A dog's Life

DS #4 is home from school, day # 2, and is a little bored. I was taking pictures of me preparing a recipe, when he took off with the camera and decided to take some pictures of the dogs. Picture number one is of the lovely Pug. Don't you just love this mug? The only person who has been able to get the dogs to sit still for a picture is DS #4.


Picture number 2 is of Luigi, our Italian greyhound, or IGGY as they are known for short. Both dogs are 4 years old.

Luigi is like a refined butler, and pug is like a couch potato, snack eating slob. Pug could eat without stopping for days, but we don't let him. Pugs gets his "weight control" Purina One measured out each morning in a bowl. Luigi gets his food measured also, but his is high protein.

Luigi looks like he could be royalty, whereas Pug looks like.....

.......we think that pug looks like Yoda in the movie Star Wars....maybe that is where they came up with Yoda, by looking at a pug dog. Pug also looks a bit like ET.

I'm beginning to feel a bit like Luigi here, yawning and wanting to nap.

Somewhere over the rainbow....

We had just finished our weekly Sunday dinner, had homemade twinkies with ice cream for DS #1's birthday celebration, when DH called everyone over to the window. All of my boys screamed, "Mom, get the camera!!!", as they know that I love great photos for my blog. Wow, I was impressed with this first shot. You can see a light rainbow to the left, and a darker one on the right.

I decided to check again about 5 minutes later, to see if the rainbows were still there, and behold, it seemed that they were even brighter this time (what do you think?). I took another picture, because, it was just so bright and pretty. Today was very crazy (DS #4 I had to take to the instacare this morning.....had to to it... he needs surgery....not life threatening but still....) and the rainbow was just another tender mercy from the Lord to me.

I decided to see if there were any other parts of the rainbow showing, and yes, there was. On the other side of the yard, just poking out from behind the tree was the other side of the rainbow.
I didn't get to go to church today, but I did get spiritually fed today by reading the Ensign, reverently listening to my DH and DS #1 give blessings of comfort and healing to the rest of the family (everyone is sick here), studying the scriptures and by seeing the beautiful rainbows in the sky. Hope that your Sabbath day was equally wonderful.

Bad Pug video

Had to send in the troops to get the bad pug!

Bad Pug

DH gets up earlier than I do, and feeds the dogs. He takes care of this doggy chore Monday through Friday since he gets to the office early. I take over on the weekend, when he prefers to sleep in. Anyway, I get up, get DS #4 up so he can get ready for school. I look out the window to see where the dogs are.......because they have been naughty lately. I know, you're thinking, what possibly could my sweet little pug be doing that is so bad?

It all started with the grapes. My dogs are addicted to the ripe, sweet grapes on the back fence. Luigi (the Italian Greyhound) figured out that he could "climb" a bush, get on the wall, and get to MORE grapes hanging on the other side of the fence. Well, you see that bush to the left of the water feature? That is the shrub that is providing freedom to my dogs. (Note to self: GET THE TRIMMER TOOL OUT THIS WEEK)

Look closely at the picture and you will see our problem dog......yep, that's him, sitting on the top of the wall. (Click on the picture for a closer look at this bad boy!) A side note here....there is a road behind our house that has lots of fitness buffs running, walking and riding bikes up the canyon. There are lots of cars that use this road with the peak period being in the morning and then again in the evening. I haven't gotten pug a city license yet (or Luigi for that matter) and he isn't wearing his collar. He is microchipped however. I am not a totally irresponsible pet owner and we've only been here for less than 2 months....(OK, note to self: LICENSE THE DOGS WITH THE CITY)


DH said that he stood sentry like this for 20 minutes, and he thought it was funny so he didn't make Pug come down from the fence. I'll never get this dog trained because DH just encourages the bag pug behavior....that's another post.

Sunday night......the moon!

Just when I think the landscape can't be more beautiful here in southern Utah, along comes another picture perfect moment.

DS #4 called DH and I outside to see the moon. I was getting a foot massage and didn't want to get up, but DS was persistent, so outside we went. I immediately said, "I need my camera!!!!"

I just love the scenery here! I wish I were a professional photographer ......now there's a thought! Sounds like an excuse for a new camera if you ask me!

Sunrise pictures

I went out to get our dog, Luigi, out of the grape vines (yea, the dogs are still eating grapes)and looked up at the mountains....wow...what a stunning scene. The sun is just coming up and hitting the red rock....lovely!

I'll try and blog more tomorrow.....have a PTA meeting this morning and the RS Presidency is coming to visit me after that. Lori is also heading home this morning. "Big River" last night at Tuacahn was really good! We had a great time.

Zion National Park.....our labor day outing!

Yesterday we had a family day at Zion National Park. We drove into the park, through the tunnel and parked in a small parking lot just past the tunnel. We went for a hike on the Observatory Point Trail. The trail is about a mile and a quarter long. It takes you to the Observatory Point, which overlooks the road that goes through the park and surrounding area.

The hike was quite fun! The weather was perfect for hiking, not hot with a little breeze. All four of our sons are Eagle Scouts, however, they are past the point of enjoying camping/anything that resembles scouting, so I guess I was surprised to see that they were enjoying themselves so much.

The only son who didn't make it had a job interview (he found out later that he was hired, and started working today), so he met us later for dinner. Here are DS #1, #3 and #4 acting like goofs on top of a very tall rock.

Here is DS#1 with DH, taking a break at the top. You notice that mom is always taking the pix, which means I am also carrying the camera (bummer).

Here is the magnificent view from the observation point area. Stunning! Click on the picture and you can make out the road that we took to get up the hill to begin the hike.

Anyway, it was such a fun day. We had a blast! There are definitely a ton of tourists at Zion right now, but hoping that by the end of October it clears out a bit. We already have a few more hikes planned....one that will take an entire day.