Alphablog - K

K is for Kitten.

A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine found a kitten under her hood at work one day and she couldn't keep it. Even though I'm allergic, I really couldn't stand to have it just be abandoned in a parking lot, so I took it home until I could find a better home for it. Emmy was not impressed.

 
I held onto her for a couple of days, posted photos on Facebook, and exhausted all of my friends and family but unfortunately nobody wanted her. She was really small and super pretty after I cleaned her up a bit.

I had her for two days and she was affectionate, friendly, and playful. The kitten and Emmy weren't best friends or anything, but they got along fine with each other, so I thought kitty would be fine in a home with a dog.

She didn't have any accidents in the house but I don't have a litterbox to know if she is trained - I had just been taking her into the rocks outside and waiting until she went to the bathroom. I don't have any cat stuff at all as I never intended to have one - I just bought a couple cans of food to get by for a few days. As sweet as she was, I really couldn't keep her any longer - she was getting too comfortable with us and I was very uncomfortable with my allergies, but I really didn't want to drop her off at a shelter if I could avoid it!

On the third day, I had an idea - I remembered that one of the local radio DJs here sometimes talks about how he and his wife rescue animals, so I decided to ask him on Twitter if he had any ideas for me - he asked to see a photo and when he saw how cute she was, he said he wanted her! He asked if I could meet him at his gym with the kitten so I did, and he said even if he couldn't end up keeping her, he would be happy to find her a home. So cool! We even took a photo and he out it on his Twitter.

The next day, he told the whole story on the radio and said he was going to name the kitten after me, so he kept saying things like, "Whitney is the prettiest thing I've ever seen", and my friends were messaging me saying how weird/funny it was! It was a pretty cool experience and just goes to show you than no harm can come from asking, even if you think it's farfetched!

The best part of this whole thing, though, had to be when we came home sans kitten. Emmy had been on high alert for 3 days and once she realized the kitten was gone, she finally allowed herself to really sleep, and she was paaaaassed out.

Can't beat that cuteness! The kitten was pretty cute, but she's no Emmy.

Alphablog - E

E is for Emmy.

Aka: Em, Emmster, puppy, little tiny stinky, etc. (And yes, she answers to all of those.)

Emmy is our puppy who is a dog and not a puppy, but who I will call puppy for the rest of her life. She has a total puppy face and I don't see it changing anytime soon!

Clinton and I adopted her 3 years ago, in October 2010 from MCACC. It's true when they say that you don't choose the dog, the dog chooses you. I wanted a medium-sized dog, and I have never ever liked itty bitty dogs, but Emmy is 10 lbs soaking wet. We went and looked around and thought she was super cute, and we played with her a little bit in the bonding room. Clinton was in love, but I wasn't actually totally sold because I wanted something bigger, so we decided to sleep on it. When we went back the next day, there was another family at her kennel trying to get her attention, but she was hiding at the back and wouldn't acknowledge them. As soon as they left and we walked up, she came up to the front and stood up and whined, licking our hands through the gate - and that was it for us. She picked us!

Our vet thinks she is a Chiweenie, which is a chihuahua dachshund mix. She has skinny, long legs and big eyes like a chihuahua, but she definitely has the doxie coloring floppy ears, and we love her endlessly. She was guessed to be 1 when we got her, and we just celebrated her 4th "birthday".

Emmy is a complete and total lovebug. All she ever wants to do is cuddle, seriously. When she's not cuddling, she plays with toys (plushies only, she'll refuse anything else), likes going for walks or to the dog park, finding a sliver of sun to lay in, or trying to sneak into the kitchen or our bed even though she's not allowed either of those places. We love to hike and despite her tiny stature, she rocks it out with us no matter how far we go - and then spends the entirety of the next day sleeping. We don't have kids, so she's pretty spoiled, but she's a good dog.

We love her. <3

Lookout Mountain Hike

On Tuesday this week, it was a rare overcast day in the city, so Clinton and I decided that we would go for a quick little hike after work. We stopped at home to change and pick up Emmy, and went to Lookout Mountain Preserve to get in some quality time with our teeny family unit.

