What do you think?

Do you think I am the worst dog mom ever because the pups are about 3 weeks overdue to get into the groomer? AND I called and I can't get them until June 5th. You can barely see Maggie's eyes when she is walking around and she is one big mess of hair. I am really the worst dog mom ever, I should strongly reconsider having kids.

Exposaroonie

I'm sure you are all wondering what the hell Sara is up to now. Well, I am participating in a photograpy challenge. I don't have the fanciest of cameras or the best of techniques BUT I do love taking photos and hopefully this will help me practice and become a better photographer. So, how did I find out about exposaroonie? Well...being that I am hopelessly addicted to the internet, I started twittering, tweeting, whatever and Emily started following me on twitter and commented on my blog. So I started stalking following her and noticed what a great photographer she is, enjoyed reading her blog and noticed that she is part of Exposaroonie. Let's just say I got inspired and wanted to try it out.

So, this week's challenge is Different Perspective. I couldn't believe that I took (what I would like to think) the perfect photo for the challenge this last weekend while playing board games.

So, let me know what you think and I would appreciate it if you went to Exposaroonie and vote for me. You would think that they were paying me for as many times as I wrote Exposaroonie in this blog.

That's not what it is used for

Sammy decided that since we removed the cushions off the couch (its been raining a lot lately) that he was going to lay on the coffee table. Why not? I think this is a great photo of Sammy's entitlement to everything we own but also describes his feelings about being left outside. I can imagine him thinking, "This is crap, I can't believe I have to be outside touching the ground. yuck!" Oh Sammy, what would I do without you.

Memorial Day

The scenery and wildlife in Lamoille was amazing but what I truly enjoyed was spending time with my family. Since we are all over this great state it isn't very often that we are all together. I was lucky to get all 10 of us there: Brett and me, my mom and dad, Jennifer and Travis, Kenna and Jerry (soon to be married) and the girls, Julianna and Rebecca (my soon to be nieces). No family filled Memorial Day Weekend would be complete without:

Playing board games- I won and yes I am proud to say I beat an 8 year old and a 10 year and my sister.....SORRY

Trying to get the girls to take a picture together, that look on Rebecca's face (one on the right) is priceless. As you can tell, she just loves posing for the camera.

Being taken literally when I ask Rebecca to put her sweater over her head when she was just wearing it on her arms.

A falling rock sign, that makes falling rocks cuter than they really are.

Dinner at The Star...yummy Basque food.

When going to Basque restaurants you have to drink the Pecan Punch, here's the boys with their drinks.

A not so shabby picture of Brett and I at dinner.

Smores....the messier the better, right Rebecca?

Teaching my family how to play Apples to Apples....nothing will ever top when my father picked "toes" to accompany his "lucious" card only to find out that Rebecca had put the "toes" card down. It was quite possibly the funniest(and most awkward) thing I have ever experienced while playing Apples to Apples.

What was also great was watching people get furious when their card wasn't picked...I never realized how much my family was a bunch of sore losers.

To top it off, one big goofy family portrait.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family that keeps growing year by year. Here is to one memorable memorial day weekend.

Lamoille, NV

For Memorial Day Weekend my side of the family (all 10 of us) headed to Lamoille, NV. It is really a hidden beauty out in Eastern Nevada that not many people know about, not even native Nevadans. For those of you looking for a great getaway, it's only about 250 miles from Reno. Yesterday, we went driving up into the canyon and here are some photos, for those who know me I took 185 pictures just on the drive.

Brett took this one, not too bad for someone who has an aversion to cameras.

Contrary to popular belief...

the dogs ARE our whole life. Not because we necessarily want it to be that way but because that is the way it is. It's really not that bad, I swear I didn't want to sleep in past 6:00 am for the last year. We try to plan vacations where we can take them with us or where we know that the pups will be taken care of. This upcoming weekend we are heading out to Lamoille Canyon to meet up with the rest of my family in this awesome cabin we rented, unfortunately dogs aren't allowed. It felt kind of bittersweet hearing that, because althought I love having them around I am looking forward to sleeping in, not worrying about them and not fretting over what they are pooping on, chewing on, peeing on, or well pretty much whatever they are destroying. I'll let someone else worry about that (thanks Taylor!). So, here's to a weekend of relaxation. I know that the pups will enjoy Fallon, their home away from home. Come Monday we will all be happy to see each other again.

I got mail

(on im)
my coworker: You got some really cute promo mail from a hotel in Hawaii
me: Really?
my coworker: It's a clear tube with a cute little stuffed turtle in it
me: how adorable
my coworker: its super cute
me: is the turtle small?
my coworker: just sent pics

This is how you get mail when you work remotely, your wonderful co-worker (thanks Kara!) takes pictures of it to show you how cute it is. The benefit of that, is that I get to see my mail and my coworker gets to keep it and bring the turtle home for her daughter.

Don't worry not all my mail warrants pictures just the cute stuffed animals in clear plastic tubes.

Neglected

I can't believe how neglected our blog is. I was travelling most of last week for work and didn't have the time to blog and then when I got home of Friday I managed to finally get sick. I made it all through the winter wihtout getting sick and well I finally got sick. Nothing terrible, it wasn't as bad as it could have been but it has definitely made me tired and unmotivated. I had a list of all the things I was going to do this weekend and we will be lucky if I even get one of those things done.

Over the past couple of days I have been fortunate enough to see all the wonderful babies in my life. I spent a couple of days with Bridget, got to spend the other day with Drake, and Brett and I babysat our nephew, Aidan, last night. It was definitely great to see all of them and a nice reassurance that Brett and I will be great parents when we decide to embark on that adventure. For now, we just love spoiling and playing with our nieces and nephews, we've also decided that we are pretty awesome babysitters.

