White Christmas!!!

On Friday we had tickets to get see White Christmas at the dinner theatre with my parents! It just happened to snow 7.5-8" on Wednesday night into Thursday ending around 8:00pm Thursday night. This was Fort Collin's first snow of the winter season which meant the first snow clearing adventure for the business! It went well and poor Zak was up for 48 hours with only 3 hours of sleep. He managed to get in about an hour nap before the dinner theatre started. We had a lot of fun and it was a good show! My mom and dad look so cute all dressed up! Mom bought a new dress just for the occasion. I think Zak enjoyed this show even though he was a little tired. Thanks Pits for accompaning us once again, we love having you.

Thanksgiving

So I realize I am way behind but decided to just post a few pictures to follow the video of domino's! We spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in Black Forest with Peter and Libby. My parents came and Eleanor as well! I made the centerpieces from Mom's home grown pumpkins and Libby made all the food. The gravy that Libby makes is the BEST and I think it has to do with the Vegemite, it taste fantastic! There was a lot of good food and good times as you can see from the video below! Here are a few pictures of the festivities....



Nice glasses Santa!


That is really special Mom

On Friday morning Zak and I woke up early. We had decided to take the new car on it's first road trip. We went to Breckenridge from Springs and visited the Breckenridge Brewery for a few beers and a souvenir pint glass for the kitchen! It was a fun trip and the snow was great especially with the snow to start off the Christmas Season. The ride home was a little frustrating with a seasonal road closure, HORRIBLE snow storm and Zak's speeding ticket....80 in a 55 :( All in all it was a really fun day that we got to spend together and got us in the Christmas spirit!

Molly in her favorite spot in the car, laying on the floor in the back seat!


The drive down into Breckenridge

Goose calling....well sort off

Zak was testing out all of his calls and Molly started helping!!! Enjoy I thought it was hillarious!!

Our 1st Anniversary

Well we made it! Did you ever doubt that we wouldn't???? They say the first year is the hardest and we are past that and are no longer newlyweds! Zak got me my plane ticket and got the windows tinted on my Murano! He also bought me a new plant and a CARD, he hates buying cards but he knows the rules :) I got Zak this really cool picture of all the things that lead up to us being married, I got it off of yourmemorylane.com. It is really cool and he actually enjoyed it as much as I did.

He also took me to The Melting Pot for some Yummy Fondue, but that was after we enjoyed Key Lime Pie cupcakes and S.O.B beer in our toasting glasses (which is the picture above)


Zak enjoying his cupcake


At the restaurant we got the VIP treatment, we sat in a private booth with a curtain, Zak told the waitress to knock before entering....joking of course :)


Zak and his "McCain Bread"


Yummy!!!


"1 year down 50 to go," That is what Zak said when he woke me up with a kiss on Tuesday!

I hope everyone has a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!

New Vacuum!

For our anniversary we bought each other a new vacuum, even though Zak never uses it we still needed one BADLY. The one that I have had for about a year was around $100 dollars and for a house with 3 dogs it didn't last long! I really was just going to go back and buy another cheap one but Zak had a different idea, so we got a DYSON!!! Of course I have pictures of it, like my mom said I used to get excited about a new doll and now I am getting excited about a new vacuum! Here it is.



And of course here is Zak vacuuming or torturing the dog you be the judge :)

The Four Winds!!!

Last weekend, for my Anniversary present from Zak, I went to Conneticut to visit Todd and Steph along with their sons Jack and Baby Ryan! It was so much fun to go visit and finally get to meet the kids. Ryan was born about a month ago and Jack is about to turn 2. The weather was really nice for the weekend a little windy but warmer than at home and Jack had a bit of a cold so he wasn't quite himself. I had a lot of fun hanging with kiddos and it was good to visit with Todd and Steph! Of course it gave me the baby bug a litte, but I think I will survive! Here are a few pictures...

Ryan Michael


Me and Jack


Jack is SUCH a good big brother!!


Steph and her boys


Todd and Ry watching the boob tube.

Thanks guys for a great visit, next time I will bring Zak and let us know when you are planning on visiting CO again!

Obsession!

Obviously you can tell I have been sucked into the Twilight series books! I am almost done with the 3rd book that I was hoping to save for my plane ride to CT this weekend...but looks like I am going to buy the book before I leave :) Anyways, I am like a love struck 15 year old when I read the books and keep asking Zak if he could be a vampire. Seriously, it is pretty ridiculous how obsessed I am with the series. But I love them so much and I can't WAIT until the first movie comes out!!! Hopefully it is a huge success so they will make the rest of the books into movies too!

Look next week for pictures from my visit with The Winds in CT and The George's first anniversary!!!!

