Salt Lake City

Addy had her first airplane trip this last week. We took a 1 hour flight to Salt Lake City and Addy did great! It was interesting to stay in a hotel for the week but luckily we got to stay with my Aunt Deb and Uncle Scott during the weekends. Addy enjoyed meeting their dog, Duncan, and waking up at 4am each morning. :)


She is getting so big and has started to be really entertaining. She started making rasberries with her lips today and enjoys to be tossed, fake dropped and bounced around on the bed. Is she too young for those things? I don't know but she giggles and squeals when I do them. She also started to 'get' peek-a-boo. Below is a video of her laughing at this game in our hotel in SLC.

One last walk. . .

Brody went for her last walk today. She was just one week shy of her 12th birthday. We hoped she would make it to Christmas but when we returned from 8 days in Salt Lake City, it was clear that she was in a lot of pain and her medicine wasn't helping. She was really struggling to walk but we knew she would want to go for one last walk before she died. She was really excited to go but had to be carried back to the house. Her legs just couldn't carry her anymore. We took her to the vet and sat with her while she died. Addy even seemed to know something was wrong because she sat very quietly watching Brody while she died. What a horrible way to head into Christmas. We're going to miss Brody's snooring, barking after C-A-T's, running to the kitchen when she hears the cheese bag open or a yogurt container or spoons scraping the bowl of ice cream. I'm going to miss her following me around the house and sitting in Addy's room while I feed her. Brad's going to miss wrestling with her, teasing her and hiking with her. Once Brody led Brad to the summit of Mt. Harvard and back to the base in the middle of the night. She kept to the trail and kept Brad out of trouble (even if he shouldn't have been hiking a 14er in the middle of the night by himself anyway!!!). What a great dog. We'll miss her.

It's been 7 months since Brody started really struggling to walk. We're grateful we got to enjoy her those few extra months. The video below is of her last walk.

Thanksgiving Road Trip

For Thanksgiving we drove to Gunnison to my parents' house. It was Addy's first road trip and she really did well. We stopped halfway to and from to feed her and she cried a little but she slept most of the time. Here is Addy as we took off from our house on Wednesday night.

We enjoyed being on vacation, eating good food, and seeing lots of family. Even though Gunnison is generally the coldest spot in the country, we were able to get out for walks because the sunshine made 13 degrees feel like a heat wave! Addy was so cozy n her snow suit that she fell asleep on our walk.

Here is some of the family who joined us for Thanksgiving: (L to R and F then B) Dad, Grandpa Hulsbos, Me, Addy, Jenny, Papo Bursch, Brad, Auntie Zana, and Mom. My cousins Stella, Danny and Kaitlyn and my uncle David were also there. It was a good time and it was neat that Addy got to meet both her great Grandpas. Addy sure was the center of attention though. . . good grief! We need to have another kid quick or she'll think the world revolves around her! Wait, actually right now it does! :)

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!