The weather is really warming up here, spending all those years in San Francisco has really spoiled us and we have had quite the time trying to adjust and not melt. The sad thing is that it is only going to get hotter- bring on the airconditioning!

I can't believe we are already half-way through May, this month has gone by so fast. We will be heading up to Lamoille Canyon, NV for Memorial Day weekend with the whole Smith Family (there will be 10 of us; my mom and dad, myself and Brett, Jennifer and Travis, Kenna and Jerry (the newlyweds to be) and the girls; Julianna and Rebecca) it should be a great time. I will definitely have tons of photos and stories to share.

Happy Mother's Day

I just want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there and hope that they know how much they are loved and appreciated and that we are all lucky to have such wonderful mother's in our lives. You all are an inspiration to me and someday I hope to be as wonderful a mother as you all are. Thank you!

me and my mom

Brett and his mom

Betty and me

Shannon and Aidan

Annie and Drake

Kara and Bridget

Bacon in your panckaes

Growing up there was this diner near our neighborhood that made bacon pancakes. This was one of my favorite things to order, because it wasn't just your standard breakfast of pancakes and bacon it was pancakes that had bacon inside of them. It was genius. Not sure why more breakfast places haven't decided to serve bacon pancakes on their menu.

At a recent conference I was sitting with coworkers at breakfast and they were talking about a long standing tradition of trying to see how many meals in a row they can eat bacon at. I was intrigued because I am a firm believer that everything is better with bacon. So we were talking about different types of food with bacon, this bacon cookbook that I had just read about, what the rules of the bacon competition were, etc. When I mentioned bacon pancakes and was explaining how they are my favorite, my co-worker J stared at me in shock and amazement, "You mean they put the bacon in the pancake?". "Yes, they do. Its pretty tasty". He contined to ask about them the rest of the week and let's just say when he got back home he made bacon pancakes two days in a row. I am just suprised that more people don't know about bacon pancakes and have possibly gone their entire life without bacon in their pancakes. Well, this morning I decided that in honor of spreading the word about bacon pancakes that I was going to make us some bacon pancakes and they were truly amazing.

They are easy to make and really only require two ingredients, bacon and pancake batter, mix up and cook. I think Brett described it best this morning when he said, "It's genius, cause there's never left over bacon and there are always left over pancakes, this ensures that both will get eaten." I agree and hope that this inspires all of you out there next time you are making pancakes and bacon for breakfast to combine the two and see how absolutely delicious and wonderful they can be.

It's like playing grocery store

I know that most grocery stores have implemented the self check-out lines in the last couple of years, so this isn't anything new. I just can't get over how much I enjoy the self check-out line and I think it has something to do with when I was a kid. I loved playing grocery store, especially like Costco, where they used to read the PLU numbers outloud. My sisters and I always pretended that we were working at Costco and read imaginary numbers to each other for fake products with fake money. Now, I can have the joy of pretending like I work at the grocery store every week, sometimes even a couple times of week with the only difference being now that I am playing with real food and real money.

The other joy of self check-out is that you aren't expected to make un-necessary small talk with the check out machine. I can go as fast as I want and as slow as I want and no one is going to make comments about how I bought fruity pebble cereal, tv dinners and beer. It really allows us to not feel the shame of what we might be purchasing and allows us to be more autonomous and anonymous at the grocery store.

For those of you wondering that is not a picture of me or our grocery store, it is a stock photo from google. I really thought it would be against the anonymity I enjoy by pulling out my camera and taking a photo of the self check-out maching at the grocery store and drawing attention to myself.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Today is Maggie's first birthday, it also has been 10 months since we got Maggie. Although puppies aren't as much fun as you remember them. She has truly pushed our buttons and sometimes drives us crazy. Our favorite thing about Maggie is that she is always on top of the world, she is always happy and can brighten any day. It has been great having her as part of our family and I am so glad that Brett gave up and let me get her.

how much does a polar bear weigh?

As you all probably know by now, my youngest sister, Kenna, is getting married in June. This weekend we all headed down to Las Vegas for her bachelorette party.I bet some of you are asking what happens at a bachelorette party, well according to wikipedia.org:

In the United States, it has become a common practice for bachelorette parties to consist of a bar tour combined with a scavenger hunt, which usually has a risqué or erotic theme. The bride-to-be is invariably dressed in some fashion so that everyone in the bar instantly recognizes her as being the subject of a bachelorette party. The bachelorette is often quite intoxicated by the end of the night, as both her friends and guys she meets in the bars will continually buy her drinks.

Not saying that any of the above happened or didn't happen all I am saying is that there is a strong possibility of things of the above nature happening. I am also not here to share any stories or the complete play by play of the bachelorette party (sorry Jerry). All I will say is that there is nothing like a night full of margaritas, pole dancing, the old man in the silver shirt, the dance-off, the freak in the brown and white striped shirt, the stickers, the tattoos, the lady diving literally into a margarita. I had a wonderful time and I want to thank all the ladies who came out for Kenna's bachelorette party and I can't wait to see you all at the wedding. We are going to have a hell of a time.

I will share with you my favorite memory of the evening.

Kenna asks the young guy standing next to our table, "How much does a polar bear weigh?"

He stares at her and replies, "I don't know"

"Enough to break the ice...hi, I'm Kenna" she smiles. The rest of us try not to spit margarita out of our mouths as we are uncontrollably laughing at her pick up line.

Oh, Kenna, I admire you and love the woman that you have grown up to be. I couldn't be happier for you and congratulations from the bottom of my hear. I love you!