Maggie

I saw this dog on Oprah yesterday. Unbelievable! She is adorable. I love the way the owner speaks to her and she listens like she really understands. People on YouTube were speculating that the owner was doing something with her hands or face because the dog always looks to her hand when she is done. After watching another video of it I realized Maggie is just looking for a treat in her hands not a signal. Also, she couldn't be doing something with her face or else the dog would only be able to count for her not other people too. Really cool. I suppose there is some explanation but I would prefer to think God made Maggie that way. He can do that if He wants to. Maybe He was just having a little fun!

Carrot juice and Core Secrets

So I'm sitting here in my workout clothes drinking carrot/apple juice and feeling really positive about my fitness future. I have worked out three times in the last week which is pretty much a lifetime record for me. Over the years I have bought ten zillion workout videos. We're talking all of them: TaeBo, two different Pilates series, New York City Ballet workout, Core Secrets and the Firm. And still I am possibly the least physically active person you've ever met. I considered putting on my bathing suit, slouching my shoulders, pooching out my tummy with no hairdo or makeup and taking one of those infamous "before" pictures to post. But since I've already worked out three whole times and look completely transformed already ; ) there just isn't much point. Or maybe I'm just too chicken to let you all see me in a swimsuit... Anyway, my thighs are screaming every time I move and it feels great! Part of my motivation came from watching Biggest Loser. In the first week they each lost the amount of weight I wanted to lose total! So I kinda staged my own intervention last night with The Davis. It was time, something had to be done! My name is Sarah Davis and I am a food addict. I love food. And why not? It tastes great. That's the trouble though is for the last week or so I have let it get out of control! (We're talking in addition to the 15-20 lbs I put on after getting married of course.) I was eating nonstop. Which equals even more extra pounds. So I confessed my trouble to Christopher and laid out the plan. Basically, I told him how much I actually need to be ingesting at each meal in the hopes that just knowing that he knows and is watching will keep me from doing it. Other than that I'm going to work out and keep juicing. (Yes, I juice. Only for a few months now but I really love it. Mostly just carrots and apples together is my favorite but I've tried other things too.) Keeps Stogie healthy also because he gets to eat the pulp. It's his favorite. If I am successful at my fitness endeavor I might be brave enough to post an "after" pic. ( With full hair and makeup and all my muscles flexed of course!) Time to go shower now. I smell gross. Or perhaps I should say I smell like the sweet smell of a person who is one step closer to fitness glory! 

Totally boring filler blog post

Another new haircut. Every time I have gone for the last six months I've had it cut shorter and shorter. Funny thing is the shorter it gets the more people seem to like it. This is my favorite cut so far. The trouble is I don't have much hair left in the back so I think my cutting spree is coming to an end! That will probably make my hair dresser happy. She told me last time that my long hair was so easy to cut but now she has to be on her A game because I keep making it more difficult. 

Looks pretty much the same from the front.

The back is way shorter though and I love it!

Montana

Christopher and I just got back from a spur of the moment trip to Montana. His sister Brittany and her husband Korry and two kids live in Great Falls. We had a great time and it was just the R&R Christopher needed! We just hung out mostly played a lot of Wii, Xbox, Brittany and I kicked the guys butts at Pictionary three times, went bowling for my first time ever, went to the Buffalo Jump, saw a movie and played with the kids. It was a really great vacation. I really enjoyed getting to hangout with Christopher's family. Brittany is the only one that lives anywhere near us so it was fun to just hop in the car and drive over. Hopefully it won't be the only time we make it over before the Air Force takes them away! (Note: sadly I didn't get a single picture of our totally awesome brother in law Korry :( He had to work while we went on our outings so I somehow managed to not get a single pic of him.) Anyway, thanks for hosting us guys we had a lot of fun! On the way home we stopped at a ghost town and ate at the Cracker Barrel. I had heard a lot about the Cracker Barrel from friends from the south but had never been because we don't have them up here. I was really excited and we went all out so I could have the full experience. 

We had so much fun just driving, being silly together and laughing. Thanks to Christopher's job schedule we don't see much of each other and are very stressed most of the time so it was awesome to just hang out be relaxed and have fun. 

Here are some pics from our trip.

Brittany and Kiley (4)  having pizza at the "bowling allen" as Brendan (2) called it.

Brendan and Kiley both beat me at bowling. Though I think the bumpers may have had something to do with it! I wanted bumpers but I guess they're only for little kids :) I bowled a 44 which basically means I had consistent gutter balls and occasionally hit some pins :) It was really fun even though I was terrible!

Christopher giving me bowling 101. 

(Note the red bowling ball. I'm pretty sure this ball was way too heavy but red is my signature color so I had to have it.)

My first pair of bowling shoes. Beautiful aren't they?

Oops. Oh well, I'm not fixing it now.

At the Buffalo jump.  This jump was used between 900 BC and 500 BC! Long before there were horses for the "First People" to ride this was the method of killing buffalo that was used. It's hard to see but the edge of the cliff where the buffalo herd would fall off is just behind those grassy bits where the photo gets blurry. The jump ranged from 25 to 75 feet down. Once the buffalo were dead at the bottom they would be butchered and every bit would be used except most of the bones. It's an interesting story how they lured the buffalo toward the jump and then got them to stampede off the cliff but it's too long to explain here. I was hoping there would be blood stains and bones still there but no such luck. Probably all for the best I guess that would have been a bit graphic for two little kids anyway.

A taxidermied buffalo. He was huge and the guide said he was actually a small one.

Inside a teepee at the interpretive center. Christopher looks right at home eh?

That hill is the Buffalo Jump. This is the best picture I got but if you look closely you can see a faint dark line along the tope edge of the hill. That is the rocky cliff (about a mile long and 25 to 75 ft high) that makes up the buffalo jump. 

Brittany and Christopher boxing on the Wii. This is a hilarious sight to watch in person.

Holly their sweet and adorable Sheltie. I fell completely in love with her. 

Brendan wearing Korry's Air Force blues uniform hat. What a cutie!

Enjoying some golden evening sun in a rocker at the Cracker Barrel.

I wanted to have the full Cracker Barrel experience so we played some checkers even though we were starving and couldn't wait to eat something.

Garnet Ghost Town

We took a very long detour to see Garnet my first ever ghost town. Garnet was a mining town of about 1000 people founded in 1895. By 1917 it was completely abandoned. It saw a brief revival from 1932 to about the mid 1940's when it was abandoned again and remained that way to this day.  

This bellows was left in the abandoned blacksmith's shop. It was huge! Taller than me and wider than my arms can reach. Can you imagine how hot that fire would've been?! The entire ceiling in the shop was blackened from the smoke and heat. 

Can you guess what this is? It was all that you had to go in if you were waiting up the road for the stage coach to pick you up at the station. (The station being a tiny log cabin.) Nice huh? I think I would've just as soon held it...

Christopher prospecting for gold. 

The Davis pretending to be the "Gray ghost of Garnet". This is the third floor of the hotel in town. By far the fanciest building it had fancy upholstered furniture, stained glass windows, wallpaper and ornate wood carved railings. The third floor was very plain and all the walls had been torn down but that was where the poor minors got to stay until they had built their houses. Well that's about it. We stayed so long in Garnet that by the time we finally got home to Portland it was 3 AM!