updated their profile picture on facebook of you and them!
5. You were so good with kids
6. You would sit so regal it was funny
7. Sadly you hunted a few baby turkeys if they came into our yard... So sad.
8. Most people would call you a horse!
9. You would oscillate between 135-155 pounds, always outweighing me, and sometimes outweighing Chris!
10. You loved to lay alongside our wall, or in Owen's room, on the deck, in the dirt, and in the sandbox.
11. You would NEVER pee on a leash *this is why we boarded him!
12. Your dog beds would last an average of 2-6 weeks as your sheer size and fingernails would always do them in!


Buster, you will be very missed. Until we meet again, my friend.

Summer Garden

Oh this is my happy place! A good day yields many visits here.

Good thing it is just outside our door.

 This is called a banana squash. I harvested it when it was a foot long. It is almost a cross between a yellow summer squash and a butternut squash. I roasted it and even ate the seeds-yum!

 We had a pretty good melon harvest. I have started to wrap the melons in cloth/rags, however, as critters have been gnawing at them. It has helped but instead of seeing sweet melons growing you see sweet melons wrapped in an old t-shirt.

 Cucumber Baby with my baby!

 Owen is my basil eater, and Ara will munch her weight in cherry tomatoes.

 Our apple tree lost a branch this year and we harvested a bunch of small apples for smoothies.

 Every year I look forward to selling my flowers at the school's farmer's market!

Walker River

So I have totally given up documenting each trip we take. I have accepted that we live an almost vagrant lifestyle and I LOVE it. We have had the BEST summer, maybe EVER. I mean it. Kids have been healthy (until today.... Ara has a cold....) we have adventured like crazy people, and also been home for a good portion of the summer.

I really do have to document one trip. Because. It. Was. Real.

There was so much going on. Always. I felt like I could do anything fun with anyone at any moment. We had family. We had friends. We had river. We had Pool. I ran. I swam. I walked. I had husband time. Girl time. Family time. Aunt time. It was like an all inclusive resort for my heart and body.

Due to silly logistics, Chris towed our 5th wheel up to Walker River while I was at work. My sister Wynt had the kids all day so that they didn't have to do the trip twice! LOVE YOU Wynt!

After I got home, it was crunch time to load up. Chris returned from his solo trek within 5 minutes of me. Awesome timing. It was a million degrees in our field. Chris had a nice high elevation rainstorm along the way home.

Loading up his truck is not my favorite task. I am also not good at it. This is how it went.

 1.5 inches on this side.

 No inches on this side. Whoops.

 The drive up to Walker is just amazing. I am so glad I got off work a little early so we could do most of the drive in the daytime. Little did I know we would drive up a few more times this way the next month. Truly magical.

 We stopped so Chris could get some gas and these loves could get some wiggles out.

 The desert! And Ara's crazy hair!

 Out like a light.

 Set up home for 4 nights!

 In true fashion I went for a morning run! No disappointments!

 Summertime and the flies were OUT. There is a cow something about a mile away and there were so many flies out it was insane. Ara has a watermelon seed on her cheek and a fly in her hair. If that doesn't spell summertime then I don't know what does.

 We brought a kiddie pool since we had full hookups. It got grubby but the kids had fun.

 There was a pool! And cousin Mat too!

 It was a short walk from the pool back to our trailer.

 We put Ara down for a nap on our bed. When I checked on her 5 minutes later she was like this. And stayed this way for 2 hours! Crazy girl!

 There were fun friends there as well. One fun mama brought water beads and kids of all ages and camps flocked to fondle them.

 Another fun mama brought water balloons and my mind was blown at this contraption. It fills up about 20 at a time and then knots them off when you gently pull them off. Please forgive Owen's fashion sense. He has pedal biker meets hippie meets pool time channelled in this picture.

 Papa, Jeff, and Chris checking out Jeff's car.

 These two will be in class together this Fall!

 Baby Kenzi is 10 months and a little daredevil!

 Everyone loved pulling her around!

 He was tired. And he loves fish/sharks.

 Papa took the grandkids for a ride to take the trash to the dumpsters. They all loved it.

 We laughed hard at Papa in this pic. So serious for no reason!

 Chris and I went on two rides in the truck. It is such a thrill, and Chris is a great driver. Feels like a roller coaster but you're wearing a helmet and can talk to each other.

 Lots of family snuggles

 Goodtimes

 Pooltime felt so great as it was hot. Hot. Hot.

 Awe love these Brits!

 Mama Jodi had her newbie out and about.

 Ara loved swimming with Nana.

 My love.

 Cousins are here!

 We went to the river soon after the Aubins arrived.

 There was enough current to float you down but not to take you down under. It was actually wonderful.

 There was a feeling of sister wives/family over the weekend. Here is Jeff helping Ara pretend fish. It was awesome to be around family and friends who would take your kiddo under their wing for the moment or hour.

 These grubby guys had a ball in the muck and mud catching crawfish and just getting filthy.

 Lily caught a big crawdad!

 I sent this to cousin Mat's mom. LOL.

 We had funnnnn.

 Ara has really taken off on her pedal bike. She does wear out quickly, after about 40 feet. Soon she will get it all the way and really love it. I hope!

 Brother Dave and Chris went for a decent night ride.

 Tired kids.

 Another run and geeky selfie

 Because hearts are everywhere.

 We did watch Moana once on our trip. Because why not when you have electricity and a tv? I never claimed that this trip was roughing it!

 We went on another ride with Jeff and Jodi. It was quite an adventure, to say the least. We did request a do-over, but you only have so much time!

 Pondering whether we should drive across the lake bed. At the time, yes. We did. Should we have? No. We shouldn't have. It turned mushy and the drivers got worried and booked it through the lake bed hoping to not get stuck. Lesson learned- turn around if the dirt gets soft. Go back the way you came. EEK!

 Driver

 Because when you are camping you play in the dusty dirt with boxes.

 Wynt and Dave floating downriver on another river day.

 Papa always tries to ruin my photos of him.

 Wynt's turn for a ride!!! It got shortened due to rain! But they had a great mini ride.

 Ara fell asleep in the camping chair while Owen and I played speed.

 Chris and Dave decided to go look for the Britton's on the small bikes. They were really excited for some reason to ride these goofy small bikes. Like kids.

 We walked down to watch them return to camp.

 See? Sister wives all around. In the helpful sense only of course!

 GEEEEEEKS!  Brothers!

 So the rain continued from about 5 pm to 930 pm. We improvised with a fire pit and someone else who is more fun (Wynt) brought smores.

 Desert centerpiece.

 Yikes! The kids are huddled around a screen?!?! Usually they are watching movies that they have creatively made themselves, which is a tad different than usual screen time! They were playing hide and go seek in the dark in the rain so we sent them inside for the final 5 minutes before bed.

 We ended up having a party under our awning! The rain forced everyone to huddle under something and we were so happy to host. I snuck this pic as the kids were changing into their jammies! Chris said this was his favorite night, just sitting and socializing. The night rides are fun, but something usually goes wrong, and then your whole night is an adventure. This rainy night was social and fun.

 Elise slept width ways so that she didn't roll out. I was confused about this foot hanging out.

 Kenzi was quite a happy camper. Ara was happy to be in her "cage" with her.

 For the record, I didn't mount this inner tube successfully the first time... I wanted to give others a laugh.

 The ride home also had some rain.

This trip was one for the books. We had family, friends, good health, swimming, nature, adventure, laughter, and some quality relaxation. I sweated so much over that week between packing and unpacking and even there. Literally dripping down my face. But it felt so good to feel alive.