Dad's Amazing Rescue

(Call us crazy, obsessed or weird, but we love our dogs. So when references are made to “dad” or “mom”, it’s usually about the dogs.)

The story begins with a typical hot day in June…yesterday to be exact.  After Brent and I spend the afternoon cleaning and installing our new doggie door (which the boys absolutely love by the way), we loaded up in the car and headed to one of my favorite places ever.  About 10 miles out of town, in the middle of no where, there is a canal that runs along the side of the road.  When the weather started getting warm, we would take the boys there and let them play in the frozen water, so they know this area well.  Well, since the summer has hit, and the snow has been melting at such a rapid pace, the stream and canals are running at full capacity. So to Tanks surprise, the water was a little deeper than he remembered. Zip has this undying love for water. As I have mentioned before, he will find water wherever it is; a puddle, a freshly watered garden (Ug!!), sprinklers (in anyones yard), or a hose. The man loves water.  So this deep canal was especially fun. Not so much for Tank.

We have this thing, as mean as it may seem, where Brent throws tank in the middle of whatever body of water we are playing in, because Tank won’t voluntarily get soaked.  He plays on the sidelines and gets up to his belly, but he cries and whines every time Zip gets farther than him, so we help him out a little bit. On this particular occasion, the waters where high, the current was slightly moving, and the weather was warm…Tank was going swimming! Sure enough, dad throws him in, Tank goes under….Tank doesn’t come up…eventually this little head pops up and he is just paddling for all he’s worth, but yet he is not going anywhere.  What kind of dog doesn’t know how to swim?! …This dog…whenever Tank would paddle, his butt would sink straight down and his front paws would just slap the water at two hundred miles per hour. It was sad and hilarious at the same time.  Of course, I panicked, yelling at Brent to jump in a save him…so there goes Brent. He strips down to his undies, jumps in, and saves the day. Tank sure looked a little relived and angry, confused with the fact that his rescuer was also the same man who put him in this situation in the first place. Come to find out, Tank loves swimming when you hold up his hind-end for him!

Which brings me to this point: Brent is in his underwear at 7:30 at night, in the middle of a canal playing with the dogs. So of course this turns into a family event… as cold as it might have seemed, I got in the water too.  The boys loved having family time in the water with them! It’s normally just the boys, but this time all of us got muddy, wet, and cold.  And still they had to ride in the back of the truck while we drove home with the heater. Aw, the joys of being human.  

Can ya tell I was cold?! We ended up staying in for over a hour anyway!

Update: Home Edition

Since the wedding, honeymoon and all that jazz, life has gotten back to its normal state of reality; though this reality is blissful and heavenly. Brent and I have cozied in to our daily routines with work, chores, and errands, but we couldn’t be happier doing it all side by side.  However, a lot has changed at the Clark household since the big day. 

On our honeymoon, Brent and his grandpa sped the day to make us some cute wooden chairs the go out in our front yard. Along with that, we also added a patio furniture set. It’s a glass table top, and four surprisingly comfy chairs.  (The reasoning behind all of these yard additions is that we are building a deck for our front yard this summer.) Also, for the longest time, we have been without a lawn mower.  With the help of our lovely friends and family who got us Home Depot gift cards, we bought a lawnmower! So along with our patio set, chairs, and lawn mower, we added a garden!

I have been busy busy busy planting and working in our new garden.  On one side of our house we have two pretty good sized raised flower beds. I already have a gorgeous flowerbed growing on the other side of the house, and I enjoy every minute of working out there. When I told Brent’s grandmother (who is a garden extremist) that I run out of weeds to pull, she started digging up plants to bring down and expand my garden. My green thumb is growing as fast as the garden is! So, Brent and I got to work tilling up the entire flowerbed to make room for grandma’s garden visions.  In the larger of the two beds, we planted two rows of tomatoes, a row of peppers, and a row of cucumbers. For the neighboring beds, grandma brought down an assortment of flowering plants for us.  By no means will I run out of weeds ever again.

