Milo the Corgi

I changed my email/google account, and in so doing have seemed to have lost all of my pictures from this blog.

All of them.

Years of picture memories, all of my children's childhood pictures... just gone.

I'm so sad.

I can't even begin to comprehend this.

Not much I can do except strap on my big girl boots and carry on.  I still have a lot to catch up (thank goodness I got behind, it's all safe in my email archives), but a lesson learned to start printing the blog on a yearly basis so we will always have a hard copy of our pictures.

So to carry on.

Here's a cute puppy picture of Milo.

In fact, this can be a post about that Milo boy.

He's a pretty timid dog.  He doesn't like the vacuum, or anything that makes noise, really.  He'll slip out that dog door and sit on the back deck as soon as he gets any inclination that something uncomfortable (like vacuuming, or The Man with an empty wrapping paper roll) is about to go down.  He has a bit of a hip problem that really becomes aggravated when he's too fat, which is often, so The Man built a ramp on top of the deck stairs so he can get up and down.  We try and take care of him so he doesn't get overweight, but the boy likes to eat.

I can relate.

Milo prefers the next door neighbors to us.

They feed him.  Left over meat pieces and rib bones and such.  Our neighbor is a chef.

Milo think he's king of the world.

 We call our neighbors "The Russians" because they're from Russia and their last name has to many consonants and not enough vowels for me to be able to remember it.

Milo is a sweetheart, even if he's a traitor.  He's picked up some phrases in Russian, but most particularly, he's picked up on the word "treat" in Russian.  Don't ask me what it is, The Russians don't offer me treats in Russian, just Milo.  He'll sit in the front yard at the fence line and wait for The Russians to come outside.  As soon as he sees them, all loyalty for us is out the window.

That's fine, Milo.

We see how you are.

Summer Evening in the Canyon

Labor Day Weekend 2017: Sand Hollow

Sean, Tayler, Casadee Bartlett, Luke Parker

Sean, Tayler, Cali, Luke Parker, Simone Parker, Casadee Bartlett

Me, Cali, Brynn, Crystal Bartlett, Taylee

Circus Adventure: Toquerville Falls.

We've recently decided that with all our visits down south to Sand Hollow and St. George, it's about time we actually start exploring the area and seeing some new things.  There are so many places we haven't discovered yet.

So when I got word that such a thing as Toquerville Falls existed, I knew it had to be added to our Labor Day Weekend trip to Sand Hollow (here).

{pic source here}

We found directions to find the falls on THIS post.  My only correction would be the street you turn on is actually Spring Dr. not Spring St.  A small detail, but one that made us question if we were going the right way.

Be fair warned that you do need a vehicle with higher clearance.  My brother drove a Subaru car up and he scraped a few times.

I would highly suggest find this place.  Being as we visited it on Labor Day Weekend, it was crowded with a lot of people.  But I know others who have visited and had the entire place to themselves.  I'm keeping this puppy on my to do list for the next time we head south so we can check it out and play on it when it's not crowded.  Also, the water in the bottom pool was stirred up when we were there.  I'd like to visit it when we can see the bottom better.

Regardless, we had fun.  

Everyone jumped off the bottom fall, including our dog, Milo.  Now that was a sight to see.  I wish he would have told me he was planning on doing that so I could have caught it on camera.  As it is I only have him checking it out behind West as West jumped...

West (and Strider and Milo)

And then in the water after West pulled him out from under the falling water.  I think Milo got a little disoriented with the water falling all around him and he didn't seem to know what to do.  West had to grab him and pull him out.

Milo, West, Sean

After that people kept asking if we could make our dog jump again.  Truth be told, we're not sure he even did it on purpose the first time.

Please keep in mind, when jumping from a waterfall, it's important to wear a frog floatie.

Cali

Safety first.

Jayme

Tayler

Cali jumping with cousin Brenna.

Casidee

Sean

Brynn

Sean

This would be the trip that Casidee cut open the bottom of her foot.  But not from jumping.  She simply cut it by standing there.  Well, on a sharp rock.  So take note, as I would suggest with any publicly known adventure, take water shoes of some sort.  If the rocks don't get you, the broken glass will.  Generally speaking, not necessarily here at Toquerville Falls.

I think next time we go I'm going to spend a little more time on the upper part of the falls.  I like the view from up there.

Tayler

 And of course we drug all our family and friends with us.  When you go on an adventure with us, you can't miss out on any of it.

Hanging with Grandma Julie.

The Day I Ended Up Wet, On My Back, And Covered In Dog Fur

The other night we had a situation with our dog, Milo, that required us using the hose on his backside.

Milo hates baths and that's in a tub with warm water no less, so take him out into the backyard with the cold hose...

The Man gave me the option.  Hold Milo, or do the job with the hose.

Since the hose job had the possibilities of being "yucky," I decided that I could hold Milo.

I've always claimed that our dog Strider is the Clydsedale horse of dogs.  Apparently, Milo is also, he just doesn't care to exert it as much as his brother.

Milo did not want anything to do with that hose.  The Man had tried to do this job before I got home to no avail.  When we went into the backyard, Milo knew what was coming.

He tried to run and The Man held him in his arms while I got into place.  I watched The Man applying all sorts of muscle power against the struggling dog and knew that I needed to put a lot of weight into this.

I got down on my knees, pulled Milo close to my chest, and wrapped my arms around his torso and in front of his chest while I bent over, laying my body weight on him, enough to hold him there without crushing the ever living daylights out of him.

He struggled, but my hold stayed.

So The Man turned the hose on and began to spray.  As soon as that cold water hit Milo's backside that dog doubled his efforts of force.  I ended up covered in water and somehow on my back, arms above my head as I valiantly tried to keep my hold on the run away dog.  He was running on my hair and my face was being licked by Strider who seemed pleased as punch that it wasn't him who was involved in all of the hassle.

After all of that, the job still needed to be done.

So West held Milo.

And I got the yucky job.

And I got the yucky job done.

In wet clothes, covered in fur and dog saliva.

It was my turn to need a shower after that business.

****

Complete change of course, in case that story wasn't enough for you,  here's a beautiful thought for the day: