The Lou Dog

Our family dog Sakett (a.k.a. Sakalou) passed away last Thursday. He had thyroid cancer, so we knew it was coming, but it was still awful. 

Cole bought Sak for me for our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. We've had him almost 12 years. I wish I could find a picture of him as a puppy, because he was the cutest puppy ever. He was also the WORST puppy ever. I think husky puppies have to be extra cute because they're extra naughty.

 He's been on road trips to Oregon and California with us, on a zillion camping trips, and the two of us have run hundreds of miles together.

We had a funeral for him and buried him in the backyard. Tukk cried and needed lots of time with Kenny (his blankie) that day. He just kept saying, "I'm so sad that Sakawou died. I wish we can keep him."

 Caulder didn't have much of a reaction during the funeral, but a few minutes later he came running up to me, threw his arms around me, and sobbed. I held him for 10 minutes while he cried. It just about killed Cole and me, because Caulder practically never cries, and he NEVER wants to be held. I'd post a picture of him being sad but it would literally break your heart.

Sakalou spent 90% of his life getting in trouble. Just like my kids. Must be why he felt like such a big part of our family. Rest in peace, you old mutt.

Tukk is 4!

My baby is 4 years old. Aaaaaahhhhhh! 

In the tradition of the Bott blog, I shall now proceed to make you all gag as I list the (extremely cheese) things we love about the birthday boy.  

 He’s one of the few people who appreciates cookies as much as I do. I have a hard time saying no to him when he asks me if I want to make cookies with him. This is great for him, seeing as how he's 4 and still weighs around 25 pounds. But this is not so good for me, seeing as how I'm - ahem - 29 and weigh - cough choke - 105 pounds. Yes, let's go with that.

Whenever he gets busted doing something naughty he says, “Is this naughty? Mom, I wub ya!” And then he's instantly out of trouble.

He thinks dandelions are the most beautiful flowers on the planet, and when he finds one he always brings it to me for a present.

He’s still snuggly. He’ll ask us all the time, “Will you please come sit by me? Will you suggle me? Mom, let’s go do suggles. Will you hold my hand?” Holy crap. I love it. I will "suggle" that boy til he's in college, if he'll let me.

He also runs up out of the blue and says, "Guess what Mom? I wub ya!" or "Dad, guess what I wub? You!" Or he'll run up, yell "Surprise!" and then give you a hug or kiss. I'm pretty sure it's the greatest thing ever.  

He thinks all he has to do is yell "Hulk Smash!" and he's literally as strong as the Hulk. Coming from such a tiny package it's completely adorable. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is scrawny. 

He's the happiest kid I've ever met. He's always smiling, and he's always SUPER excited about whatever we have going on. Going camping? Fantastic! Going to a grandma's house? Amazing! Taking the garbage can out to the road? Completely awesome! We took the boys hiking for the 4th of July, and by the end of the hike his shoes were soaked, he wasn't wearing any pants (his shorts weighed about 15 pounds because they were so wet and muddy by then), he was tired, he was hungry, but he was still doing the Tukker Shuffle (it's a sort of hop skip limp run he's perfected) and singing to himself, "I wub Yaya, I wub Gampa, I wub Cauldew, I wub hiking." 

This year I bought some edible cake stickers and let Tukk and Caulder decorate the cake themselves. Normally I plan some gigantic cake making project and spend hours on it, but this time I wanted to give them the experience of decorating a cake. This decision had nothing to do with the fact that my cakes always turn out so horribly that I wanted to be able to blame the ghastly finished product on my children. I was motivated solely by love... not shame....

Of course there was a pinata.

And he got a new "coota!" He spent 3 days saying "I'm so happy I got a new coota!"

We also took him to Chuck E. Cheese for the big day.

These two jailbirds helped him celebrate.

And we had a hard time tearing this boy away from the games.

Tukk's favorite ride was the monster truck, of course. He went on it about 5 times.

