We love holidays!

You gotta love holidays! First of all, they're usually on a weekend. Second, they usually involve a Monday. Third, YOU GET A DAY OFF WORK!!! We had a great holiday weekend! Friday night, Bob came home after spending a week in Germany on business. The new rule at our house is: NO HUSBANDS OUT OF TOWN THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!! Sam, Maddi, and I had our hands full going to school, work, keeping up with dogs' antics, fixing meals, remembering to put the garbage out and bring the milk in, etc. We were reminded how much Bob does around the house and how much we all rely on him. We're SOOOO glad he's home (so is he...he's sick of travelling!!).

Saturday, we got the usual "Saturday stuff" out of the way early so we could go to Swiss Days in Midway. It's a great little town that has amazing landscape (up in the mountains by Park City and Heber City), beautiful homes, and a great craft fair. People sign up months, maybe years, in advance and sell their wares. We'd never been before and ended up dragging Bob who I think secretly had a good time, if for no other reason than he was with his girls. We bought a few cute little things and came back home.

Sunday we went to church and then got ready for a family party in honor of my Mom's 77th birthday. It was great fun with everyone there (except Tom and Mal) including my younger sister and her two girls and my older sister and her husband. We talked, laughed, reminisced, etc. for hours. It was really fun and I think Grandma enjoyed herself.

Monday Sam, Maddi, Bob, and I went up to Soldier Hollow where they had the cross-country skiing competitions for the Olympics. They held the "Sheepdog Championship and Country Fair." We were hoping there would be Old English Sheepdogs involved but all herding was done by Border Collies and Australian Shepherds. They were AMAZING! They herded sheep and ducks, saw the Splash Dogs (dogs jumping from a deck into water to see how far they can go), agility courses, food, some booths with Australian/Native American/Celtic related stuff to sell, etc. It was a lot of fun--when it wasn't raining buckets or FREEZING COLD!! Who would have thought you'd need a winter coat on September 1??!! Fortunately, we took hoodies, rain coats, and umbrellas but we still froze!

While we were gone, Zack and Kenzi came over to get some things and found Charlie had discovered rain and what it does to the yard when it hits the dirt. They took a picture of Charlie on their camera phone and sent it to us wishing us luck when we got home...he was literally mud from head to toe, and everywhere inbetween. By the time we got home, most of it had dried and flaked off (all over the deck), but he was still a disaster and needed a bath. I got him into the tub where I spent about 10 minutes hosing him down. The picture shows how much mud was in the bottom--that is not poo! He looks so much better after the bath and is so pretty when he's dried and brushed out! He just looks so pathetic in the process and I think this face says it all!!

When's the next holiday???