Happy Birthday Jody!

To my good friend Jody...I hope you have a great 30th birthday! I met Jody in the Fall of 2003 at Puppy Kindergarten. We both had new puppies we were training at Willow Creek Pet Center. She and her husband Travis had just moved here from California (both originally from Montana). Today is the big day for Jody. She turned 30! Such a big deal, right? Jody is such an amazing friend. I am so glad we met! She is such an amazing mother/wife and I look up to her so much. I hope today is a great day, and enjoy your vacation to Montana!

I'm sad to say I don't have any good pictures of Jody! Whenever we're together, we're taking pictures of our dogs or kids, so this is unfortunately the only one I have.





This picture does have significance. Last year I posted about the Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon and how my good friend Jody ran it ridiculously fast. I went there to cheer her on along with some family members and I missed her crossing the finish line because she was too darn quick.

Anyway, much love to Jody! Happy Birthday!

Poor Libby

Our poor little Libby has gone completely blind (remember, this is our dog, but she may as well be our child). She was born mostly blind. We knew she could partially see because she'd react to some movement. We didn't realize how much that little bit of sight helped her to function. On Thursday she started acting strange. She looked scared, and I couldn't figure out why. This would often happen if we moved furniture around because she'd get all disoriented. I had a laundry rack in the hall with a bunch of laundry drying on it. I thought that was what was bothering her. I moved it out of her path, but she still looked scared and wouldn't move. I finally noticed her eyes were shut tightly and she wouldn't open them.

Matt made an appointment on Saturday to see what the deal was. What we discovered is that her cataracts are so bad they've completely covered her retina. She's 100% blind. We're going to do some additional test to see if cataract surgery would restore partial vision. It’s doubtful though. She also has arthritis & hip displaysia. I guess one common thread to hip displaysia is retina displaysia, which causes retina detachment. Anyway, our cute little Libby is quite a sad dog. She is only 3, and used to have so much energy. She loves it when I wake up for the day. She jumps up and wants me to pet her and she wags her tail so hard because she knows it’s time to eat. When Matt gets home she freaks out and gets so hyper and jumps up on him and barks and does circles around him. She loves to be wherever we are, so she’ll follow us around the house all day. Well, since Thursday she has practically stayed put…either on her pillow on in the kitchen next to her doggie door. She doesn’t get hyper, she doesn’t jump, she doesn’t do anything. She won’t even go to her dog dish for breakfast/dinner because she’s too scared and can’t find it. She goes outside and gets lost and doesn’t know how to find her way back in. She hovers really low, crouching along hoping not to fall in a hole or crash in to something. She has totally lost her spirit. It is so sad. It’s amazing how fast it all happened. She is our sweet little love, and I’m so sad for her. Both Matt and I would do anything for her; she really is like a child to us.





Stacie, do you remember this weekend? This was Moab 2006.

Seriously?!

Are people not watching the debates? Are they not reading up on all the candidates’ credentials? The politics and dirty candidate crap is so dang stupid! I really have to think that people voting in the Republican Party NOT voting for Mitt are uninformed and listening way too much to the media. I was honestly disgusted watching all the recap stuff last night. That's all I'm going to say, no sense going on and on. But come on, seriously, McCain? As my sister-in-law put it (who LIVES in Arizona, "our wolf in sheep’s clothing (McCain)" DUH! He seriously is! He repeats himself over and over again and has NOTHING to offer!

Our Fun Group

We had a couple formal nights, one on Sunday evening, and one on Thursday. It was fun to get all dressed up (although my dress was NOT fancy in any way!). These were the fun friends/family we went with. We had such a great time together! We all got along so well and had so many funny moments.

Castries, St. Lucia (Day 5)

Once again, sorry if this is too much information, but remember I gave a disclaimer...this is more for me than any of you (:

On Wednesday the 23rd (Day 5) we went to Castries, St. Lucia. This was our least favorite place. It was way beautiful, but we drove way too much. We spent about 90% of the day in the car with a grumpy old tour guide (tough to beat Mison or our guide in St. Thomas). It was obvious we drove him nuts. We had a lot of questions for him, and he wasn’t too obliged to answer them. This island was so lush and green. It was a rain forest jungle. The roads were much more narrow and windy here than in St. Maarten, so we were very grateful to have a local drive us around! We wondered how many cars and lost control, or lost their brakes on these steep hills, never to be heard or seen again. The forest is so thick; you’d never know a car had driven off. That was one question we asked him (Do a lot of people crash, or loose their brakes) I don’t remember getting an answer. We saw a local on our drive with a gigantic snake wrapped around his neck. It freaked me out. He wouldn't let us take a picture without a "donation" but I was able to sneak one in. It looks like he may have noticed...isn't he scary?






