Jacob and Chandelle Cotter

June 2010

2010-06-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting for so long to my family but here are a few recent pictures, ill put more up soon:)

Israel has learned to feed the dog:) Miami thinks Israel is the greatest friend ever!

Watching the Backyardigans, his very fave. show~

Takin a nap with Daddy, the 2 of them are best buds.

Silly little boy loves to play with the curtains:)

San francisco with my sisters and mom

2010-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

my mom and sisters Menda and Sonnet came to see me in San Francisco= we had such a great weekend:)

Israels first Christmas:)

2010-01-20T17:37:00.001-08:00

Christmas photos

2009-11-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a fun eventful day for us! Israel turned 4 months old and we took him to the park to get some pictures with the animals for a Christmas card:) Here is what we ended up with

More Israel

2009-10-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

first time in San Fran with our little man

Golden Gate Bridge:)

Just a boy and his dog

He did that all by himself:) then he got freaked out cause he didnt know how to take it out:)

2009-09-20T22:07:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More pictures of Israel:)

2009-09-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

The Latest of Israel

2009-09-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

5 year anniversary- Talon and Dantes wedding

2009-09-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in Alaska. It was on August 14th also the day that Jacobs best friend got married and Jacob was the best man so we spent the evening all dressed up:) Talon and Dante- the bride and groom:)

Dante and Israel

Jacob and Talon

Daddy and his little man all dressed up:) they clean up so nice!

we are still very much in love...:)

Anchorage

2009-09-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

The first part of our Alaska Trip in Anchorage:)
Meeting Grandpa Bill for the First time

Grandma, Auntie Cristin and cousin Katie all admireing the boy:)

Daddy and his little man

I love my sweet boy!

Uncle Caleb and Israel

My cousin Joel and Israel

Auntie Cristin and Katie with Is

4 Generations- Grandma, Daddy, Israel and GG

Jacobs best friend Talon

Jacob, his dad and Israel

Israels first trip to Port Alsworth

2009-09-05T08:48:00.001-07:00

Meeting Wops and Granny for the first time:)

Teags LOVED her Cousin!Sonnet, Menda and I with the little man

Granny and Is

Auntie Charis and Israel

Israel with his 2 Grandmas- Amma and Grandma

Amma and her 2 youngest Grandkids:) Jordan and Israel

Best buddies! Israel and Jordan!

The whole family minus Jacob who had to go back to work:(

Uppa with his youngest Grandson

Sammy and Is

Cousin Caleb and Israel.

We had such a great time it was so fun to see all the family!

2009-08-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

2009-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Proofs of the pictures we had done yesterday at one week old- could he be any cuter than this- I think not!

Sweet baby boy!

2009-07-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Israel 6 days old:) What a big boy he is. Had a weight check on Monday and he was up to 8 lbs 10 ounces! He is one week old today!!!!

Daddys all star:)

Naps with Daddy

Yay his first real bath!

He sleeps just like his mommy with his hands up over his head!

I love my baby boy so much I just cant get enough!!!

Chick Magnet!

2009-07-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Our little man just 5 days old:) Look at those dimples!!!!

Baby Boy

2009-07-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

2009-07-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

Israel William Cotter was born on July 21st at 9:10PM. He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces. He has gogeous black hair and last night we discovered he has dimples just like his daddy:) We are so happy to finally have him here in our arms!

3 days old, the day we got to bring him home from the hospital:)

Just a few minutes after he was born Israel grabbed his daddys hand and wouldnt let go, seems like a habit that is going to stick

Amma with her 19th grandbaby!

Our happy little Family:)

We couldnt be more in love

He is a very strong and very alert baby boy- he can even hold his head up already

His daddy adores him!

I still cant believe my baby is here!

Israel and Daddy

My 2 very fave. boys in the world!!!

We are so blessed to have him in our lives!

One of our first family photos:)

2009-06-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

Walrus to me have always been one of the coolest animals there are around! Yesterday I went down to our Walrus area of the park and got to take a few pictures with them:)
Getting my belly kisses by the big male walrus Sivuqaq. I want to blow one of these up and frame it in the nursery:)

Another picture getting a kiss from the boy:) If anyone has ever seen 50 first dates this is "Jacko" the walrus from that movie!

He loves to snuggle:) Definately one of the coolest animal expiriences I have ever had in my life:)

The most wonderful man in the world!

