Early Morning Spar

This morning while eating breakfast we spotted two Moose laying in the grass out our window. A mom and a baby. They were lounging waiting for the sun to come up. We watched their progress as the sunlight started appearing on the mountains across the valley. They slowly got up and stretched their legs. Then we noticed they seemed to be alert to something and wouldn’t you know it two more Moose came out of the trees across the little meadow to check them out as well. One male and one female. The little moose was curious but the mom kept guard. As you can see from the video clip it got a little touchy at one point.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FByjc7WrSew[/youtube]

There are a few more pictures of the Moose Extravaganza over here if your interested.

The Unkown

[click photo for a larger version of the flyer]

Yep, that’s our Adah. We found her because she was lost and now, well looks like old habits are hard to break. Ellie and I were out on our daily morning walk with the dogs and our neighbor. I got distracted for a bit and she was gone. She has done this before but has never left us over night. The kicker is I had the intuition to put her on the leash and the walk started out that way but when we met up with the other dogs she was so excited and started to whine and look at me with those pleading eyes to let her loose so she could run and play with them.

Gary has spent two days wandering all over TL and Heber. He is exhausted both emotionally and physically.  We’ve been calling animal control in both Summit and Wasatch County. We have put up fliers like you see above all over TL and have sent out emails to our neighbors. We have done everything we could possibly do. It’s up to fate now. We will keep looking and doing our part. I’m not saying we give up yet. In fact I haven’t allowed myself to shed a tear yet because she still has time to appear out of nowhere like she is notorious for.

So the point of this post is to ask everyone who keeps tabs on us to put good thoughts out there into the cosmic soup for our Adah that she will come back to us unscathed.

Fall

I have decided that fall is my favorite time of year. There is so much beauty in the fall as nature prepares for winter. I love the dramatic color change in the leaves and the crisp air. I also like the feeling of fall the harvesting that goes on and such. The taste of fall is good too with the different flavors that come into season like pumpkin, pears, apples, squash, and so on.  In an effort to soak up these few precious weeks of fall we have committed to taking daily family walks each morning. We really do live in a beautiful spot up in the mountains surrounded by color. Ellie seems to really enjoy her mornings out and it is good prep for a morning nap she usually falls right out when we get back. Which tells you something about how good the cool crisp air is for you. As for me and Gary it is time well spent clearing out minds and preparing for our day.

Soaking up the Last of the Sunshine

It is a beautiful day today so Ellie and I took advantage of the nice weather and played on the back deck for a bit today. Gary finished up painting yesterday and it looks sooo good. It’s a perfect place for Ellie to practice her walk. Obstacle free and wide open space.

I also took the time this morning to finish up a sewing project. Skirts, one for Ellie and one for McKenna who is celebrating her Birthday this month. I got my inspiration from here, who got her inspiration from here.  This is an easy one so I encourage anyone with any spark of interest to try it out. Seriously so simple…and you can download the pattern for free.

Barack The Vote Concert Clip

When we were in Ithaca over Christmas last year we went to see Jeb Puryear’s solo CD release party (for Hopes and Dreams) in Owego, NY. Cellist Hank Roberts was there, a long with Jeb and crew. We haven’t come close to forgetting that night! Just found a great clip of the Jeb Puryear Band with Hank Roberts about a month after we saw them in Owego.

Hank Roberts w/ the Jeb Puryear Band in a standout performance, from the Barack the Vote concert at the State Theatre in Ithaca, NY. 2-1-2008.

[youtube]8pYYnw-9qRg[/youtube]

And here’s another we found that shows Jeb in true form. Three minute solo. Looks like Donna with Jim Lauderdale in this clip. Not bad for an old time fiddler, eh?

[youtube]QBce-tThq0Y[/youtube]

Look out World, Here she Comes!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25MOo1S1LcI[/youtube]

The Wee One Walks!!

She is a little wobbly and has to hold her hands up high but she is focused and determined. Just before Gary filmed this she walked out of her bedroom and all the way down the hall on her own. My heart skipped a beat as I realized a whole new chapter is begining. She has been ready for this for a while as she has been trying so hard to be independent climbing up on things and exploring all over.  Last night I was a little emotional over the whole thing thinking to myself “am I ready for this?” and “I don’t want the babyness to go away”.  Ready or not she is full of life and it is such a pleasure to be apart of it all.

A note to Grandma and Grandpa Marcoccia: We hope this lifts your spirts a little bit today as you help the “Gentle Giant” Oakie rest in peace. We will miss that beautiful dog. You guys are all we can think about today as you take on such a difficult choice of loving pet owners. We love you.

A Job of Work

We painted our house last week. We decided it really needed it and boy it did. Gary borrowed my Dad’s power washer a few weekends ago and went to town cleaning up the house which in return revealed how badly it had been beat down by the sun the last few years. So we went with some Cappacino and Redwood. I like the brown tones better then the fading mustard yellow it was before. It’s much more soothing. I’m still getting used to the Redwood trim from a distance I love it but when I get up close it seems a little bright, but that will change with time I’m sure.

We hired our friend Jonny B as our painter extraordinaire. He’s quite good with a brush although I heard him several times call out and grumble with frustration over ladders, the sun, the rain, equipment, lose of balance, what have you. It was nice to have him around. He took some good pictures with Ellie and I’m so bummed I didn’t get them from him. Plus he is currently sporting a 70’s style mustache and it is such a great look for him. Honest. Especially when he is holding a PBR or Bud Light in his hand. He says “it’s a lifestyle”. Jonny brought his dog “The Shady Lady” as well. She is a miniature schnauzer and Ellie loves her despite her bad breath. She followed Shady all over wanting to give her hugs and kisses and have conversations in high pitched doggy language.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_tnDzu5PRw[/youtube]

We still need to pain I mean paint the back deck and possibly apply some second coats to the decks as well. Hopefully we can get to that this weekend or sometime before Christmas.  Here are some before and afters…

This is where it all started

Actually it started the season before (I know they spelled my name wrong). We were working as bartenders in different lodges in Alta. I was at the Goldminer’s Daughter and Gary worked at the Peruvian. As you can see from his pass Gary had been in Alta for a few years (1998) I spent a season up there in 1997 and to make a long story short we had a mutual friend (Johnny B) who thought we would be good for each other. You see my aunt Laurel had given me tickets to a film festival. I ran into Johnny and figured he was harmless because he had a girlfriend at the time who was in Spain so I asked him if he wanted to go with me and he turned me down saying that I should ask Gary that he would really like to go with me. So I took Johnny’s advise and asked Gary to join me and the rest is history. Johnny is still proud to this day that he was such a successful match maker. I always remind him that we owe it all to him.

We celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday. We spent our first night without the wee one and ventured north to Lava Hot Springs. Turns out Ellie had a better time walking and talking with Grandpa and Grandma McKenney. Our experience in Lava well… lets just say we wont be going back and yuck pretty much sums it up. We tried to make the best of it.

Back to the important stuff though, Gary and I have had 5 years of joy, love, tears, laughter, stress, companionship, and all that makes up a good marriage. Over the last 5 years we have lived near the mouth of Little Cottonwood in Sandy, at the Entrada Ranch outside of Moab, in the “Slanty Shanty” in old town Park City, and now here in our little cabin in Timberlakes. We have had some good times and some hard times in all those places. I am looking forward to what lies a head of us and the many more adventures we are going to have together.