Desert Winter Wonderland

What the heck!!!! Yeah that's right snow in the desert. No it's not the 2 1/2 feet that Tina and New Jersey received but 4 inches in the desert is HUGE!!!!!!! They don't clear roads and nobody knows how to drive in the stuff.

The snow was halfway up Minnie's legs and she didn't know what to do. Sue and I took these pictures in our back yard this morning around 7am. The palm trees were covered and so was the hot tub....too funny!

We'll enjoy it while it lasts...it will probably be gone later today or tomorrow.

Introducing Minnie

Before I get into the formal introduction, I want everyone to understand that Sue is just fine, and that she has not lost her mind. Sue came to me a couple of weeks ago after we had been casually discussing getting a dog a few months ago. Needless to say that after I got up off the floor and recovered from a mild case of shock, she told me about a lady who was giving away mixed breed puppies and wanted to know if I wanted to have one. We discussed this in great detail before we mutually agreed that we were ready for the new addition and the challenge of raising and training a little puppy.

After we decided in principal that this is what we both wanted to do and were both committed to doing, she took me out to the people's home who had the puppies. Sue had already seen them, but we both fell in love with them. We initially decided to take the runt of the litter but when we got there this other little puppy won our hearts over. They had named her "Minnie" because she has a Mickey Mouse ear pattern on her back that is very prominent.

This little girl just turned 6 weeks old today and is adorable and very smart. She has not pooped in the house one time in the almost week we've had her. She's only had a few peeing accidents and almost always goes outside. Now, that;s not to say that she runs to the door to go out. At barely 6 weeks old we watch her carefully and take her out but that's ok.

She really is a beautiful little dog with a sweet disposition, and a ton of energy...although she does sleep a lot too.

We made sure that she was a surprise to all of our local kids and grandkids on Christmas day. Needless to say she was the hit of the day.

Here's some picture to enjoy of her...and yes...she is that cute!

Miss Minnie

How does she sleep like that?

Sound Asleep

Elonna and Minnie

Eli and Minnie

Merry Christmas Family Thoughts

Christmas has once again come and gone but the memories will linger forever. It was another fun-filled day and week leading up to it. We were able to celebrate this great day with Chris, Champ, Elonna; Jimmy, Hollie, Gracie, and Preston; and Kari, Will, Payton, Brinly, Bronson, and Eli. It was so good to have everyone together. It was the first Christmas day that Jimmy and Hollie were able to come over for some time now as Jimmy usually has to work on Christmas day.

As is the custom at the Salley house, we had prime rib that was delicious. We had fun watching the kids and grand kids open their gifts.It was really great seeing the grand kids play with our new little addition...Minnie, a 1/2 pure bred Springer Spaniel and 1/2 Australian Cattle Dog mix...(aka Australian Springer Cattle Spaniel)....more on Minnie in our next post.

As always we missed Annie and Brett, Sherri and Talon, Tina and Felipe, and Amber and Lucas. Even though they weren't with us we know they had a great Christmas too. It's been great that we were able to see them all this year and spend some quality time with them .

Please enjoy a few of the photos we took.

Oregon Coast Getaway

I had another great day in Oregon last Sunday afternoon. I headed to the Oregon coast after church on Sunday and had a fun time.

Newport is the closest coast town to Albany, which is where I've been staying. Newport is about an hour and a half away, but the ride is really beautiful. We visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, had some great "off the boat fresh" seafood, scoped out some lighthouses, a tidal pool/basin, and the coast in general. It was a great day. Enjoy the photos

Some Aquarium art at the entrance

Is this cool or what! I invaded their privacy..this was almost R rated. I wonder if I can win a photo prize with his one?

Extremely rare!...the sunshine silly...not the plant

Needless to say we didn't want to rile the little buggers up too much :) There's nothing worse than an upset, horny, little furry Otter...not a pretty site! lol

Sea Otter feeding

Gateway to the tourist district....really cool town

My view from the restaurant

This place had some great caramel corn

Newport is a major fishing port

Right up Annie's Alley

 

Lone Starfish in the tidal basin

Tidal pool area

Portland Travels...or...an ode to Annie and Brett

I've been up here Oregon for another week and will be here through Dec 10th. It finally stopped raining on Friday...I think its been raining since November 1st when I first arrived here. Yuck.

We were snowed in in Salt Lake City on our first night and didn't get to Oregon until Monday afternoon instead of Sunday night as planned. Oh well, no worries. West Valley City which is about 10-15 miles South of the airport had 24 inches of snow on the ground when we landed. This night was something out of planes, trains, and automobiles...except without the special '"pillows" :)

At least this time I was able to get out and enjoy some of sites. My business associate, Johnny, is traveling with me this time so that makes the time away from my family a little more pallatable.

We took off early on Saturday morning to go see Multnomah Falls which is about 30 miles East of Portland. The falls are the second highest year round falls in the U.S. It really was pretty spectacular. Check out he photos.

After we got our fill of the falls we traveled down the Columbia River Gorge to a fish hatchery and a lock. Pretty cool stuff. Security was very tight so I didn't take any photos. It actually had and underwater viewing area that you could see into the fish ladder...pretty cool

The Portland Saturday Market was next on our list. It was highly recommended by most Portland attractions sights. It is held every Saturday in the Old Town area. This area is pretty sketchy and is surrounded  by homeless shelters and soup kitchens. With that said the experience was pretty cool. Lots of artisans selling their wares. Some of the people were sketchy themselves, but most were pretty normal (by Portland standards). They had food, jewelry, crafts, street preachers, and of course people trying to get money form you for one cause or the other.

We had lunch in China Town. Really pretty good stuff in a typically klitschy neighborhood. After lunch we basically went a couple blocks to visit the Voodoo donut shop. If you haven't heard of it, check it out online. Hippie chic for sure and dang good donuts.

On our way back tot he hotel we stopped in Woodburn and visited this gynormous factory outlet mall. When all is said and done, which one is weirder? The question needs to answered. 

One word on Portland....WEIRD....but....FUN! We enjoyed ourselves and the opportunity to get out of the hotel and abandon our "cabin fever".  On Sunday we're off to the coast after we go to church. Look for the next post.

SLC Airport on Monday morning.

I was on this bridge when I took the next photo

Lower section of the falls

We were on this bridge for the next photo

View back down towards Washington from mid falls

Can't you just see Annie and Brett here?

Need I say more!!!! :)

Voodoo Donut Shop..How do you say Maple Bacon Donut...Yumbo!