Lucy's Knee Surgery

Poor Lucy! We took our two year old yellow lab in for a TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) surgery yesterday on her knee. Similar to what humans do for ACL tears, Lucy had a tear in her tissue around her right knee that required her to receive a plate and six bolts. She is shaved all over in awkward places for different applications during surgery. Not to mention very loopy still from the surgery yesterday. She is sitting next to me in the office for the week until she is off the pain medications and able to hang out in our backyard alone. The worst part is the long, long, long, recovery. It can be anywhere from 1-2 weeks before she puts weight on her right knee again. She has too be on a leash for 2 months. We are building ramps around our house so she can get in and out as needed, and no swimming (AGH! her favorite) until she is completely healed. (3-6 months)

Maybe your thinking it's something we did to over work our dog or that it's genetic for labs, well guess again. It turns out the surgery is VERY common for all dogs- age, genetics, nor exercise are reasons for it happening. We found this site to help explain the injury and surgery very helpful for a dog named Kodi. The good news is the success rate is really high and she will be a fully recovered pooch in 3-6 months! Until then Zach and I will be the poor poor owners of an expensive knee replacement for our little girl. We love you Lucy!

Boise to Placerville

It was a Brassey family weekend with a wedding in Boise for Zach's cousin. We arrived just in time to make a quick trip to the mall for Zach and some much needed jeans. Then we rushed off to dinner with the extended family before attending the wedding.


Sunday we headed towards Placerville north of Idaho City, to see Jean's family ranch. Beautiful land that has been in her family for generations. Farmed by her father and grandfather it has been relatively untouched since Jean was young. Relatively, except for the many ATV and dirt bike riders that seem to insist that they know the land better then anyone else by making tracks through wetlands and untouched areas. It was very frustrating for us as we had to explain many times to different parties that this was private property and not to be used. Did I mention that we were posting signs that said "Private Property", "No Trespassing", "Keep Out", and they still continued to ravage through the area. It will definitely need some 24 hr surveillance to keep this modern activity out of a beautiful area. We revisited some of Jean's family history and enjoyed hearing stories and the legacy her family has endured over the years. We took a long beautfiul drive home around the Sawtooth Mountains back to Hailey.



As soon as we returned Zach then headed out for some backcountry skiing on Leatherman Peak (the second highest peak in Idaho) with a number of friends. Leaving at 4am from their campground they barely made it to the top before thunder and lighting forced them to turn around. Judging from the smile on his face I could tell it was still a successful mission despite not reaching the summit.

Ketchum Wide Open

The characters were in full force for this local tradition of playing mini-golf while costumed and drinking around town. Erin and I utilized my bachlorette blow-up doll (nick named "Pro-Zac") as our companion to be team "Menage a Trois". Jenna, Jen, and Sarah S. were sporty for team "Three's a Crowd". And the boyz, Willie, Matt, George, and Zach, never late to be clever were Coors cans in team "Steamin Reno" and team "Bountiful Beer" (or something like that).
It was a gorgeous day and we managed to putt around to every bar/restaurant with a mini golf hole in Ketchum. Each place has a different "course" and option for getting a Mulligan on your score card, which usually involves drinking a concoction of sorts. From a peach schnapps, sake, or shot gunning a beer, you were pretty lucky to make it through the day and remember which team you were on.

Erin's Visit

She came, she went, she conquered....we had a great time with my sister, Erin, visiting this past weekend. Bike-to-work day proved to be a success. A tradition in the Wood River Valley for residents to make the trek to work outside of the vehicle from Hailey to Ketchum or vice versa. Local sponsors set up booths along the way and hand out free goodies. Erin was thrilled to grab a new pair of shades from the SMITH optics booth. The weather was wonderful for hiking up Carbonate on Saturday with wildflowers everywhere. Then of course the Ketchum Wide Open Extravaganza seemed to swallow up the rest of the weekend!


We had a great time Erin! Come back and visit us again soon :)

Where does your garden grow?

