Dash the Dachshund

A few months back, Ryan had FINALLY agreed that the timing was right to get a dog! I did tons of searching, we checked out a few short-haired dachshund litters, and were even close to buying one. But when the deal fell through, I went back to looking. I contacted an aquaintance that I know through mutual friends because I had seen Facebook pictures of her dog. It was a long-haired English Cream dachshund and it was the cutest dog I had ever seen. They are a really rare breed though, and apparently there are no breeders in OK or surrounding states. Finally I found a breeder in NC who had a puppy almost available. He was adorable!!!!

So after the Vegas trip, on May 5, I picked up our first family puppy from the airport. He flew all the way from North Carolina to be with us! We had so many fights about naming him, and actually decided on Fendi the night before I picked him up. Then, when I picked him up, the airport tag on his kennel said DASH. Ryan saw it, and said, "Hey....how about Dash?" Perfect.

Here are a few pictures of his first day home. He was three months old:

Dash and his squirrel











He has grown a ton over the past three months. He recently has become a TON better about not having accidents in the house. The first 2.5 months were hell, and I cleaned up 4-8 messes every day. Luckily, working from home, he has never been crated for very long by himself. He's so spoiled! He sleeps in his crate at night, and loves to cuddle in the morning. Having a puppy has been the best thing ever, I feel like a hole has finally been filled. Having a cat and a dog keeps me so busy, I don't know how people find time for their kids! Ha.

Some growing up pics:

Dash his first time at the vet. He weighed 4.5 lbs!!



His sad face in his crate while I'm across the room trying to get some work done.





One of my favorites!



Ash and the fur kids.





Graduating from Petsmart puppy class!



Dash today (almost six months old):

Girls Weekend in Vegas

Shortly after BC, I had another mini-vacation planned. This trip was to Vegas, to celebrate Nola's sister Nicole turning 30. I was really excited to see Nola, since it had almost been a year since my wedding! Nicole brought two friends with her, Mandy and Terri-Anne.

I have never partied so hard. Well, maybe in college. But nobody would believe how much we drank, danced and acted like fools.

Starting on the first night, we checked into the MGM Signature Suites and then got ready for dinner. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe downstairs and then went to Bellagio to see Circque de Soleil's "O." It was amazing!!!





It was pretty late after the show, and Nicole's friends wanted to go to bed. Lame! Nola, Nicole and I headed to "The Bank," which is Bellagio's nightclub. After waiting in line for awhile, it was clear we were not getting in. So we wandered back towards our hotel, taking a few shots along the way.



We went back to our room and Nola changed out of her clothes into something more comfortable. We went back out to see what we could find to do....and ended up gambling for awhile. Nola played a few bucks on the slots and I quickly lost $100 playing blackjack. Not hard to do when the table minimum is $15 a hand. Geez! Nicole met some guy who wanted to go to a club called Tabu at the casino, and Nola kept saying that there was no way she could get in because of what she was wearing. We ended up getting in, no cover, and danced until 4am.



After that, we needed some food! We hit the foodcourt and met some funny guys that we hung out with for awhile before we went to bed. I don't even know what time it was, I just know the sun was up.








I slept in (hard) that day, while the girls went to the outlet malls to shop. Then it was time to do it all over again. We had dinner at a really nice Mexican place. We had pitchers of sangria and margaritas, and tableside guacamole. Yum!



Then we headed back down the strip, towards the Bellagio, where we met a guy who said he could get us in to The Bank (the one that wouldn't let us in the night before). And he did!



The club ended up sucking...it played all techno and weird music, and the drinks were sky high. So we left. We went back to the MGM to Studio 54and waited in line. Nicole and her friends decided they didn't want to pay a $20 cover so they left, but Nola and I were sick of walking around. We wanted to dance! And oh, did we dance. We saw the same guys that we had met the night before, and they stayed and danced too. We hit the foodcourt when the club closed (sensing a trend here?) We got home again around 5am.



The last day was a bit of a recovery day. Nola and I had a nice lunch at the Paris restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower.



We checked out the new Cosmopolitan casino, and then took the monorail to the Sahara to play $1 blackjack. We stayed there a long time- it was sad to leave, knowing that it was going to close forever a few weeks later. We caught a limo back to Caesar's with some random guys who were attending a convention.





We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and then Nola and I called it a night. Our flights left super early the next morning. What a crazy trip.

BC Vacation

Back in April, I finally made the trip to Kelowna, BC to visit my aunt and uncle. I can't believe I had never gone before! The whole area is breath-taking. The town is set in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, with crystal clear lakes everywhere. The roads zigzag along the hilly route from the airport in a town called Vernon to Kelowna. The first day I was there, they took me to the lake where the Ogopogo lives.

Their house is gorgeous. It has the most incredible view of the mountains and a lake below. I kept telling them it looked like a postcard.




We toured the Mission Hill winery where the Bachelorette, Jillian Harris took the guys on a group date. We got our own private guide, and we did wine pairings with food and explored the entire winery. It was like an old mission, with cool buildings and dark caverns.







We spent the next few days exploring, drinking, eating and shopping before the rest of my family got there. My mom's birthday was that week, and she didn't know I was at my aunt's. When we went to pick everyone up at the airport (Mom, Granny, Parker, Devin and Jen), Susie put a giant gift bag on my head right outside the gate. My mom walked out and lifted it off my head and started crying. It was awesome!

The rest of the week was fun....we took a trip to the Hot Springs, hiked around the park where Susie takes the dog every morning, had a birthday party cookout and just a good time in general. I was bummed because Ryan couldn't come (work), but promised that we would come back together soon so he could experience everything.













Oh, and while I was there, apparently iPhones roam if you don't turn off a feature within your settings. So even though I had made it a point not to use my phone all week, near the end of my trip I got a text that my data service had been suspended because of excessive usage. I called AT&T and flipped out because I had a $700 bill! To fix it, I had to buy an international data plan and then they backdated it, so I ended up paying about $60. Better than $700 I guess!

The trip home was a long story....basically I got held up in customs in Seattle because I had a passport but didn't bring my alien card. While I was detained, I missed my connection. That led to missing another connection and delayed flights in LAX. I didn't get to Dallas (where I had been staying with Jenny) until like 2am! Miserable.