The Dog Days of Summer

Even though my camera is still "in the shop" I managed to get some fun pictures today at at the clinic using my phone. These guys are my new buds. I still can't believe how lucky I am to have landed a job working with them! Turns out we (people) aren't the only ones who have been loving the warm weather. Enjoy!

This is my buddy Eli's close-up

Everybody loves the pool except for Cache (top right). He's more interested in hanging out with me.

Summer Is HERE!!

Well boys and girls, summer at the Gold home has finally arrived! That being said, this post is going to be just a random jumble of thoughts and events that have been happening the past little while! Now that all my energy isn't focused on school I'll hopefully be able to be a bit better with updating the blog :)

We welcomed the nice weather by enjoying a topless ride in the Jeep on Sunday! We started off the day at church, came home and packed a lunch, grabbed Benny and made our way up the firebreak road. We came to a stop just below the "V" on the mountain and hiked our way up. It was quite windy when we finally reached a stopping point but we still enjoyed our lunch nonetheless. Then we came back to my parents house for more food and then somehow convinced my dad to come on a ride with us. It was quite a squish for both me, McKenna, and J to fit in the back seat but somehow we made it work. My dad admitted that he was quite impressed with the Jeep and all the hills we managed to climb... :)

I had Monday off from work and spent most of the day doing things around the house and trying to play catch up on some last minute homework/studying I'd put off. I got a call that afternoon from the Animal Medical Clinic where I had interviewed a few weeks prior offering me a position! I'm SO excited about this new job. If anyone knows anything about me it's probably that I absolutely adore animals. Most days I'd rather spend hanging out with my dog than anyone else.

Call it pathetic but I was devastated when I found out Riley didn't exactly share my passion for dogs. Of course this information came after I had already fallen for him...so it didn't sway my opinion of him. But it was a hard thing to realize I would probably never be able to own 100 billion dogs and/or move to Kanab to work at the Best Friends Animal Santuary. For the past year and a half I've consistently bothered him about getting another pet. Dog/cat/bunny/anything furry, it didn't matter. I'd become really discouraged because all I ever got from him was a firm, "No". He can't help that he's allergic I guess...even though I'm still pretty sure he fakes it....

So this position really is a blessing in disguise for me. I pretty much get to play with dogs all day, how awesome is that?! The weather was nice enough today that we even brought out a plastic pool for all the doggies to play in. You would have thought it was just the greatest thing in the whole entire world.

Last night I took my very last final for the semester and it feels just wonderful to be done. To celebrate I went and saw "Born To Be Wild" at the IMAX with Sarah and Riley. We may or may not have ended up at In-N-Out for milkshakes and fries after as well. The movie was SO cute and I'm now trying to convince Riley into getting me a baby Orangutan. I'll letcha know how that goes...

Aannnddd that's pretty much it for now! My camera is at Best Buy getting the optical zoom fixed (AGAIN) ((well, they didn't actually "fix" it the first time, so yeah)). But hopefully I'll get it back soon and I'll take some fun pictures.

My Love Note

So I don't know if you guys knew this or not.... But I have pretty much the best husband ever. Seriously. Riley is more than I could have hoped to have as a spouse. I was sort of naughty awhile ago and snooped through either his wallet or car (I can't remember exactly where it was), and I found this note titled, "Things I love about Alyssa". I want to say that I found this either when we were engaged or first married. Needless to say it caught my attention so I read it over. It instantly made my day. I think he knows now that I have it, but I've kept it in MY wallet ever since. Whenever I have a hard day or when we get into little arguments I pull it out and look at it.

I thought since the 30th marks our 1.5 year anniversary I'd share this note with you. It's word for word, and you can totally hear Riley's personality in the verbage.

(Please feel free to be jealous :)

1-Her voice calms me down

2-Her dedication to life (school, work, me)

3-Her loyalty

4-Her desire to better herself

5-Her eyes

6-The way she drives (crazy I know)

7-The chuckle in her laugh

8-The way she screams when something happens that she didn't mean to do, like in Mario Kart

9-The feel of her skin

10-The support she gives me even when I don't deserve it

11-Her nose

12-The way she looks when she sleeps

13-She knows everything I don't

14-Her cooking

15-The patience she has for me

16-The unconditional love she has for me

17-She interacts with nieces/nephews

18-She can take a joke and send it right back

19-The respect she has for my hobbies/likes

20-The happiness she brings me

I just thought I'd take a second to write this note down, in case one day I was to lose it or something. Although Riley and I joke, banter back and forth, and aren't the best at the whole "PDA" thing, I really do love him! I'm SO lucky that I get to spend eternity with my BEST friend.

Girls Trip to St. Geezy!!

We had an absolutely marvelous time in St. George this year! Sharon, Carolyn and I drove down Friday evening to meet Jessie down at Dixie. We spent four lovely days enjoying the warm weather and eachother's company. We toured lots of church historical sites like Brigham Young's home, the Tabernacle, and made it through the Visitor's Center of the temple. We ate at the Bear Paw Cafe for breakfast, 25 on Main for dinner one night and had a picnic at the city park outside the tabernacle. I wish I took more pictures of the park, it was tons of fun! We went up to Dixie Rock and explored all the cliffs and hills we could find. Took lots of fun pictures, too! We visited Jessie's preschool and went on a nice evening walk around campus. Jessie had been sick for a few weeks prior to the trip and Sharon ended up having to take her to the Instacare one afternoon. Carolyn and I went shopping at the outlets and spent some much needed time at the pool. The only downer to the trip was that both Wes and Riley were incredibly sick the whole time we were gone. I spent a lot of time checking in on Riley and making sure he was taking care of himself. Wes had pneumonia and Riley had strep, poor guys. We came home to snow and rain but we definitely enjoyed the sunshine while we could!

