Home, Eh?

He's back from America's hat and better than ever! Welcome back, our royal teen highness:) We loooooove you!

All Hallow's Eve

Brandon's brother Pat had a rip roarin' Halloween party. Excellent. Brandon makes a beautiful fairy, don't you think?

Blackout Game!

Sara and I decided we needed more flair for the Utah games, so we got fairy outfits to cheer on our Utes- which is odd because if there is any group of adjectives to describe Gelwix's it would probably be quiet, demure, shy...so why we would do anything to gather more attention to ourselves is beyond me...So the outfit pieces happened to come right before Halloween and the Black Out game, so we debuted the lovely Utah fairies at the game...which I think is why we won. They needed a little bit of our magical fairy dust to pull themselves out of a funk. Go Utes!!!

Too tired!

Our sweet baby Keiko (or Baby Cakes, as I like to call her) is a whirlwind of energy and absolute pure love. I have never met a dog that craves love like this dog-not in an annoying way, but in the cutest "come pet me and play with me and I'll give you kisses all over!" kind of way. She is a rascally rascal, but also the sweetest little munchkin...and as you can see, when all that energy is spent, she just collapses in the cutest ways:)

Goodbye Chunky Monkey!

Good news! My larger than normal bootay is going to get a massive overhaul. I've been so busy and everything, that my fitness level is on the verge of extinction...But the good news has arrived! I decided that since marathons are now pretty much out of the picture because of my degenerative disc disease that I signed up for the lottery for the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. I did it 5 years ago, thanks to sweet Stacie Stevens getting me in, and had such a great time that I thought I'd give it a shot again...Well folks... I got in! Now the training begins:) And 'you're welcome' to all the folks that have had to stare at my sedentary body for this long. You're real troopers.

We Had a Baby!

Well, a baby puppy. I was having such a hard time with the void Wicky left in our little family, so Brandon got me a baby. We rescued Charly, but having just barely lost Wicky-I wanted my next dog to follow the same path with me, being a puppy. Pekingese dogs are not very common in Utah, much less finding puppies. But randomly we found this 9 week old puppy in Kaysville and the owner wasn't a breeder and didn't want a crazy amount for her. I didn't know if I was emotionally ready yet for another dog, but some strangely coincidental things happened and we decided to go meet her and we LOVED her. We decided to name her Keiko (pronounced KAY-Ko), which is a Japanese name (even though it's a Chinese dog) and Brandon has an Aunt Keiko who we love and we love the name. Keiko is a name we had picked if we ever had a girl, but when Sara suggested it, it just seemed perfect. We are having a lot of fun with her, and she acts a lot like her brother Wicky. Now I just need to get her to stop peeing all the time. We love our new rascally snuggle bum :)

Our Sweet Buddy

Last week was a hard one for us. My baby Wicket passed away. I know some may say it's just a dog, but Wicky was so much more. I don't have children, and he was the closest I think you can come to that for me. I got Wicky as a puppy when I was 16. I was still a kid and we grew up together. He was with me through High School, graduation, college, my first "real" job, meeting Brandon, and so many more experiences. We did everything together. I already miss sitting on the porch, letting him out to roam the neighborhood by himself, snuggling on the couch, prancing, getting licked from head to toe, him laying in my "teacup" between my legs at night on the bed, him watching me get ready for work while still relaxed on my bed, following me everywhere, captaining the car, his after drink cough, his only trick "sit pretty" and so many more little moments we did together. We were soul mates. He had been through a lot in the last month with his eye infection and removal, but the last week of his life was the best he'd been in a few months. We considered it a tune up! So when he suddenly got a cough one day and it worsened throughout the day, we didn't see it coming. But...I knew at some point the day would come when I would lose this best friend. I just didn't think it would be any time soon. If I had do script it, I can honestly say that it happened exactly the way I would have wished. I didn't have to put him down, I didn't have to look him in the eye and know I'd be making that decision. He let us know that evening that he was leaving, which allowed me to say goodbye. I snuggled him and rocked him in my arms until he left us. It was peaceful and in his favorite place-my bed. Our little family-Brandon, Charly, and I-were able to be with him as he left his earth. I am devastated, but am so grateful that he was mine. We miss him terribly. The tears are coming even as I write this. He may have been a dog, but he was MY dog. We miss you buddy. You left a big void in our lives. We love you.:)


The cutest brother and sister:)
Best friends!

The best smashed face ever. My sweet buddy. I can't wait to snuggle you again.

Un Baguette?

After jolly ol' England, we took a jaunt over to the city of Looooovvvveeeee. How romantic.

The Catacombes were amazing. Really haunting and creepy.



Brandon took me to Disneyland Paris and paid for the whole day-entrance, food, treats...as a special day for me for planning our trip. He is such a sweet Asian.











We got tickets to the Moulin Rouge show.

Beautiful Versailles.



The Hall of Mirrors. Gorgeous.
The cafe by our hotel. We loved the rows of tables and chairs where you could just sit and relax and watch what was going on around you.

We tried escargot. It was surprisingly good. I'm not a fan of the texture, though...
And of course the Eiffel Tower.

The view from our hotel room.Ice cream after our Eiffel Tower stairs workout.