October Fest, a River, a Slumber Party, &French Toast

Friday started at 4:45am. I sluggishly crawled out of bed and put on my workout clothes, the entire time wondering why I do this to myself. I made it through spin class and got to work about 20 minutes early, and it was a good thing I did. Things were CRAZY and anything that could “hit the fan” did. It was a long and exciting 12 hours of work, but I had the opportunity to learn some new things so it was still a good day. After work Mike and I went over to Theron & Christina’s house for dinner. We had a great time eating, drinking, and conversing. Christina made a great stoup and the most amazing dessert. She took 4 Granny Smith Apples, cored them, and then filled them with a ghram cracker, cinnamon, butter mixture. She baked them for about 30 minutes and then served them with whipped cream. They were so good, it was like having your own little apple pie.
Saturday morning we both slept in, well sort of, if you consider 7:30 sleeping in. We had a paper and were trying to find something fun to do. There was an ad for an October Fest at South Fork Landing (a new development in Garden Valley Idaho). We thought it might be fun so we loaded up the dogs and headed up for the day. We made it to the festival only to be severely disappointed. It was the first year the event has been put on and has a lot of potential, but definitely needs more of a turn out. We were getting hungry so we got back in the car and drove to the Banks Café for some lunch. After lunch we found a nice secluded beach and let the dogs run off some energy. Beck was launching right into the cold water and Cassius even made an attempt to swim.

I think this is by far one of my favorite pictures of Beck! She is actually looking at the camera and her little tongue is sticking out.

Mike almost had to ditch his cell phone out of his pocket to go in after the doof, but Cassius was able to make it back to shore, barely. I am sure it was another near death experience for him.

Cassius, AKA Doofy, among other things

After the dogs played for a while we headed back to town. This is what they looked like on the way home.

We spent the rest of Saturday going from bike shop to bike shop in search of a new mountain bike for Mike. He got a couple of ideas and decided to do some more research before he put his money down. Later in the evening I went over and picked up Nikkia, my friend Stephanie’s dog for a trial run of dog sitting. Everything went well. Cassius spent the whole time standing about six feet from Nikkia wagging his entire butt trying to get her to play with him. Nikkia let him wag on, but was utterly uninterested in him. Beck and Nikkia really didn’t interact, but the main thing is everyone got along!
Beck and Cassius really enjoyed Nikkia’s bed and Nikkia really enjoyed keeping my feet warm while I studied.

Nikkia AKA Demon Dog, sitting under the desk while I was doing homework

The dogs all did great on our walks and it should be fun to have Nikkia for 4 days next month. If anyone has any good ideas on how to tire out a husky, let me know!
On Sunday morning Mike and I met up with Theron, Christina, Josh, Sarah, Rayleen, and Ben for brunch at Bardenay on Sunday. If you haven’t been there for brunch I HIGHLY recommend it. I had the best French Toast ever. Mike’s eggs Benedict looked delicious as well. I spent the rest of the day with my nose in my books, and tomorrow the cycle starts again. I better go set my alarm for 4:45.

Hibernation???Nope, just crazy!

Nope, we haven't gone into hibernation. We, well I should say I since I am the one that updates the blog, have been really busy. Mike is staying busy with work, and I have been going non stop with school and work. My alarm goes off at 4:45am Monday through Friday and it's off to the gym then onto school or work. I am grateful that I enjoy school and work, otherwise it would torture.
Hopefully we will do something exciting this weekend that I can post pictures of.

Another Week Gone

Wow, time flies when with school and work. Last Saturday (9/6) Mike and I rode our bikes down to Julia Davis Park to walk around Art in the Park. On our way we stopped at the Fire Fighter Memorial.

As soon as we arrived Mike hit the Pronto Pup vendor for his first corn dog. Shortly after we ran into our good friend Susie and spent the next couple of hours wandering all of the booths together. I found a really cool bracelet made out of a fork.
After Art in the Park, we biked over to Qwest Arena for The Taste of Idaho. It wasn't a big venue, but we enjoyed a variety of free food samples and tasted some delicious wines. There were so many free handouts that both of my bike baskets were full of fresh produce and other goodies. Mike worked on Sunday and I went for a 16 mile walk with a friend and her mother in law who are training for the 3 day breast cancer walk. I spent the rest of Sunday grocery shopping and prepping for this week of school
Monday a group of us drove out to Greenleaf Idaho to pick fresh peaches. We had a great time wandering the orchard and luckily didn't run into any snakes! Mike and I came home with two five gallon buckets of peaches.