2009-06-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days that you feel like everything in your world is crashing down, you are frusterated, tired and cant seem to focus on anything good?

Last week I had one of those days, the worst part about it is that in my mind I knew everything was going to be fine but I was completely overwhelmed with situations at my job and I let it get the best of me. I was utterly exhausted and expecting to come home, change my clothes and crawl into bed where I would have a nice pity party for myself before falling asleep.

Instead I came home to this....

Jacob is amazing, after sending him a few texts that day with my frusterations he had gorgeous flowers on the table, candles lit, pasta made for dinner and even non alcoholic champagne. He gave me huge hugs and kisses when I came in made it such a wonderful night for me. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing husband and he did such a special thing for me when really I didnt deserve it. The whole thing helped me put stuff in perspective and take a step back instead of being selfsish and upset about things changing it made me appriciate my amazing husband, soon to arrive baby boy and all of the other blessing God has given us. Thank you Jacob, I love you so much and I couldnt ask for a sweeter guy!

Nursery time....

2009-06-11T07:49:00.001-07:00

we have been saying for months now that we should get the nursery done... well on Monday we finally did, or at least as much as we could do for now!

Jacob putting the crib together, he worked so hard and did such a great job. I know I was no help at all so he had to do it all by himself. He painted the walls, put things together and I got to just boss him around for a few days. What a good dad he is going to be he always takes care of everything!

We did the walls 2 different shades of blue, a light blue and a dark blue. This picture cracks me up, we are still waiting for the last room in the house to get finished at some point. Its probablly going to take quite some time so for now we have a HUGE TV that has no where to go except the nursery:) Oh well we will make due its not ideal but maybe it will be handy on those nights he doesnt want to sleep at all....

This is our nursery theme. We went back and forth between what we wanted to do. At first we were going to do a Miami Dolphins Nursery but it was getting hard trying to come up with everything for it so one day in babies r us we came upon this... its Jungle animals playing sports and we both really liked it! It has animals for me and sports for Jacob. We are still going to add lots of football and dolphins stuff as well but it has turned out so cute so far im really glad we found it!

The crib all together! This week we are going to go buy the mattress and next week the bedding set:)

A view from the door way. He is so spoiled already his changing table is stuffed full of clothes as well as half of the closet:) He is going to be one well dressed little man!

Baby Shower:)

2009-06-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

On Sunday June 7th, 4 of my very good friends from work threw me a wonderful baby shower! It was such a blast they did such a great job and we had so many people show up, the baby got so much stuff we are really blessed! We decided to do the shower at our house that way some of my co workers that didnt get done with work until 7:30 could stop by.

Jacob got the house looking all gorgeous before the shower! The lawn is finally starting to look like a real lawn after a few months of Jacobs hard work!

Kelly had so many decorations! This one lasted most of the night before it blew it away:)

Table full of baby boy favors.... candy, pencils, suckers and blue bubblegum "its a boy" cigars...

Of course just like at every shower we had to play the measuring the stomach game.... Kimberly was close!

He got so many awesome gifts people were so sweet! Here is his fisher price aquarium bath tub, it looks like a blast! Thank you so much Jesirae!

One of my very fave. things! The baby einstein Ocen Discovery play mat... holy cow I could be entertained for hours by this myself! Thanks so much Meghan and I love how the girl from Aquarium stayed with a fish theme, it was so cute!

He also go more clothes than you can imagine, I think I am going to have to change him 7 times a da in the first 3 months in order for him to wear everything! He got a baby bjorn, lots of themed decorations for our nursery, a high chair, super cute and cuddly blankets, a monitor, toys, and lots more!

Diego of course came out to check everything out after all the gifts were open and he had lots of fun jumping from one bag to another...

Here are the lovely ladies who put my beautiful shower on. Abby, Kristin, Kelly and Angela! It was such a fun day thank you to everyone so much!

Diegos first apperance!

2009-06-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

At ten weeks old my little Coati boy did his first big apperance! We took him to an art show and he was such a little rock star! He was out for 5 hours and I held him the whole time, he even took 2 naps in my arms!
Here is his big debut picture:) What a cutie pie, huh!?!?!

Martina brought a snake, a bearded dragon and of course Opi, the 1 1/2 year old baby baboon! She did great!

Here she is showing off one of her beautiful footprints!

Diego did some footprints too! What a good boy he is! Im looking forward to doing a lot more with him!

Picnic time!