Chairs, patio set, garden…DOGGIE DOOR! I feel as though life is now complete.  With the installation of the doggie door, the boys now have complete freedom as to whom and when they go outside. Zip took to the door like he takes to water. He went in and out ten times in a row just because he could. Tank on the other hand is a little less enthused about the flap that whacks him in the face every time, but he has gotten used to it.  I’ll tell you what; it sure has made our life easier.  It was rather nice this morning not waking up at six to let them out. We even left them for a night, and came home to find the house in perfect order. My, how they are growing up!

Has anyone ever been without their own washer and dryer? Welcome to my life for the past year almost.  Not anymore!! I have this huge laundry room with no purpose until now. We finally bought a washer and dryer to fill the room! It, along with the doggie door, has been life changing! I can now do laundry as I please. That was always my excuse for having lots of clothes; the fact that I couldn’t do laundry all of the time so I needed an abundant supply. Anyway, the room had this cement wall that for some reason wasn't painted. Well, now it is. More plans for this summer: to build cabinets!

That’s it for now! I’m going to go enjoy my day outside in our beautiful yard and play with the boys (Brent included).

Honeymoon' Fun!

Well everyone, while we wait for the pictures from the big day, I'm going to work backwards and tell the story starting from the Honeymoon! Though I am please to announce that I am officially Mrs.Clark! Just a quick synopsis: the wedding was a complete success, and everything leading up to it went flawlessly...except the weather. It was overcast, but I look at is as someone else needed the rain more than I needed the sunshine. The ceremony was beautiful and we beamed as we literally danced down the isle officially as Mr. and Mrs. Brent Clark. The reception was an evening to remember to say the least, and everyone had a blast!

After our stay at Anniversary Inn, we headed home to unwind for a day, then headed off to 1 of 2 honeymoons.  While we wait for a more opportune time to go to California for the official honeymoon, we took the amazing weather with us and headed for Flaming Gorge. Being the social butterflies that we are, we loved the time we spent with Brent's grandparents that live there and his Uncle Brent and cousin Sierra that were down from California for the wedding. The week was filled with camp fires, cookouts, hiking, and fun in the sun.  I'll let the pictures tell the story! 

We loved spending time with the family, but it is nice to finally be home as the newly weds.  We are getting into the swing of everyday life and back to reality, but this is what we have been waiting for, for what seems like forever!

 A rafting trip down the Green River with Uncle Brent and his daughter Sierra 

A view of the Lucerine Marina at Flaming Gorge. 

We would walk down around the "beach" and play in the water!

Our hike around the Flaming Gorge viewing area near Red Canyon

Yes, we are sitting on the ledge. A very scary high ledge.

We went to Red Canyon Lodge for a romantic dinner, and afterwards we rented a canoe and rowed around the lake for an even more romantic evening. It was a picture perfect night with great food, warm weather, and a perfect date.

The week ended and we are back to reality! Can't wait to see what we will do next!

What we have all been waiting for!

It's late. I'm tired. But alas our amazing photographer has posted some of the wedding pics. 

Let's make this easy folks.

Check them out at sallyphotography.blogspot.com.

Keep checking her site occasionally, because there will be more to come!

Sneak Peek 

PS. Tomorrow is a blogger day...updates to come! :) 

Beautiful, Crazy, Life.

The day I left for Georgia, my best Utah friend Sadie flew in from Washington to visit me and help with the wedding preparation.  While I was down south she stayed with her family in Heber city, but the moment I walked off the plane and greeted my handsome fiancé, baby Emma, and Sadie, we have been the quad squad ever since!  Sadie threw a party for our High School posse, and no doubt it was just like old times.  It’s amazing how everyone has changed so much but yet we remain so close.  We giggled and laughed just like we were back at lunch time on the school lawn playing around.  It was great having Brent meet everyone before the big day!  The party ended around 11:00 pm and we loaded up and headed to Lyman! Sadie is staying with me from here on out until the wedding. What an amazing bestie! J

I love being an “Aunt” to Emma! Oh this girl is just the greatest thing to have around! I love her more than anything…sad part is; she favors Brent more than anything. How unfair! What can I say, he just has a way with the ladies.  After church on Sunday (and nap) we took the doggies out for a walk.  It was such a gorgeous day, so we packed up the kids (Zip, Tank, and Emma all on leashes) and headed for the canal so the boys could go swimming.

p.s.- 5 DAYS!!!

