A (Surprising) Change of Plans for Ireland

Ahh, Ireland...just thinking about our vacation in a few short months is soothing enough.  But, the trip just got even better, thanks to my amazing and wonderful hubby.  First of all, to go back a little bit.  We are flying to Dublin from JFK Airport in New York, so we needed to find flights from Salt Lake City to New York.  I was looking at some that would (hopefully) give us enough time to get through customs and make our connection on Tuesday...it seemed Jeff had other plans.  He mentioned that maybe we should leave Salt Lake on Monday, spend the night in New York City, and then head to the airport on Tuesday.  That would make it a little less stressful for making connections.  I though that it was a wonderful idea and started to look into using Delta Sky Miles for our flights to and from JFK.  Luckily, we both had almost enough miles that we could both fly to JFK and back to Salt Lake on miles (and about $ 15 in taxes)!  Awesome.  I guess that alone made all those work trips I have been on in the past couple of years worth it. :-)

Because we had saved so much money by using frequent flyer miles, we decided to look into seeing a Broadway show on the night we get in (something that I have always wanted to do); however, we found something even better...the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall!  So we got (awesome) tickets...looks to be about third row from the stage, dead center.  I am so excited!  How often does one get the opportunity to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall? 

It is gonna be the best night ever...only rivaled by the fact that the next day (after touring downtown for a little bit), we leave for IRELAND! C'mmon November, hurry up and get here!

Beer Fun (for all)...at home!

Well, after what seemed like an eternity, we got our new digital camera and have finally figured out how it works...yay for being able to take pictures again!  It was torturous not having a camera with us to document all the fun stuff we do.  I guess that is why we have been laying low for a couple of weeks and not doing a whole lot (coupled with the fact that it is just too stinking hot outside)!

Anyway, Jeff has really been into making his own beer since we moved to Utah...it could stem from the fact that he really likes beer, but I think it has more to do with the fact that the state makes it so hard to get decent beer here- only in Utah.  So, in order to have a little bit of freedom to drink beer with the appropriate amount of alcohol in it (after all, we are adults) we were down in the game room on Sunday, bottling beer for the next stage of fermentation when out of the corner of my eye I see Koda go to the cabinet where Jeff keeps his plastic bottles, nudge it open with his nose and start taking bottles out and running all over the basement with them!  It was hilarious!  He was grabbing them by the neck and chewing on them and flipping them in the air...

I swear, this dog is gonna be a puppy forever.  You would think that at 4 1/2 years old, he would have moved into the adult dog world...but, not Koda.  He will forever be the quintessential puppy.  Here are some other random pictures we took of the dogs while down in the basement making beer.

Yay for beer making and being back in business with a new digital camera!

A "Dog-gone" Good Time at Tanner Park

The long holiday weekend brought about new excursions for the McNaughton clan.  We decided to venture out to Tanner Park on Friday and check out the watering hole for dogs.  It was incredible!  We never even knew it was there, all tucked back into a forested area near 1-80.  After a quick walk in the sun (which was quite hot, even at 11:00 in the morning), we finally made it to the river to swim.  Here are some pictures from our little excursion to the watering hole...

Once we found the swimming pool for dogs, Kira and Koda jumped in and had a blast (more so Kira than Koda), although I don't know how...the water was freezing!  I took off my shoes and waded in and within minutes, my legs had gone numb!  After that, I let Jeff get in and play with Kira (who had a blast just walking around and playing with the other dogs).  Meanwhile, Koda was with me and was starting to warm up to the water...until a bunch of dogs came up and tried to mess with him.  After that, he was done with playing.  True to his breed, that little Shiba Inu does not like other (and especially bigger) dogs...I guess Kira is the only exception.

                                            

                                            

                                            

Although we had a lot of fun, we also had a bit of trouble...Jeff slipped and hit his forearm on a rock, bruising it up pretty bad.  Unfortunately, he had our digital camera with him when he slipped, so now we have no working camera. :-(  At least I was able to pull off the pictures from the memory card.  And, no worries, we already have a new digital camera (a 14.2 Megapixel) on order which should arrive any day.  I can't wait.

So, I will be out of commission for a couple of days (and the rest of the July 4th weekend), but will be up and running again soon.