2009-06-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Jacob and I went with our good buddies Kristin and Dan and baby Jack to have a picnic in Napa! It was a beautiful day with perfect weather... here are just a few pictures of our adventure!

How I love Napa Valley its so gorgeous and we even found a place that has alcohol free champagne! Here is a picture of me and Jacob with my HUGE belly:) Just a few more weeks to go until we meet our little man!

Fowlers come for a visit!

2009-05-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Leo and Menda and the 8 kids drove down to see us on their trip through the west coast. It was so much fun to see them and spend time with the kids.
We had all the boys stay one night then all the girls stay another night. Sammy and Isaac decided that they wanted to spend the night in our room and Jacob was a good sport about it. They cuddled up to Uncle jacob while watching Sports Center and all fell asleep:)

The first day that I had off we drove 2 hours to Monterey where we spent the day at the huge aquarium. It was so much fun. Here is a picture of Kaiden, Rylea, Nezzie, Isaac, Sammy and Lizzy outside of the aquarium, in the back ground there were huge rocks with seals on them playing in the ocean.

Of course every visit has to take time to go see the park:) They met lots of animals that day and I of course introduced them to Mya my fave. animal there:)

Java the Bush Baby really liked Lizzys hair!

The Ericksons also came to visit, Menda figured out it had been 7 years to the day since she had seen Amy. Its always so much fun to see them they are just another part of the family so we have a blast. John, Eddie, Sydney, Chloe, Amy and Trule took a picture on our love seat before they had to drive back home.

Of course the kids spent hours almost every day in the pool:) Rylea and Isaac had fun with Uncle Jacob in the pool- It was probablly just as hard to get him out of the pool as it was to get the kids out!

Menda with her 2 youngest... they sure do love thier mommy!

This is the last night before the Fowlers had to drive off. We took a picture holding all the kids:) Kaiden, Ned, Jacob, Sammy, Isaac, Me, Malachi, Nezzie, Rylea and Lizzy. We had so much fun with them and miss them so much already! Cant wait to see them and all the other family in August when we take the baby home for the first time:)

Baby Diego

2009-05-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

So as many of you know I have been working on helping to start an education and outreach program for Kevin and Martina Keith. They own a company called Monkey Business Productions which deals mostly with primates, Kevin is one of the only people in the world that actually works hands on with adult in tact male baboons. He even has an adult male Mandrill baboon(the kind from the lion king with the blue and red face:)

Well this is something we have been working on for months now and last week our first baby animal for the new programs came in. His name is Diego and he is a 4 week(almost 5 weeks now) baby white nosed Coatimundi. These are one of my very fave. animals to work with and now I actually get to have one at my house! I am helping to raise Diego along with some other animals that will be coming in the next few weeks, alng with a 6 week old baby red fox and a 4 week old baby patagonian cavy!

He tends to play hard for a few minutes then gets so sleepy he falls asleep whereever he is. He really likes to play with Jacob and chase him around the house.

Here he is our little baby fur ball:) and below is a little video of Diego playing in the house:)

Jennifers Big Day!

2009-04-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

16 months ago one of my friends and co-workers from Six Flags asked me to be one of her bridesmaids- she got married on Friday in a beautiful out door ceremony!

The day before the wedding Jennifer took her 3 bridesmaids to get manicures and pedicures- it was so fun to be pampered and feel like a girl- it doesnt happen to often for us in the zoo world:)

Jacob came from work and made it for part of the reception, here we are me and my huge 7 month pregnant self and my honey- one thing i definately learned in this wedding is that maternity dresses really arent flattering!

Here is a side picture of the belly at 7 months(29 weeks:)

Jennifer and Dylans first kiss as husband and wife!

Jennifer and her girls- Kim and I are both friends of Jennifers from the park and the other bridesmaid is Misty her sister in law- Misty is actually 8 months pregnant so I wasnt the only one:) I wish Jennifer and Dylan all the best and hope they enjoy their next 2 weeks in Florida:)

God's protection

2009-04-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I put a post up it has felt that life has been so busy but really nothing too exciting has happenned in the last month... until 2 days ago. I guess most people will remember it as tax day I will remember it as something completely different. About 6 months ago I started working with an African Serval that had been retired for 3 years. He was retired after attacking a trainer at my work. Well we started the long slow process of turning him into a working cat again. It took a lot of time and a lot of patience but he was doing so well we actually had gotten him back into even being a show animal.