New Car!!

SO, I'm a little behind but that's okay! On November 4th I got a new car, FINALLY! Zak stole the Mallow for work since it gets SUCH good mileage and he drives around all day!! I am so excited because I no longer have to drive the tank around. Trust me if you have ever driven it you would understand it is really like a tank and uses about as much gas as one too! So I got a 2007 Nissan Murano and it is a Pearl White color with 19,850 miles on it when we got it. Here are the pictures!!







It's my HOT mom car as Steph Wind said ;)

Twims and such!

Steph this is just for you ;) Hey Twim, I love you!! I'm so glad you got a new lap top and I can't believe we got the same color and didn't even know it!!! 92 days until you are here!!


OH, Tony and Rae this one is for you from Zak. "If Tony and Rae don't get married in San Fransisco I am going to be Pissed!!!" Haha, I had to share that one with you, don't you love it when people plan your wedding for you??

Also, I am going to Conneticut to visit Todd, Steph, Jack and there newest addition Ryan who was born on October 13th! I am SO excited to meet Ryan and also FINALLY meet Jack, he is almost 2 years old. Not to mention seeing Todd and Steph :) So excited to see you guys and thanks for having me. (I stole this picture from the Winds website!)

I leave on the 14th and come back on the 17th...which brings me to my next point. WE HAVE ALMOST BEEN MARRIED FOR 1 YEAR!!! Can you beleive it? I think we are finally used to calling each other husband and wife. Our first year is almost over and we are excited about what will happen in the years to come. I love you Babe!!

Just some random thoughts

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! Well I am once again home alone for the next 5 days, but my Husband bought me flowers before he left. It was to bribe me into not being upset that he was leaving, AGAIN! Here is a picture!


Also, SayD had to be knocked out this week due to an ear infection. SayD has always had chronic ear issues and we are constantly having to wash and treat her ears. Well recently we discovered her ear was filled with blood. So before it got any worse we took the little girl in and sure enough they knocked her out it was so bad. Now its going to get antibiotics in it once a day for awhile. They also, did a needle aspiration to test to see if a lump on her stomach was cancerous or not. Luckily, it is just a fatty lump! Zak and I think SayD is a lot older than we originally thought, which is 5. So there's that news and a cute picture of SayD!



Zak bought our Son a a sleeping bag....yeah that's what I said! I think it probably will be a good idea for when we go camping seeing as he has no hair and gets really cold! So here it is, good thing it was on sale!!

Also, Zeus has recently become kennel trained. He is doing SO well and being the cuddly dog he is LOVES being in his kennel. Of course we had to pimp it out a little and put stickers on it so he would still feel loved :)




And just because I didn't want Molly to feel left out, here is a picture of her doing her newest trick!

Family...

You know when times are rough there are only a few people in your life that you can ever really count on. Growing up it has always been My mom, dad and myself. I used to complain but when I hear stories about large families and the fights, RUMORS and sometimes not talking I get happy it was just us, Just the Three Amigos!! They have always been there for me and most of you probably don't understand our bond, we tell each other EVERYTHING!!! I know my mom and I haven't gone a day without talking 3-4 times a day, except maybe when I was on my honeymoon. But even then I was still emailing when I could!!! Now that Dad has become a hip guy and learned text messaging I send him a text message every day!! My family means everything to me and ALWAYS will. One thing I pride myself on is having a great relationship with my parents and never taking them for granted. I know my parents feel the same way about me...well at least I hope they are proud of what I have become?! Just kidding guys I know you are proud! I have you to Thank for the person I have become, so thank you love you!!!

In the last year getting married has joined two families into one and Zak and I have made our own family. I just wanted to take a second to express my feelings. From the beginning Peter and Libby excepted me with open arms and same goes for Simon and Jenni! I really and truly feel like part of the family, Thanks George's I love you and am happy to share your last name!

Okay now that is out in the open, how are things for everyone else???

Animal Witness: Michael Vick Case

They started a new show on Animal Planet about Animal's being "witness" to horrible and hainous crimes. The first show that aired was a special about the Micheal Vick case. Since Zak and I follow this case and the dogs closely many of you asked if we had watched it. When I first heard about it, I got all the information for the BAD RAP blog. (see link on the right) The GREAT people at BAD RAP said that there was a lot of actual dog fighting footage, some of which was actually footage of Vick's Dog's, I really hate calling them "his" dogs because he had no business owning them. Anyways before I go off about that, I wasn't orginally going to watch the show. On Friday night Zak and I decided to watch it, there really was A LOT of dog fighting too much if you ask me. I got really upset at one point and ran to my room crying and came out a few minutes later yelling about blowing peoples faces off and hoping Vick got killed in prison. It was very intense and I think that the show could have done without SO much fighting. It was good to watch the show and hear from people involved and actually hear how the investigation progressed. The last 20 minutes or so of the show is about some of the dogs that were rescued and rehabilitated most of which by BAD RAP and most of the dogs shown or the ones Zak and I follow closely in their blog which is also to the right called Vick's Rescue Dogs. So if you feel you can watch it, it is awesome to see these dogs proving EVERYONE wrong!!! Just thought I would let everyone know what we thought :) and Zeus too! Here are a few pictures of us after the show, I couldn't help but snuggle SO close and think about what horrible things those dogs went through. Good show, hope you can find it on a rerun sometime.




