Sweet Ralphy Boy!

Ralphy, where do I possibly begin with this little guy? He is the MOST unique dog ever! When I married Chris, I knew he and Ralph were a package deal and I love dogs but I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about being a full-time mama to this guy. He has some unfortunate habits that make him...difficult at times. (that is a very nice way of putting it). This poor dog has more anxiety than me, my little brother, my mom combined, that is a LOT of anxiety. He can whine for 5 hours straight on a road trip because he is so excited to be going somewhere. He will have a utter meltdown when someone walks to the door because he loves people sooo much. If you hold him back from something he wants, you will get clawed and possibly bit. People always tell me how crazy Ralph is, they think he is nuts because they only see him in high anxiety moments. My mom tells me on a daily basis that Ralph has mental problems, she thinks that is a nice way of say he is psychotic. 

However psychotic Ralph gets he has somehow managed to claw, bite ( literally I have scars) bark, scratch, jump his way into my heart. He is seriously the hardest dog I have ever had. That being said, Ralph has some of the sweetest and funniest habits. He will slow motion walk towards you with a toy in his mouth until you clap your hands and he knows you're ready to play, then he runs full speed directly at you. If he does something he knows is naughty ( he always knows when he is naughty) and he gets caught, he immediately runs and puts himself in timeout. He is scared of EVERYTHING. I sneezed so loudly this morning and he ran under the bed. If I make any noise that is somewhat loud or somewhat foreign to him, he freaks out and hides. I came home with balloons that other day....PETRIFIED! He spent the next hour under the trailer in the back yard. 

This dog is a sleeper. If he doesn't get lots, I mean LOTS of naps during the day he is a different dog. In the morning he gets up with Chris and comes back to bed with me, then when I get up he follows me to see what I'm doing then goes back to bed. When I leave for work at 10:45 he is usually asleep under the bed. He is the biggest snuggler! He has to have his rump right against you, if you move he moves until he has the whole bed. His favorite thing is to get in Chris's warm spot in the morning and put his head right on Chris's pillow. He also has to be tucked in every night in his blanket on his bed. 

Got too excited and got too many burs in his fur

Captain Ralph loves to have his picture taken

fresh haircut

trying to tell me there are too many pillows on his bed.

all tucked in and ready for bed

so tired. 

doggie xanax, didn't do a thing for him. 

LOVES to go for a ride. 

not sure about this baby thing. 

testing out our new floor pillows, that are not for him. 

always in my grill in the car. 

laying at his look out spot. 

This dog is so much work but he is the best. I'm not going to say we don't often think of sending him somewhere far away but at the end of the day when he has us pinned against the edge of the bed, we love this little dude more than anything. I love to pal around with him on my days of and watch him run with sheer glee at the park. People at the park always tell us "he is having so much fun"! He is the craziest/sweetest dog you will ever meet. Happy 4th Birthday Ralphy Boy!!

Good Stuff

I rarely bust out the camera these days, why would you when the phone is so handy and easy. Well it doesn't take the best pictures but still it is so convenient. Here are the random happenings of our lives. If you follow me on intagram @lacokland, then you have most likely seen most of these. 

Last weekend we wanted to try out our new pop up 

Jumpin Jack Trailer. 

So we headed down to Moab. 

Just the 3 of us. Here we are all packed up. 

You may notice Ralph thinks he's riding shotgun....no sir. 

Horrible picture but this is when the moon was really HUGE. Sorry you can't tell. 

It was so big that while we were camping and the moon came out, it seriously looked like someone turned on a dim light. 

THE most tired pooch ever after a hike to the watering hole.

He was so excited to be out running around. 

Driving! Pretty sunset. 

                            

I bought a new neon orange shirt. I was and still am pretty excited about it. 

I love watching my cute nephew Connlly while I work. 

He's such a good baby. Only two more weeks of the helmet. Yahoo!!

Horrible picture sorry. Ralph always has to back his royal toosh onto something, 

usually its me. 

I was in bed watching TV and this little miss Kitty just climbed 

right up on me and went to sleep. 

Seriously?!

Chris went to Vegas for my lil brother's bachelor party and while I was doing the laundry

I found this lovely shirt. 

Every had the organic individual hummus packs from costco? 

Get there, they are awesome. 

I was having kind of a rough day this day and Ralph new I was sad so he 

got right in my face and licked the end of my nose. Thank you Ralphy Boy!

Met some good friends Jennie and Jenny at Rio for a delicious lunch. 

We went to jr. high and high school together. 

I never really see either of them so it was good to catch up. 

The other day I looked outside and my mom's dog had made himself at home

ON TOP OF MY TABLE! Goofball. 

Pups and I sleeping in on our backs.

Went to a shower for my nephew's wife who just had a baby. 

I took this picture of my sis in law and put it on instagram.

It backfired because everyone thought i was say she was bored but really

I was just embarrassing her with a lovely pic. 

We had a bachelorette party for tiff at Cafe Molisse . Delicious. 