Savannah, Georgia

About Friday afternoon on the 21st of May, Hillary and I were devising plans on how I could get to Savannah, Georgia for her graduation. By the 25th, I was packed up, and ready to go! My plane left at midnight, and I landed in Savannah at 11:00 the next morning. Oh, how wonderful it was to be back (closer) to home in the heat and humidity! I miss the south!! After landing, our first, and most important thing on our agenda was the beach. It has been five long years since my toes have touch eastern sand. Savannah is about 20 minutes from Tybee Beach, which coincidently, is where the movie "Last Song" was filmed. 

After our adventures on the shore we headed inland for my tour around downtown Savannah.  It is filled with so much history, beautiful old buildings and lovely parks every mile.  Savannah was built on a "square" system, meaning every street runs into a "square" park in the middle, and the roads are treated as a giant round-about. Each square has sculptures for viewing and park benches to relax on.  Downtown is full of shops of all kinds, and some of the most amazing food ever! Hillary had class on Thursday morning, so I took that time to explore everywhere my legs could carry me. It was a lot of walking, but well worth it! One of the things I miss most about the South are Boiled Peanuts! I found the first street vendor that sold them and sat in what is now my favorite of the squares, and enjoyed my peanuts and lemonade on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.

(Pictures coming soon)

Aside from it's history, Savannah has lots of night-life going on. We went out with some of Hillary's friends, who were also graduating and had a blast! At one of the bars, it was Karaoke night. Now, I have heard about this alleged "Spoon Man" and all his glory, but he really is something that needs to be experienced first hand.  A man, roughly in his thirties, probably still living with his mom, claims his 15 minutes of fame every Thursday night by showing up in his color coordinating pajama's and air-guitars with a giant cooking spoon.  He can actually sing rather well, but it's hard to take anyone serious when they are using kitchen utensils as their accompaniment. Pretty dang funny.

 

On Friday, after her graduation practice, we set up for her Gallery, which is where all the students get to show off their hard work for their families.  Hill's mom, dad, and little brother Peter met us at the gallery later that afternoon. I missed them so much! They are literally my second family, and going that long without seeing them was hard. I won't lie; I cried. :) Later that night, there was a concert on the park. G-Love and the Special Sauce performed with two other bands, that we went to with her family.

The next morning was Hillary's big day. What she had been working so hard on for four long years was finally here.  The ceremony was motivating for all.  I am so proud of her!

After the formalities were complete, we went back to Hillary's parents hotel and hung out until dinner time.  Since Hill wasn't feeling well, Peter, mom, and I walked down to River Street, which is my new favorite place in Savannah. It's right on the water, and has tons of fun shops and vendors along the whole way. The roads are all cobble stone, and the sidewalks are brick. Every building is old and very historical as well. Aside from the wide variety of shopping, they have a GIANT candy store, with everything you could possibly imagine. You honestly feel like a little kid again from the moment you walk inside.  This is where I found some of the childhood candies Brent used to eat to bring back home to him; along with his Southern Cookbook, "CLARK" photographs, and other knick-knacks. My trip was a blast, I am so glad I was able to be there for her graduation...it meant a lot to the both of us.  Though it is good to be home and back in the arms of my husband-to-be-in-eleven-days, I can't wait to take him back there to visit!

(Pictures coming soon)

Now that I am home, life quickly went back to normal, except I'm not allowed out of Brent, Zip, or Tank's eyesight for even a second. How great it is to be loved by them!! Wedding plans are going great. I had my final fitting and picked up my dress on my way home for the airport, and everything turned out beautiful! I can't wait to wear it on the big day.  

On a side note, I think every couple has the same debate: what to watch on TV. Well, for anyone in the same boat as I am, I have found a great solution. There is a show on WE (Women's Entertainment) called "Bridezillas". It's about crazy CRAZY ladies and their wedding planning. Now, I know it doesn't sound like something a man would want to watch, but I'm serious when I say it is literally like watching "Cops" and a bridal show at the same time; high-speed chases and all.