Mike & Theron in the orchard

The crew, minus Theron L-R: Christina, Donyell, D, Stephanie, Mike, Susie, & NicoleD making a stretch for a good peach

Stephanie searching out the good ones

Mike showing off his loot
Tuesday I had school all day and then came home and made a fresh peach pie for Mike and his crew. This was the final product. The glorious pie

Wednesday I got up early and followed my regular routine of going to the gym, getting ready there, and heading to work. I arrived at work only to find out I had been put on call, so I headed back home. Mike came home from work with a couple of treasures. The first was a gym bag, not worthy of a photo, but this.....I couldn't believe it. Apparently a school had made a pillow case for each of the guys at Eagle Fire. I love this one, the truck cracks me up. Later in the morning Mike and I went to work on our peaches and we were about 15 minutes away from being done with our peach jam and what do you know, but work called me in.

The jam

Cassius checking in to see if there is anything he can help with

Mike has never canned, but he was able to finish up the hot water bath and all the jars came out beautifully. It was a busy day and now that I am home from work I am beat. Mike was awesome and had dinner waiting for me so I could eat, study, and then watch a movie.

Engineer Holley

On Tuesday night I attended a badge pinning ceremony where Mike and three of his co-workers received their Engineer Pins to recognize their promotion from Fire Fighter to Engineer (driver). It was a short ceremony, but it got the job done. Mike received a new pin as well as a certificate.

(L-R: Cody, Ben, Mike, & Theron)

(L-R: Chief Friend, Chief McKinney, Chief Rabdau)

After the ceremony I grabbed the dogs for a couple of quick photos in front of Mike's engine.

D, Mike, Cassius, & Beck with Engine 42

Mike had to go back to work, but I got to enjoy dinner with some of the other "fire kids" to celebrate their promotions.

Dog Days

Holy cow, I can't believe how much the dogs run my life, as much as I say they don't. This morning they both decided that when the coffee pot started brewing it was time for me to get up. I set the coffee pot to start brewing about 15-30 minutes before I want to get up, but the dogs take it as an alarm clock so I was woken up around 6:00 this morning. I wish I could say they were subtle about it, but that isn't the case. Beck puts her head on the bead and finds anything she can wag her tail against that is loud. Cassius snorts, sneezes, and wipes his face off on the bed skirt while snorting and sneezing. So I got out of bed this morning and Beck met me down the hall in the position pictured below. She was asking to eat, but she has to wait until I am ready to feed her. I made them go outside for a few minutes while I could brush my teeth and then get some coffee. When they came back in she assumed the same position. She also assumed this position at exactly 5pm this evening.

Because I studied so much yesterday I had a little free time to do something fun. I decided that since the weather is starting to get a bit chilly it was time to get Cassius' wardrobe ready for the winter months to come. For those of you who haven't met Cassius he basically has very little fur (his belly is bald) and no body fat. In the winter he spends his time underneath his down doggie blanket or in a sweater. He will even try to skip going outside if he deems it too chilly. Since I am pretty cheap I used one of his old sweaters to create a pattern so I could pick out the fabric and sew the sweater myself, saving about 75% on the whole thing. He is modeling his new outfit. I love the picture below because he is winking at the camera and he is in a great stand.
This photo is just funny because of his cute little mug.
After Beck assumed the "starving position" at 5pm, Mike fed the dogs. As soon as she was done eating and cleaning up after her brother Beck went outside and assumed her other position known as the Grab the Damn Chuck-it and let's play position. She isn't looking at the camera, she is trying to will the Chuck-It down from the patio supports.

Even though we both had the day off today we really didn't do much but go for a run. I did get a chance to catch one of my favorite shows, Mexico One Plate at a Time, hosted by Rick Bayless. If all goes well, we should be having a great Mexican Feast here pretty soon :)