We are goofing around trying to get rid of our double chins for the picture. 

Sisters. We are just missing Susan who was in Africa. 

My sister noelle. Love her. We get crazy and laugh a lot when we are together. 

Sorry that was random and weird but I just wanted to get some of those pics on here. 

Hope you have a great weekend. 

We had friends in town this last weekend (Pictures will be here shortly, as soon as someone emails them to me. My camera had no sim card dag nabbit). ANYWAY, they showed us this video and I can not stop laughing, quoting, and watching it. Yes, I quote the dog. Enjoy! 

My favorite part "covered it in what"

Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas card this year. We had a little animal photo shoot which was pretty much the funniest thing ever. Kitty HATES that sweater. She refuses to move when she has it on. Which you would think is good but she just lays around and won't look at the camera so we propped her up like this. Ralph on the other hand LOVES having his picture taken. He is such a well behaved pooch, well at least in front of the camera. 

It's Friday!!!

 

Look at this tired pooch. I feel like Ralph looks today.  This was first thing in the morning the other day. Ralphie is NOT a morning person. Haha. Chris was so mean and snapped this while he was trying to sleep. He looks so pissed. 

Well happy friday friends. Thanks for the sweet comments about Maile. We miss her so much. I head off to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up our new little furry. So excited. 

We have a busy little weekend ahead of us. I have my dogs, which is always a sleepless adventure,  a BBQ with friends, new puppy, yard work yard work yard work, and hopefully some reading {sarah's key, have you read it} 

Have a good weekend. see you next week. Hopefully I'll have lots, of fun stuff, to blog about. 

Miss Maile!

My mom's dog Maile is the sweetest pooch you have ever met. She is so smart and so cute. She and my mom are such besties. I don't have a picture of this sweet girl but I do have sad news. She was hit by a car and killed right before my mom's eyes. It was the most traumatic thing ever. My mom was hysterical, my dad was sobbing as they ran her to the vet to see the damage. Unfortunately she was paralyzed and bleeding internally. She died in my mom's arms. When I talked to my mom ( I was out of town) she could barely speak she was sobbing uncontrollably. It was so heartbreaking.  Since then my mom has been so lonely and sad that today, on her birthday, we surprised her with this awesome little guy.

He is a Portuguese Water Dog. Yes, the Obama dog but better cause he's ours. He is the sweetest pup and arrives next week. My mom is still sad about her sweet Maile and we know that there is no replacing her but we are sure excited to love this little dude to pieces. Welcome to the family buddy boy. We love you already. RIP sweet Mailes, we will love you forever. 

Any suggestions on a name? My dad likes Maui and I like Kona. We always tend to have a little island flare with our animals. We had a Sushi and a Sashimi back in the day and of course Maile is also Hawaiian. 

Nebo Loop

OK so HUGE shout out to my friend McCall for this recommendation. We went camping over the 4th of July weekend up Payson Canyon. I have never been there before this so i was a little nervous about finding a camp spot, bears, etc. But this place did not disappoint. It was so b.e.a.u.tiful. (Bruce Almighty reference) Seriously so gorgeous. We had so much fun. Here are some of our pics.   

I got Chris a dutch oven for our one year anniversary....yes, we celebrate that when dating. My dad thought it was ridiculous but hey a year is a year, married or not. Anyway, where was I? Oh the dutch oven! So I made a delicious breakfast casserole when we got there, as it needs to sit over nite. We wanted to break that sucker in since we've had it since april. HMMM! so delicious. Leave a comment if you want the recipe. 

L-R: Tiff, connor's girlfriend, Your's truly, Makara, Hagop's girlfriend. 

Oh my lands...where do I even begin you guys? Boys being boys, they set out on a firewood adventure. Apparently they didn't see the heaping pile we had next to the fire (shhh don't tell). But off they went and all we could hear was chopping and grunting and yelling and then they emerged out of the forest. 

Yes, you see correctly, they are carrying a full tree. 

L-R: Connor, my lil' bro, Chris, Hagop (pronounced HOG-UP) My little brother's friend. 

Honestly there are no words. We took this picture telling them how proud we were but really I was documenting the amount of CRAZY that was going on. 

I mean seriously, I love living in Utah. In 40 minutes you can be in a whole new, isolated world. 

Ralph is usually not a big swimmer, being afraid of everything usually is a big deterrent for those kinds of activities. For some reason we couldn't keep him out.  

Obviously a little muddy. The best part is Ralph would get out and shake mud all over the spectators. Which is exactly why I got in that frigid water. 

Hagop can't swim...sorry but he can't and I can tell you that because he doesn't read my blog. So those who can't swim FISH. 

Look at that pooch. 

Oh boy. I am speechless. 

We had so much gear that Ralph had a small 3x2 foot space and he stayed right in it like a good, exhausted pooch. 

Until he was so tired he laid on the bags and went to sleep. 

So if you want a fun new place to camp and need instructions, I am happy to oblige, well if you are willing to take me with you.