Remington

 warning: crazy dog lady post.

One shot Remington aka Remi turned 1 years old on September 2, 2014. Even before Remi came around Russ quickly learned that while we don't have human children that our dogs are considered my babies. Even with that knowledge I don't think he was prepared for what I had up my sleeve for Remi's b-day....

 I researched how to make a "dog safe" birthday cake so I didn't kill my puppy on her birthday, and found a 1 shaped cake pan to bake it in. Let's be honest-I got a little carried away and the cake turned out huge! the dogs were eating cake for days! I bought her a couple new toys for some presents, and then we had a little family get together that night as we watched them eat cake, and fight over the new toys.

In my opinion it was a pretty great birthday party, and I'm pretty Russ was enjoying himself and despite his behavior prior to the event, I don't think he rolled his eyes all night :)

A year ago I fell in love with little Remi, and begged Russ to let us keep her. I had no idea what kind of rodeo we were in for when he said yes, but man am I sure glad he let me keep her! She's a cute little turd, but man she can be a turd! Here's a few facts about Remi and my dog mom version of her one year statistics:
1) She loves to be dirty and/or she's always finding the mud, water, or just plain dirt and loves making a mess of it, herself, the other dogs, and any person or thing around.

2. She's the most playful dog I've ever seen! Rem thinks everything is a game and can't just play fetch because she feels it should be a game of chase, fetch, and tug-a-war all turned into one. One of her favorite "toys" are the dogs food dishes and she would play and chase them around all day long if I'd let her.

3. She's a tease-goes along with as mentioned above. Whether a toy is involved or not she's constantly harassing the other two dogs, and even has a scarred up face to prove it!  Lady is a little more tolerant and ever since Remi was little they can be found wrestling 90% of the time.

4.She is loyal. While she may be crazy and rambunctious-she loves you and is loyal to being your best buddy. Even out in the mountains when there's so much more going on and the other 2 dogs are out and running amuk- Remi remains by your side. She also loves to be close-sometimes too close...

5. She loves to chew on things and always has to have something in her mouth-however she has never chewed on furniture or ruined any shoes, etc... When she was a pup her favorite thing to do was run in the house and go right to our closet to find my slippers. She would then proceed to run around with them in her mouth as if they were her favorite thing and she knew she wasn't supposed to have them.

6. Her ears! Strangely enough Remi's ears have always been a favorite characteristic of hers. While other lab dogs ears go back- Rem's goes forward. I was afraid she'd grow out of it but I'm so glad she still rocks her goofy look.

pardon Russ's haggard look-he had just gotten home from a rough hunt-This pic just shows a real common look of the ol' Remster with those ears going forward.

7. Remi loves kiddos and is really good with them. Much to my surprise Remi is very patient and tolerant of kids. She loves kids so much that at first we had to really teach/restrain her from plowing kids right over because she'd get so excited to see them and would want to lick their faces off. Her and Lexi had the most "problems", Lex always wanted to play and Remi wanted her and her binky.

 8. She is a tug-a-war champ. period.

Happy Birthday Remi girl, we sure love you! Thanks for bringing so much joy through so much chaos, and completing our little doggy family :)

Also have to wish our other 10 pups a Happy Birthday-while it was a wild rodeo at our house for 6+ weeks we sure fell in love with those little guys and hope that their new families are treating them well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUDSON PUPS!

Happy Anni

August 3rd marked our 1 year anniversary!  I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. I had some people tell me the first year is the hardest and I hope that's true because this first year was amazing and if that's as bad as it gets, bring it on! :)

I had to work Friday night, August 1, so as I came home and slept Russ took some of his camp up on the mountain for his upcoming deer hunt. At this point we had no set plans for our anniversary, as we had procrastinated making definite plans. Russ got a flat tire on his dirt bike and his truck which landed him at the tire store with plenty of time on his hands. He surprised me by booking us a hotel in Midway for the night, along with a reservation to swim at The Crater, also in Midway. I was so excited! The Crater has been on my summer to-do list for the last 2 years and I was finally going to see what it was all about.

We got ready, packed an overnight bag, fed the dogs and took off for an overnight getaway! 

I awoke Saturday to my anniversary gifts from Russ being wrapped up on our coffee table-I love his wrapping jobs he does so I had to take a picture :) That man cracks me up!

 First stop: Dinner in Heber. Claim Jumper steakhouse became one of our favorites years ago, (that's actually where we went to dinner the night Russ first told me he loves me) and with it being close to Midway we stopped and got some good grub before checking into our hotel. 

Our portion sizes were a little different so I took a picture to show why I felt very large the rest of the evening! The food was delicious though and we made it just in time to beat the dinner rush! After getting settled in our hotel room it was time to change into our swimming suits and head to the Crater.

This little "hot tub" area is the only place you can be in the Crater without your life jacket. Seeing as how our life jackets were driving us crazy we spent majority of the time here.

As we got back to our hotel room following our swim we realized just how tired we were but we were craving a treat-so we got comfy and ended up hitting up Wendy's drive through for a Frosty waffle cone. The rest of the night we just enjoyed being away from the stresses of home and work by relaxing in our hotel.

Our actual anniversary was Sunday the 3rd and we started the day by enjoying a breakfast at another favorite Heber restaurant, Chick's diner. Then returned home to play with the pups, relax and eat dinner at my parent's house.

I had found an interesting anniversary picture idea on good ol' Pintrest forever ago and thought it might be a fun idea. An impromptu photo shoot at my parents house that night landed us with these gems-obviously judging by our outfits we had put a lot of thought into this :) Also these are the pictures that show our relationship over the last year....

With my cooperative husband I'm surprised we even got some semi-decent pictures :) Thanks for taking the pics Ash!

This past year we've had some pretty remarkable adventures and I've learned so much about marriage, life, and being a wife. That weekend we sat down and thought about, and wrote down some of the highlights and blessings of the past year.

Cities/places we visited: Logan, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Lake Powell, Uintah's, Ferron, Midway, and Island Park.
Things we did: honeymoon, built a home, raised 11 puppies to 6 -8 weeks old (kept one), landscaped our new yard including installed sprinkler system, became landlords for the first time, and was in the Salem car show.
Favorite dinners we've made/ate: Russ's wild turkey, cowboy casserole, elk steaks, stroganoff, breakfast foods, and tried out restaurants like T-bone, and Red Lobster.
Favorite Movie's/shows we've watched: The Hunt, Duck Dynasty, Impractical Jokers, The Avengers, Finding Bigfoot, Survivor man, Grown Up's 2, and Anchorman 2.
Things we celebrated: Russ's cow elk and turkey hunts, selling 10 puppies, Christmas & all other holiday's, birthday's, Britt passing Ortho national certification test, Mark's wedding, new home, monthly anniversaries, Britt's first deer hunt, and of course 1 year anniversary.
Some unforgettable moments: our wedding and honeymoon, sending off 2 siblings on missions, making our house our home, raising Remi (&having 3 dogs altogether),  and nights at home together relaxing on the couch.
Cool stuff/awesomeness: elk antler coffee table, AR-15, 1st Jazz game along with 1st front runner experience (we're not city people), and our 3 story dog house aka the Hudson Hilton.
Ailments: Britt's 1st ER visit, Russ's finger wound, Britt's back went out, couple colds, and Remi & Lady got spayed!
It's been an pretty incredible year! I'm so grateful to have someone by my side who makes me want to be a better person, and loves me no matter what. Here's to another year & many more to come Mr. Hudson. I love you!