I'm so excited that this year I will have time to grow some of our own food in our backyard! Zach and I spent a weekend building a raised garden bed to house our little veggies. 4'x8' to start until we know I can actually grow something. I have been acquiring seeds and seedlings to plant when the time is right. We have a short growing season here where you don't need frost protection so timing is everything. I need to build a dog proof surrounding so Lucy won't be tempted to taste the goodies or more probably dig for tennis balls. I'm taking any tips or advice I can get so feel free to send it my way!

I'm thinking of planting: carrots, radishes, sugar peas, lettuce, and squash in the bed. On the side of the house I will plant herbs, chives, tomatoes and potatoes. Hopefully we'll be eating fresh treats this summer and fall!

Wedding Publications

We have been very fortunate that people are interested in our wedding, our story, and mostly our photos! We have had 3 different publications post or print something on our big day.
Here's the details:
(click on the names to go to the stories)
Habitat
The Knot
Sun Valley Magazine

Thanks again to everyone that helped to make this such a wonderful event!

Mother's Day 09

What a gorgeous day in town this past Sunday! I missed spending time with my mother but had a wonderful time spending time with Zach's mom and my adopted Idaho mom! We went for a family mountain bike ride out Lamb's Gulch and then topped it off with a yummy yummy brunch at 310 Main. I have to say Jean is one tough mama! She had not been mountain biking in almost 10 years and she got out there and made it look easy. Not to mention looking cute the whole way. Way to go!



Love to all the wonderful mom's out there!

Rachel's Belated

The girls got out for a night on the town to celebrate Rachel's Belated Birthday! We had a good time catching up and making the pub crawl in honor of Rachie :)

Dad's Visit

My dad made a last minute trip up to Idaho for a friends birthday and to visit with us! We had a great time playing virtual golf, taking Lucy for a walk, eating out, and spending time together. He even did some fatherly things around our house and finished the trim around our new front door. Thanks dad! It is a rare treat that I get to hang out with my dad, mono y mono. We had a good time and I hope he comes back to visit soon!

Europe Part 3- Italy

Time flies...I've been meaning to post the final leg of our trip to Europe for awhile but all of a sudden it's May!

Soooo...after all the fun and skiing we had with Megan & Justin in Serre Chevaliere we decided to change it up a bit and head east to Italy. We were looking for somewhere to go biking and wine tasting on a budget. Piedmont was our huckleberry!

We ventured into a town called Alba and found ourselves on more cobblestone streets in between buildings and shops. It was apparent the weather had changed as we were now instantly in spring time! Blossoms, rolling green hills, and vineyards everywhere! Wisely we stepped into a tourist office and inquired about renting bikes and where to go for the next three days. Wow, we were in luck!

It was still early wine drinking season in Italy so we were luckily finding vacancies at Bed & Breakfasts along with once again no one to compete with for any activity. We stayed at a great B&B in a town called Barolo.
The owner of the B&B, Rapheala, had spent a majority of her life renovating a two story farmhouse into her dream business. A wonderful homemade breakfast awaited us every morning before we headed out on our bikes. We had one main biking day and road from village to village, winery to winery, castle to castle, enjoying the lush spring countryside while tasting our way literally around the Piedmont region. It was exactly like what I would have envisioned Italy to be. The "civilized" history trounces anything we have in the States. It felt like we had jumped into a story book.

We said farewell to Megan & Justin, then our group of four crowded into a little car and headed North to Torino for our final stop before heading back to Idaho. It was unanimous that we all liked Torino! More cobblestone streets, fun shopping, eating, and sight seeing. Zach and I managed to squeeze into their amazing Egyptian museum. Apparently before WWII the Italians did major excavation (looting) of burial grounds in Egypt so they have the best collection of artifacts next to Cairo. And of course we made sure to eat some gellatto before leaving :)

Delicious food, wine, sites, and people! We LOVED Italy and our time in Europe! We feel so lucky to have gone on this adventure! Thanks to everyone who helped in making this dream a reality!