We stopped at a lookout point of the famous Pitons. They were incredible. They are about 2,000 feet high. We asked if people climb them, and we were told that a lot of people climb them. They look like they are next to each other, but we were told they are a few miles apart.






We also went to a waterfall, and the beach of course to do more body surfing. We were looking for huge waves, so we asked our driver to take us to a beach with big waves. The waves were disappointing, but we still had a great time and got a little more sun.







These pictures I took just to remember how 3rd world these places are. You can see a woman doing laundry in a river in the picture above. As we drove to the Pitons, we went through a little village that was incredibly poor and run down. It's amazing how small some of these shacks are. We were told (not by our guide) that parts of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed on this island. I wish our guide could have pointed out a few spots where shots were filmed.

St. John's Antigua

I don't have many pictures of this day. We went snorkeling and kayaking, so all of our pictures are on a waterproof camera. It was such a fun day though. We hopped on a tour bus with our driver "Mison." He was 70+ years old, and just like a cute little grandpa. He had 11 children. He said in his time they didn't have a TV, so he spent half his life with his pants down. He had this cute little hat on, and Julie asked "that's a cool hat Mison, where did you get it?" He said "The store." He drove a small bus and had a microphone and would tell us about the island as we drove to our kayaking trip. It was funny though, some of the time he’d forget to use the microphone, or else he was too busy steering/shifting to do all three so he’d be talking and talking, and then use the microphone once a hand was free to finish his last thought and would say something like “seven.” Matt and I were like, “what the heck is he talking about?” Good thing Eddy was in the passenger seat next to Mison, so we got all the info needed. He was a great guide, and told us all about the people, the island, the hospitals, the government, etc. It was fun.

Our kayaking trip was so awesome. I wish it would have been longer. Matt and I were reminded of our days guiding The Snake River. We kayaked around several little islands and then took a boat ride to a small island for more beautiful scenery and a brief history lesson. We went snorkeling here. There wasn’t much to see. I saw a lot of corral and a few fish. Nothing too exciting. I was proud of myself not getting sea sick. Our last snorkeling experience I was throwing up like crazy. The fish loved it, so that made Matt love it too because the fish swarmed us. Anyway, the boat ride back was fun. Our boat driver was a maniac and we drove so fast! It was a blast though. I think he thought our group was all wasted, because we were yelling and shouting and laughing out of control the whole ride. He would look at us and just shake his head. We made it back to our tour guides house and were welcomed with juice, bread, and towels to dry off. They were so generous, and so fun to be acquainted with for the day. They had this parrot that was very friendly and posed for a few pictures.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Day 3, St. Maarten. We started out the day eating way too much (we had to get stuffed so it'd last through out the day...). We woke up early so that we could get off the boat and to the nearest beach. We rented a car this day, which was so fun, and so cheap! Matt and I soon realized we didn't bring enough cash. The first two days we had spent most of it on taxi's and tour guides, so renting a car was awesome. It was $20 a couple, so I was pumped. Matt was the driver. I think all of us (except Matt) aged a little bit that day. He drove like a mad man. The roads are so narrow and hilly. He'd be driving so dang fast around blind corners or sharp turns. It was way scarier than any of the cab driving experiences. We went to three difference beaches that day. Each were beautiful. One of beaches we went to was totally private. So private in fact, that on a little stroll down the beach Matt, Aaron and Eddy found a couple sun bathing in the nude. What fun.

As we were leaving the last beach, we all piled in the mini van and Matt started to back up (way too quickly I might add). I look out my side view mirror and saw another car and yelled "MATT!" At that same moment, there was the loudest "CRUNCH" sound. He had hit the car behind us. I was so freaked out. Here I was so pumped about saving a few bucks on our own transportation, and here we just wrecked two cars. I was way ticked off, and I didn't want to see the damage. To everyone surprise, the car we hit wasn't damaged at all! Not even a scratch! Our car had only a little tiny dent in the bumper.



What a relief. Thanks to Mike's strong muscles, he was able to push the dent out, and the car was returned good as new.

We stopped to take one last look at the beautiful island and snap some photos. A dog ran up to our car and lifted it's leg (you can't see it really well from this picture).




Way funny! What a day this has been! We loved it all. The beaches were really so much fun, great waves! We got tossed around in the ocean like crazy. I still have sand in my ears!