Monday, August 30, 2010

24



     This week I celebrated another milestone in my life; I turned 24. Another year older, another year wiser. Well... maybe. ;-)

     To help me celebrate my birthday were two of my closest friends from PA, Karina & Fu. They flew in very late the night before to help me ring in the big two-four. We got up very early the next morning (my birthday!!) to hit up the Blackfoot River for a nice float in the sunshine. Shortly after getting home a bbq pursued at my house to celebrate not only my birthday, but my friend Marie's birthday since we share the day. Christopher decorated our kitchen w/ flowers. :-) Since our birthday fell on a Thursday we were lucky enough to also have Pub Trivia that night. They were awesome enough to decorate the games w/ pink flamingos for our birthday too!

     Thanks again to all my friends & family that sent presents & well wishes during my birthday. I am truly blessed to have so many amazing people in my life to help shape the woman I am today.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Family Vacation to Me

     My family just drove off a few hours ago. I already miss them. While they were here tho we all had an amazing trip that included a mini vacation in itself, birthday parties, water parks, carousels,  Big Dipper ice cream, shopping sprees, good food, great friends, lots and lots of driving, and so much more. We took lots of pictures & made even more memories.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Girls Trip to Jackson Hole

My parents & my brother & his family flew into town on Wednesday. Thursday morning the boys took off for a fishing trip while I took my mom, sister-in-law and neice & nephew down to Jackson Hole, WY for a girls only (minus Ben, but since he's not even one, he doesn't count) tri
We took off early Thursday morning, but when traveling with two little ones even the easiest of trips takes a little time. We finally made it to Jackson later that evening & checked into our motel.

After a good nights sleep, it was time to get out on the town as we only had 1 full day to spend in Jackson. After breakfast we toured the town for a little shopping. Next I took Emily to the Elk Conservatory Visitor Center to earn her Junior Blue Goose Ranger Badge (see a previous post of mine from back in November). She passed w/ flying colors and we were down the trail to play around in the Grand Teton National Park.
Lola had never been there so we spend a better part of our day walking and driving around to see the sights. For those of you that have never been there, you should definitely add Jackson & the Tetons to your to do list.
Emily was more than excited to see our first animal, a barely visible moose playing in the brush of the river. She exclaimed, "I saw it's belly aunt Holly!" She then proceeded to say we need to find at least 10 animals before we left the park to go back to our motel for the night.
After driving around for half the day we had only seen what counted up to be about 8 animals, elk, deer, birds, horses, cows, moose, squirrels, and even some barely visible bison. Our stomachs were grumbling so we decided to call it a day and head back towards town (and food!). In a distant field I could see what looked like a herd of something so I decided it was only a short trip down a road to see what they were. We were all glad I did.

The herd of Bison completely surrounded our car. Mom was having flashbacks on an earlier vacation & was trying to remain calm (remember that one Kristen?!). Lola & I were snapping pictures as the bison stared us down & tried to figure out what we were doing there. Emily was most concerned for their safety, as they didn't look both ways before crossing the road (cars were starting to pile up all around us at this point).  We stayed as long as we had to since they had our car surrounded & then took off for dinner.
Missing my seester so much I drug my family to a restaurant named Bubba's (a nickname for her step son, Jose Jr.) We wrapped up the night after a good meal, Lola & I did a little touring around town while momma gave the kiddos a bath & then everyone was off to bed.

When morning came we packed up the card & said our goodbyes to Jackson & the Tetons. It was time to tour Yellowstone.
Having two tiny travelers we had only time to stop at Old Faithful, the Middle Geysers, & the Painted Pots. If you have time to go to Yellowstone, these places are worth the stop. Finally we headed back to Missoula for the rest of their vacation, that's for another blog post tho...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Canis Major Dog Training

I have had a dog training company running part time since my graduation at National K-9. At the beginning of this month however I launched my company, Canis Major Dog Training, as a full time training business.

MANY, MANY thanks to the help of Christopher for designing the company's new logo (does the bust look like any familiar beauceron?) & Tj for designing the new website, www.canismajordogtraining.com. A dog blog can also be found at www.canismajordogtraining.blogspot.com as well. We're also on facebook, but sorry folks, no twitter yet.

Check out the new sites & come back often as we continue to build something better out of something already great!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Seattle

Back in the spring Chris said he had never been to a professional football game & wanted to go to a Seattle Seahawks game this upcoming season. Not long after, Marc Mariani, the Grizzlies' star football was drafted to the Tennessee Titans (woot! woot!). After further review we discovered that the Titans played the Seahawks for the first game (pre-season) of the year @ Quest Field in Seattle. How could we say no?

My good friend Britta had moved to Seattle that very week so we went out & crashed on her livingroom floor. Thanks again Britta!!

I worked Friday morning so we took off early afternoon. The drive to Seattle is slightly boring, but there's nothing better than driving into a city like that at night when it's all lit up. We got up early Saturday to hit up the REI headquarters & do a little sightseeing around Seattle. I had never been to this city before so the guys were nice enough to go do some touristy things w/ me like the space needle, walk the piers, etc.
Roommate Kyle & friend Jerek had press passes onto the field so Chris found tickets on craigslist for us. He somehow managed to score club seating at an amazing deal. So now, not only did we have seats, but we had AMAZING seats too.
Mariani played an amazing first game in the NFL & we only look forward to watching him play in many more NFL games. (I also got to meet his mom by coincidence after the game!)