Las Vegas 2011

This past weekend we went on a short trip to Las Vegas with our friends Mitch and Amanda. We left Saturday night and came home Tuesday night. It was a quick trip, but we had lots of fun.
We stayed at a super sketchy hotel called Imperial Palace. But you can't beat $25 a night on the strip so I can't complain. We went to the M&M Store, the Coke Store, rode the roller coaster at the New York, New York, went to breakfast Sunday morning with our friends Cameron and Lorna from our ward, toured almost all of the hotels (Our favorite is a brand new hotel called Cosmopolitan. Ssssoooo neat. Maybe mostly due to the fact it's only been open for about 4 months and the smell of cigarette smoke hasn't seeped into everything in it yet...), walked down Fremont Street, and even gambled a bit. Sshhh, don't tell! Haha ok so it really wasn't a big deal. Riley and I each allotted ourselves one dollar to gamble in any way we chose. We ended up winning $35 playing video blackjack! Sweet!
Things to remember for our next trip to Las Vegas:
1-Pack as much of your own food as possible. $20 a meal adds up really quick!!

2-It's ok to splurge at a buffet. We didn't get to do that this time.

3-Free parking is never actually "free". Remember a bunch of smaller bills to tip the valet.
4-VISIT THE STRATOSPHERE

5-Don't spend time in stores in Las Vegas that we have here at home. Not worth the waste of time.

6-You can't look ANYWHERE. I came close to attacking the dirty old men (and women) handing out the sick porno cards at every corner. The buildings have half naked people, the ground is litered with pornography, there are strippers pole dancing in most of the more raunchy casinos, etc, etc.

7-Remind Riley it's not ok to ask the concierge, "Is this the REAL Caesar's Palace? Did the REAL Caesar actually live here?"

We didn't take too many pictures of the trip but here are just a few! Enjoy!!

Grandpa Grose

I got a call on Saturday night from my mom while I was at dinner with my friend Sarah. She told me that my Grandpa had fallen while he was at a funeral and broke his neck, and my dad was on his way up to the hospital. Those were all the details she had at the time but told me she'd call me if she heard anything new. I remember my heart just sinking.

A few hours later my mom called me with an update. She said that my dad had returned from the hospital and told her my Grandpa was in really good spirits and shape, considering the fall. I guess he was at a funeral earlier that day and had leaned up against a wall to support himself. Turns out the "wall" really wasn't that at all, but rather a door that wasn't latched. He ended up falling head over heals down 8 or 10 stairs. Initially he went home really sore but that was that. One of my uncles ended up deciding he needed to go to the hospital and a few x-rays later they discovered he had clearly broken his neck.

A surgery and a few pain pills later, here's my sweet Grandpa. Happy as ever! He was in great spirits through the whole thing and has made an INCREDIBLE recovery. You can definitely tell that my Grandpa is a very loved man. When I went and visited him on Sunday I counted 16 family members in his little room. Every time the nurses came by they'd be a little surprised at the party going on in room 2202!

He's such a funny guy. He kept telling the nurses they should've just installed a "zipper" on him so he wouldn't have to go through all the surgeries anymore. He also said when he left the hospital he was going to go right back to "riding my fourwheeler", meaning his walker, of course ;)

He was incredibly excited on Thursday about his balloon horse we picked him out at the gift shop. He said it could be his ride home. Doesn't look too weight-bearing to me...He also had a huge grin on his face when the nurse came and brought him his lunch that day. Apparently he'd been ordering a cinnamon roll the last couple meals but they were all out. But they'd managed to snag him one for his last day and he was so happy he could hardly stand it.

My Grandpa Grose is an amazing man and such a wonderful example to his family. I've never heard him say a single negative thing about another person in my ENTIRE life. He is so dedicated to his family. I can't remember a single piano recital or choir concert of mine he didn't attend. I've lost count at how many first cousins I have, so to have him there to support me always meant a lot. He is the perfect example of living a Christ-like life. He served multiple missions with my Grandma before she died and he is always either at the temple or doing family history work online in his spare time. I watched him bow his head and say a silent prayer before he ate his lunch, even though I heard him say just a minute before how hungry he was.

If I'm half the person he is when my life is over I'll be happy. I'm so grateful it wasn't his time to go, yet. The world isn't quite ready to let him leave and neither am I!

Valentine's 2011

Riley had to work all day so what did I do to pass the time? Procrastinate! I had bought him a nice button up shirt a week or so ago but that was the extent of my Valentine's Day planning. So..pretty last minute I decided to buy some cupcakes and pick up takeout from Riley's favorite restaurant, El Matador.

It was quite the adventure keeping Benny out of the cupcakes and food for the ride back but we somehow made it back safe. Riley beat me home and I was greeted by flowers, a card, and a movie from Redbox. Aww... ;) So we spent the night together enjoying the food, the sugar, the movie, and eachother's company. Hope everyone had as fun of a day as we did!!


These are the pretty flowers Riley bought me
The yummy cupcakes! Red Velvet Cake, Raspberries and Creme, and Chocolatey Caramel....

Funny story behind the card. Riley handed it to me and prefaced it with, "I didn't even read what the card said, I just saw the picture of their feet touching and decided it was perfect."
I've told people before, but Riley can't sleep unless his feet are somehow contorted to be touching mine. Cute.