I also found this really neat 10 question quiz on the Animal Planet wesbite take it, seriously it took me about 2 mintues and I got 10 out of 10 right....can you??
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/animal-witness/michael-vick/pit-bull-myths-quiz/index.html

You will probably have to copy and paste it to your browser as I couldn't get it to insert a link right on this computer!

Kimberly and Dylan's wedding

So I'm behind....what can I say I'm a student and housewife while holding down a 40 hour a week job, no to mention the kids who are always needing attention. Okay so that may have sounded like a line from Desperate Housewives (Have you been watching???) But I really and truly have been busy with school, which I will get to later. Here are the few pictures I have from the wedding which was in Zak's old stomping grounds of Sterling, CO home of the NJC miners??? No that's not right it's NJC Plainsmen. Sorry Zak! The weather was perfect and so was the wedding. I didn't take any pictures of the ceremony or too many of the reception. I'm sure those of you who weren't there and wish to see more can contact Kimberly once she gets her proofs back. I did make sure to take a picture of her and Dylan.Kimmer I LOVED your dress it was totally you :) Okay so here are those pictures.

The Mr. & Mrs.!!!!!


Zak was totally concentrated on stealing all the charms off the glasses at our table.

School is going good!!! I'm a total nerd I love reading and writing and I go home every night after work and study my brains out. Good thing we just upgraded to DVR so I don't miss my favorite shows!! I had my first paper due last week, piece of cake for me and it only had to be 3-5 pages, I went for 5 :) Also, I had my first exam last week and scored a 75% on, which I am fairly happy with considering it was the first test in that class and those are the worst. You never know what the actual test from the professor is going to be like plus there is always room for improvement!!

Zak went hunting and got a Moose...well sort of!?

Okay so technically he wasn't hunting. Zak left early Friday morning around 2:30am to get up to the hunting spot in time for the morning hunt. Zak got up around 2 am, loaded the truck, got his coffee and kissed his family goodbye. I of course tossed and turned for another hour and half to get back to sleep and around 5 the dogs got a little restless moved around and one jumped on the bed. I late found out that Ocho had walked in the back gate and into the office to get keys to start one of the trucks and get it ready to help Zak. My phone automatically turns itself on at 6:45am and my alarm goes off. Usually I have a few emails that pop up on my phone and I just hit the button and roll back over. But I just noticed a message from Zak and all I could see was "I just hit a..." so I opened it and the full version was (and I quote) "I just hit a moose f*$cked the truck completely up ocho is on his way to get me i am fine no air bags or anything" So of course I freaked out and called him and he said everything was okay. He had called the sheriff and told the sheriff he didn't need a tow truck. Of course they sent one anyway and then tried to get Zak to pay $150. It all worked out in the end and they even went to the DOW and got a salvage tag so they could get the meat processed. Of course it didn't even phase Zak, which is exactly why I was worried he hit is head or something, he was back up in the hills that afternoon! Here are a few pictures of the ordeal.





Definitely not as bad as it could be but still scary! Thank God!!