Looking North from the base of the mountain.

Turned around, looking at part of the mountain. There's more to the left, and it's higher.

The above picture only shows part of the mountain. There's the smallest peak to the right, then to the left is the middle peak, and to the left of that (not pictured) is the highest peak. We took a circumference trail that went around the whole thing, instead of up. About 3/4 of the way through, we went up to the top of the middle peak before heading back down.

pre-hike selfies ftw.

We hiked around about a quarter of the trail before we had to stop for puppy's first water break. Seriously, our pup is a champ. She is so teeny and takes like 20 steps to our one, but she makes it through every hike we do - even the long ones!

Puppy!



About 1/4 of the way around the mountain. We are now looking Southeast.

After a quick break, we were on our way again. Clinton and I spent this leg of the hike talking about how stupid and unfair cancer is. Someone we work with was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and it's just so frustrating because she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet - not to mention the healthiest! It just feels frustrating and unfair that someone like that (or someone like my sister) has to deal with this crap. It makes you feel helpless. It was therapeutic though - there was nobody else out on the trails but us, so it helped being able to vent and work out some frustrations by sweating a little bit.

I just thought this rocky area was cool-looking.

 



 View to the South.

 

About 3/4 of the way around the circumference of the mountain preserve we slowed the pace because we were looking at all the huuuuuge houses on the west side of the mountain. Seriously, they are enormous! In the one pictured above, there was a wraparound raised patio with arches around the entire house. There was another house (pictured below) that looked like a tropical resort or something with all of the trees surrounding it and the pool. I wondered aloud if the people who live in these houses get irritated when people on the mountain are totally creeping on where they live, because I'm sure everyone who hikes there does it.

 

Also - the clouds were awesome, so you know I had to snap some photos of those too. I just love grey days!

Thanks, clouds, for allowing us to hike in Phoenix in the middle of summer!

 



 

We also took some photos on the peak (this time the photos are facing north again, except from the top now instead of the base). I captured Clinton trying to take a photo of Emmy - poor guy, he can hardly ever get a good one! I tried to get Emmy to come stand next to me to take a photo w/ the city behind us, but she was toooooo scared because about 3 feet back you could see over the edge and she thought she was going to go over it or something. Poor thing... I was trying not to laugh at her, but it was pretty funny.

 

 

She refused to back up at all and laid flat on her belly. As soon as I told her she could move she bolted right back over to Clinton for comfort. Our dog thinks she is a human...

Wimp.

 

After taking in the views at the top for awhile we decided to head back down so we could get home and make supper.

 



The infographic and map at the base of the preserve.

 



Post-Hike. It wasn't difficult, but it was hot even though it was cloudy!

 

All in all, I'd call it a success. It was nice to get outside for awhile on a weekday. We can't wait until the weather starts turning so that we can do these quick little weeknight hikes more often, instead of being forced to go out of town on the weekend if we want to hike!

Weekend Getaway.

A few weeks ago Clinton and I had a couple of days off of work so we decided to get out of town for a day. Even though it's only a couple of hours away, neither one of us had been to Sedona for something like 10 years, and we had both been wanting to get back. I planned out a day of activities, packed a picnic, and off we went!

After rounding a corner, our first real view of the red rocks.

A little ways up the road on the right there was an information center that we decided to pull over at so that we could stretch our legs and give Emmy some time to run around and take in the new smells before we started our day.

Tiny pups gotta get tall to see their new surroundings!

Gorgeous.

 Next up, we headed to Sedona Community Cemetery to pay a visit to Clinton's maternal grandparents. I never met either of them, but we brought a photo of us and his parents from the wedding. There was a little cherub there, but it was stuck in the ground and broken into a bunch of pieces, so Clinton tried to put it back together... I mean, it didn't work that well, ha, but it was cute that he tried.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual cemetery because I thought it would be kinda weird and disrespectful but man, if I wanted to be buried (I don't) it'd be nice for it to be done somewhere like that. There were some incredible views in there, and the grounds felt a lot more organic and in tune with nature than a lot of cemeteries do.

