Ella turns ONE

Today is Ella's one year old birthday!

Born on France's Bastille day, this little girl has blessed us so much with happiness and good memories. I still remember the impromptu decision to get her...

The Friday before we got her I was at work looking through the classifieds. For some reason I went straight for the dog section and saw Ella's ad. I cut it out to bring it home. The following Sunday I brought it up to Eric and showed him the ad.

We thought we'd just feel out the situation and gave the lady from the ad a call.

We didn't have serious intentions on getting a dog.

But sure enough the ball started rolling and we had set up a time to go out to Elizabeth and see the pups... that evening.

After preoccupying myself all day with cooking for dinner guests - the missionaries, Katrina and Westin, we shooed them out the door and jetted for Elizabeth.

Once we got to the farm and saw Ella and her brother cuddled up under a heating lamp, we knew we were not going home empty handed. Ever since Sep. 27, 2010 we have LOVED having Ella as a part of our family and hope to celebrate many more birthdays with her. We love you Ella.

Ella and Rosco playing at the dog park on her b-day

Utah 7/4/10

Dinosaur National Park

Winter Park, CO

I had a three day weekend from work so Eric and I packed up the car and drove to Utah. Friday I got out of work at 4:30pm and we were on the road by 5:30pm. Dinosaur national park was our goal for the night's camping trip. We had one stop in Winter Park, CO for some grub at a BBQ restaurant. There were many statues of moose and cowboys riding horses that Ella was petrified of. She was growling growls I've never heard before and the mo-hawk on her back was raised from head to tail.

When we got to the Dinosaur campsite, it was 2am and all the campers were asleep. I felt so bad for driving and unpacking at 2am and probably waking up all the people- although they didn't yell at us thank goodness. When we got out of the car to unpack I made a beeline towards the bushes- as soon as I lowered my pants to squat and pee I was attacked by mosquitoes! Eric and I definitely did not expect to be surrounded by so many of what Eric calls "satan's minions."

After sleeping with mosquitoes in our tent and being bombarded by them down by the river we promptly left at 7am.

Being in Utah was fun- we spent a lot of time with Eric's family. Lots of out to eats, lots of dog time and lots of chillin'.

By far the funniest moment of the trip was when we were walking back from lunch when E's mom spotted a diaper on the sidewalk. She walked right up to it, picked it up, sniffed it and happily claimed she had an extra diaper for her soon to be born granddaughter. Eric and I were hysterical with laughter because E's mom and dad were squabbling over the diaper. In the end she had to leave the diaper on the ground because it was not allowed in the car. My stomach practically still hurts from laughing so hard.

Pharm Tales

Pt: I'm here to pick up two of my Rx's

Me: Ok, it looks like I have one for you and there's a note on the second one saying we called and talked to you because it won't be here until Thursday.

Pt: Oh thats fine- so it's coming on Thursday?

Me: Yea, my pharmacist said she talked to you and you said that was fine.

Pt: Huh, ok. Well if I had remembered I would have picked both Rx's up on Thursday. Anyway, not a problem I'll just get the one today.

Me: So just a reminder the other Rx will be here Thursday in the afternoon, and we'll call you when it's ready.

Pt: Ok sounds good.

ONE HOUR LATER

Ring ring ring...

Me: King Soopers Pharmacy how can I help you?

Pt: I was just in there to pick up two Rx's but only got one.

Me: Yeah the other one will be here Thursday. Remember I talked to you and the pharmacist called you?

Pt: Oh ok, so the other will be here Thursday?

Me: Yes sir.

The medication that is coming on Thursday for him is for Alzheimer's, no joke.

Ma ma mustache

Eric decided to grow a mustache... AGAIN. Against all better judgement too. March was mustache month and he wanted to participate. I've since convinced him to shave it off and here is the pre-shaving picture (along with a cute one of Ella and me).

Okay so you can't really see the mustache because Eric's hair is so light, but take my word that it wasn't great

RVU Gala

Eric's school had an end of the year gala at the Marriott hotel in the Denver Tech Center. We got dressed up, met with friends, sipped on water while everyone else was sipping on cocktails ;) enjoyed a delicious dinner and danced the night away (well, at least as much as I could coax Eric to dance with me).

Getting ready- this is maybe the first time I've curled my hair since my wedding

Me, Katrina, Kyla- can i just say I look ghastly white and glowing compared to these girls, sigh... people need to tell me to tan in the future

Med school buddies: Eric, Noel, Dustin

Grandma's Cabin

I love this wall of clowns

Eric and I finally got up to my grandma's cabin last week. I say finally because this has been a trip three years in the making. I've meant to show Eric the cabin my family built a long time ago but it just hasn't happened. Last week however we made it happen, and as soon as we finally find the cabin, unlock the door and mosey around, Ella finds rat poison and eats a mouthful. Ughhhhhhh. Seriously?! In calling the vet they recommend getting her some hydrogen peroxide to make her throw up the poison. So we head down to the local Safeway, buy a can of Yoplait yogurt and add three tablespoons of the peroxide. In less than 5 minutes she has thrown up the entire contents of her stomach all over the parking lot. Nice. Plan A succeeded. Now all we have to do is clean it all up. That's where my great husband comes into play. He was happily scooping up the mounds of dog barf with dinky Safeway newspaper coupons. What a man. In the end Ella is fine and the vet gave her Vitamin K to counteract the rat poison. I guess the trip to my grandma's cabin was just not meant to be.

Hair

Which hair color do you like better???