Wedding, 3 Men and a Lady, School and the life of a Hunter's Wife

Okay so a couple weeks ago (yeah I'm behind) Tommy and Kate got married! Congrats to them. Although we had a heck of a time getting there it was great once we did. Our flight was supposed to leave the airport at 9:42 on Thursday night....well it left at 12:45. Mom says every flight I am on is delayed, I'm pretty sure she jinxed me :( Once we got there I went to get the rental car and the boys, Zak, Ocho and Jerel, got the luggage. Since we flew into Chicago, super cheap I might add, we had about an hour and forty five minute drive give or take. Luckily Och brought the GPS so we could figure out where we were going it really did help us. The drive wasn't so bad, did I went mention that it was 4:30 by the time we got the car, the fact I slept maybe 15 minutes on the plane and I was driving while the boys (ALL 3 OF THEM) slept?? When we got to the hotel it was around 7 so I was hoping that we would be able to check into our room a little early, okay a lot early, since I had to cancel our reservation from the night before. Not the cause, so we went to breakfast! It was a local place down the street from the hotel and we all drank about a cup of coffee a piece, that mixed with our lack of sleep made for quite the hilarious and interesting morning. We decided after breakfast to drive around and explore South Bend, IN. Next thing we know we are in Michigan, Niles, Michigan that is. We found us an estate sale, Jerel want to buy a boat and a welder, also noticed some pretty hilarious street signs (Tam O'Shanty anyone???), took a potty break at Lowes and tried to get into the hotel one last time. It didn't happen. Thankfully Kate's Family offered to let us come and take a nap at there house in Granger, which wasn't far from us, so Tommy came and met us and we were shuffled up the stairs into bedrooms. Correction, all 4 of us slept in one room that had a full bed and bunk beds in it. I'm not going to lie, it was the most AWKWARD situation I have ever been in not to mention pretty damned funny. None of us could sleep until we heard Zak snoring, then we one by one slept! Kate's parents had put together a really nice pool party BBQ for everyone and once we woke up we learned the hotel was ready. So we ate and did some introducing and catching up. Once we made it to the hotel it was time to get Ocho ready for the rehearsal (being the best man is a tough job) I did my womanly duties of ironing, while my husband slept...slacker! Zak, Jerel and I were invited to the rehearsal dinner, which was AWESOME, nice pick on that one!!! After dinner everyone decided to go to the Mishawaka Brewery for some beers, Ocho and I decided to skip out and get some sleep....SEPARATELY people, Och really needed to work on his best man speech!! I woke up around 6 and noticed I had received a text message at about 2 am from Zak, It said and I quote "Got too drunk to drive home, staying at Kate's Love you." Man it sure is a good thing I trust my husband ;) We spent the rest of the day drinking beer, eating lunch at the Brewery and stopping last minute to buy cuff links. At this point it is 2:30pm the wedding starts at 4pm. We still had to get back to the hotel shower, get ready and change, not to mention drive about 20 minutes or so. On the way back to drop Tommy off with his parents he remembers that he had forgotten the marriage license in his car in downtown South Bend. I will stop here and say that the minister originally forgot to take it home from the rehearsal dinner so that is where this problem started. So we devised a plan, drop Tommy off, then Ocho and I would go to the hotel and get ready while Zak and Jerel drove back down to Tommy's car to get the license. Now it's 3:15. Zak gets back with the license and learns he has to drive Ocho out to the Chapel because Tommy's Parents car is too full, its now 3:45pm. By the time Zak gets back its 4:02pm Jerel and I are ready but Zak still has to change and we have to drive 20 minutes. THANKFULLY, Tommy...well more like Kate, was okay with stalling the wedding until we got there. After I drove 85-90 mph on a 55 mph road!!! Needless to say it was a Beautiful wedding, the Chapel was gorgeous and even the road getting the Chapel was gorgeous. Good Job Tommy and Kate!!! The reception was also in a beautiful setting with lush gardens, trees and good drinks all around!! We had a blast and are so excited we got to spend your special day with you!






The Chapel


Zak and Jerel at the reception







After that came Chicago! Well First a side trip to lake Michagan, which is totally cool in itself! This was fun as none of us have ever been. It is a really pretty city and the people are really nice! We had some good Chicago style pizza and some really good Chicago Dogs! On the first night we literally stumbled onto a very famous bar called The Billy Goat Tavern. Kind of a dive bar but it has a lot of history, as a lot of really famous people have been there. Not to mention it was the source of a skit for Saturday night live. They had really good beer, but the next day we went to another one of the taverns out on Navy Pier and we didn't think it was as good, not as cool of an atmosphere! We were at the original of the 9 or so that they have, the guy that started the bar was responsible for the curse of the Cubs. Zak bought the history book, but I'm sure you could Google it if you want to hear more! It was a really fun trip and we are glad that we got to experience it!




















So I have officially been in school for two weeks now and I am loving it. I am such a nerd I was looking forward to the mass amounts of reading and writing and I got it! I actually sat in my poetry class thinking, DAMN I should have done this a long time ago!!! SO there's the update on that!!

It is Hunting Season and I bet you are all excited!? Well for the entire month of September Zak goes hunting, Archery season of course and it is his favorite! So for the weekends I will be all by myself, of course I have my kids to keep me company! I get excited at first being as I am an only child and alone time is awesome to me, but as soon as he leaves I get bored and miss him. This weekend wont be as bad as last seeing as he didn't leave until late on Friday and will be back Sunday rather than Monday. I am going to fill my time by going to Calhan's homecoming this coming weekend. I figure it is about time since I haven't been since I graduated and my parents are trying to move, I wont have too many more opportunities.