Next up, a kind of odd detour - a fast food joint that we don't even eat at. I had read online that Sedona has the only McDonald's in the WORLD that doesn't have the golden arches. Apparently when McD's wanted to build there the town had to vote on it and they said they could only do it if they made the building flow with everything else - for those who don't know, Sedona is a VERY nature/Mother Earth-centric/New Age place with a lot of spirituality linked to it, and everything there is just kind of made to blend in so that it doesn't take too much away from the natural beauty. I just found it shocking that of all the McD's in the whole world, this is the ONLY one that has different arches, and they are one of my favorite colors, turquoise.

We didn't even go inside, so I'm not sure if the inside looked different or not, but I just thought it was really interesting and wanted to take a picture of it.

After that quick stop, we backtracked a little ways to go visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross. This is a very famous place and I knew that I wanted to visit - I had been reading a lot of travel blogs that mentioned it and every one of them mentioned that it was an incredibly spiritual place (it's placed in a Sedona Vortex). I won't lie - I was a little bit let down. I really didn't feel any kind of intense spiritual experience here - I think because it's very touristy? I mean, they even have a gift shop. I wouldn't call myself religious, but I do believe in God and I have a spiritual connection outside of strict organized religion, so I did go inside and pray for a bit, but I just didn't really feel anything - so I was a little bit bummed about that. However, that doesn't take away from the marvel of the history and the architecture of the place, which I did still enjoy immensely.

I wonder how much mail this place gets? Probably way too much for the postman to ever actually put it in this box.

Inside the chapel.

Truly fascinating info about the architect and building of the chapel, Part 1.

And Part 2.

Guestbook.

On our drive to the chapel we drove past this CRAZY, INSANE, ABSOLUTELY BONKERS house mansion. It was the most elaborate house I have ever seen! I took a picture of it looking down from outside the chapel.

Just look at this place! And look at the view!

When we got home, Clinton looked it up and found out that this place belongs to the guy who created the machine for Lasik surgery! He also found out that the people who live in the other houses around there actually hate it! It's really an eyesore - as beautiful as it is, it's a huge distraction to anyone who drives by. Plus, it apparently screws up water pressure for everyone else in the general area. I mean... it's still a cool house, though, ha!





After our trip to the chapel, we did what I was most looking forward to - some hiking! We went to Oak Creek to do the Red Rock Crossing and go to Cathedral Rock.

First, we walked around at Buddha Beach - this is another vortex area.


The shallow stream meanders past the base of Cathedral Rock and through forested groves. On the bank opposite Cathedral you’ll notice dozens of stacked rock totems, looking like a miniature Stonehenge. This is Buddha Beach, considered to be the site of a powerful vortex. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states/arizona/sedona/red-rock-crossing-crescent-moon-ranch-picnic-area-thingstodo-detail-301351/)

This picture was an accident, but I love it! You can even see Cathedral Rock in the background.

We stopped creekside for a family photo op.

And I built a little totem to connect with nature.

After we had had our fill of totem viewing and making, we went back to the other side of the park to Red Rock Crossing - I forgot to take a photo, but it's basically just some flat rocks in the creek that let you get to the other side - and then we took Templeton Trail to Cathedral Rock.

Seriously, this is something that most people have only seen in movies.

It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Giving Emmy's tiny legs a much needed rest.

We hiked a good 2ish miles up Cathedral Rock to the part where it flattens out - there's a peak/needle that you can go up further for even more fantastic views, but we couldn't make the trek with Emmy, so we headed back down. We stopped for a quick rest back at the creek, and then went back down to the bottom to look back at the big ol' rock we had just trekked.

teehee

And then made our way back over to Crescent Moon Picnic Area to have a late picnic lunch, because the occasional piece of jerky on the trail just wasn't gonna cut it!

Emmy was so tired that she didn't even want to eat her favorite salmon jerky treat, and she almost fell asleep right on the table!

So with that, we decided to head home with dirty shoes, empty camelbacks, a sleepy puppy, and a full day of memories in tow.

Pooped.