 Last year for his birthday he wanted a fishing pole and a shovel. This year he wanted a horse, a cow, a reindeer, and rubber boots. You read that right: rubber boots. There is some seriously powerful redneck blood flowing through his miniature veins. Unfortunately, we really let the birthday boy down in the farm department (reindeer are not as easy to come by as you might think), but Grandma Sarah came through on the rubber boots. He couldn’t wait to take them to her house so he could, and I quote, “go out with the cows and step in poop.” As if that weren’t enough to make a mother proud, this morning when I was loading him into the old mini van I’m borrowing from my grandma (the Subaru is starting to feel her age) he said, “Mom, this mini van is awesome. We gotta buy one of these!”

Dream big, my little redneck… dream big.

We love this birthday boy so much. It is physically impossible to be around the Tukk and not smile. He is amazing. We feel extremely lucky to be able to call him ours... he was definitely worth all the trouble. ;)

Romance in Seattle

Our 12th anniversary was last Saturday, and Cole and I have been planning a romantic getaway for months. Or at least for a couple of weeks. We're not really planners. So we came up with a few places we wanted to go (we fly standby, so we always need a backup plan or two or three in case the flights fill up) and started looking up fun things to do there. Every time we'd read about something Cole would say, "Oh man, the boys would love doing that," or "That would be so fun with the kids."

So we left on our romantic getaway with this guy:

And this guy:

And we landed in Seattle. It was balmy and beautiful, and there was no smoke in the air. It's hard to imagine now that we're back in Utah.

We took the boys to the Seattle aquarium for some starfish handling. 

 And we got to gaze in awe at one of the largest captive octopuses (octopi? octopium?) in the world.

 We visited the fish dome of doom.

 And I fell in love with these dudes. I'm was pretty sure I needed one for a pet. For my anniversary.

 I begged and pleaded, but Cole reminded me that we had this wild animal at home, so I came home otter-less. Utterly otterless. (I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. I shouldn't blog when I'm sleepy.)

We also visited Pike's Place farmer's market. It was a serious hike to get there. Tackling the stairs with Tukk on my back (he was too tired to walk, of course) was one of the few times I've been grateful my 3 year old is grossly underweight.

 We fed the pig.

 We went swimming every night, of course.

 And we took this picture, which made it possible for all of you to play a little game called "Which one of us flies in the sun and which one of us sits indoors at a desk all day?" Poor Cole. Apparently he hasn't heard that glowing, healthy, radiant skin is out. The bleary-eyed, dark-circled, pasty vampire look is totally in. Thank you, Stephanie Meyer.

 We also visited the beach at Point Defiance Park. It was a gravel beach, so we spent about 2 hours watching the boys throw rocks in the water and fill their pockets with "special" rocks like this one. Which we had to pack home. In our suitcases. From Seattle.

You can just barely see Mt. Rainier in the background. It's such a beautiful mountain.

 And we went on a hike. The trailhead was hard to find. It was marked by this giant tree.

 In one section just off the trail there was a cliff that dropped straight down to the beach about 100 yards below. Luckily Tukker was in the lead, and he informed us, "There's a cliff here!" as he marched right toward it. The kid should really be on a leash at all times. He has no fear of anything. Cole was doing some impressive sprinting to catch him and drag him away from the edge. I'm going to have to invent a BabyBjorn for 3 year olds (just humor me and pretend he couldn't fit in the infant version) so I can keep him physically attached to my body.

It was so green there. There was moss on everything, and wildflowers and giant ferns that were so pretty they looked fake. 

At one point while we were hiking the trees formed a tunnel over the top of the trail and there was so much greenery it got a little dark. Caulder said, "In all the movies I've seen this is where something jumps out and attacks you." I'm not sure what movies he's been watching, but I have to admit he was right. About 1 minute after he said that this little guy popped out:  

 Luckily Caulder and Tukker had armed themselves with sharp sticks, so even if he WAS a zombie raccoon (it's always a possibility, you know) he didn't attack us and try to eat our brains.

I may not exactly have gotten my romantic anniversary trip, but hanging out with my boys is always a bonus. Plus if that raccoon had known we were unprotected some park ranger probably would have found Cole's carcass lying under a fern somewhere with his brain missing. (Once the raccoon attacked and zombified us I would have finished off Cole's brain - not because I'm stronger, but we all know if it involves food I'm going to come out on top - and gone on a zombie rampage through the streets of Seattle.) So I'm glad these two came along. And the city of Seattle will be forever in their debt. I'm expecting the mayor to send them a key to the city any day now.