Here is a picture of myself and Massai about a week ago, just out for a stroll through the park. He has been doing so great and made such progress with no signs of aggression. Well 2 days ago I got Maasai out for a routine show performance and about 30 seconds before we were to go out on stage he decided to jump me. He jumped all the way onto me and wrapped his legs around me like I was a tree, he then bite into the right side of my stomach about 3 inches above my right hip. I was able to throw the leash to my back up who helped pull him off of me and we got him back into the enclosure before she looked at me and said you need to go inside and get medical attention- you just got bit! I went inside and called the medic and remained totally calm until I sat down and realized that a cat had just bit into my stomach and I didnt feel the baby moving at all. Then came the prayers and the tears.

The medic pulled up my shirt and there were 4 punctions where his canines had went in to my side. He cleaned it up for me and got me over to the ER at the hospital just a few minutes away. I called Jacob on the way and by the time I got into a room to be checked Jacob had made the drive there and was able to be with me the whole time. The doctor there cleaned up the punctures even more and that was much more painful because she had to flush out the wound which requires fluid being squirted down into the puntures. She looked over the rest of my body and found scratches on the top of my stomach my back and on both legs where he had wrapped himself around me, I didnt feel any of those because all I was thinking about was the baby. I told them I would calm down as soon as I could hear the baby and at first she couldnt find a heart beat because mine was beating so loudly, she eventually found it but they wanted me to go up and be monitored to make sure I wasnt having any contractions and the baby was ok. I cant even tell you how happy I was when after a few minutes of that the doctor looked at me and said "your baby is perfect"

It was very aweet 5 of our friends came straight from work to check on me, here is a picture of them waiting for all the monitors to be turned on. My phone was full from texts and phone calls from friends at work and I appriciate all the thoughts and prayers that were with us that night.

I am overwhelmed with thankfullness for the way the situation turned out. There are so many things that could have gone wrong and been so much worse. I am on antibiotics to prevent a possible infection and I am extremely sore but other than that the bite and scratches are just annoying and uncomfortable. I have a few days off of work and needless to say I am done with cats until after the baby is born. Looking back on the situation I am sure the serval was going after my meat pouch or else had smelled the other serval on me that I had taken out just an hour before. Thank you for your continued prayers I just keep giving the situation to God it's hard to feel like you put yourself in a compromising situation for your baby but I know in my heart God had his hand of protection over us. Israel it feels like hasnt stopped moving since we got home 2 nights ago- im sure in protest of all this excitement in his young life! We are going to put some pictures in his baby book someday- how many kids are bitten by a serval before they are even born!

A visit from the Parents...

2009-03-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

My parents came to California for a visit.. a lot of our time was spent at the house relaxing, dad of course made amazing breakfasts for us every morning and mom got Jacob some fun new stuff for the Wii, so we all got to challenge each other with the new games. Here I am 4 and a half months pregnant and i still could beat Jacob:) we had a lot of fun and of course spent some time at the park so they could see some of the newer animals.
This is mom and I with Chewy a 2 toed sloth from South America

Dad loved the Coatis- he got a painting from the baby coati and even gave Mya a high five:)

Thursday was a very big and busy day. It was my Papas birthday that day, we went and swam with dolphins....

Had birthday lunch at Red Lobster:) and then they came with Jacob and I to our ultrasound where we found out we were having a boy! It was really exciting and they got to take a peek at their 19th grandchild! Of course after that mom already got to start spoiling him and we spent Friday shopping for baby boy stuff:) While we went out to shop dad got to go do some helicopter flying near Napa Valley so he really enjoyed that.

Saturday the park had its first open day so they came to watch some shows and see some more animals. They even fed the giraffes! Sunday and Monday we had big plans but we got rained out those days so we spent the time relaxing, going to church, watching movies and eating some great food! It was such a great time to have with them but we always miss them when they go!

ITS A.....

2009-03-05T02:13:00.000-08:00

Heart Day:)

2009-02-23T07:36:00.001-08:00

So I know that I owe lots of pictures, it has been a very busy past few weeks. My Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle came down to visit and in just a few hours my parents will be here for a week:) I am really excited to have all this family coming to see us and on Thursday my parents are going with us to the doctor to find out if we are having a boy or a girl(Lord willing) It is also my dads birthday that day an my mom and I are going to swim wit dolphins so it should be pretty exciting. I will put pictures up very soon of all the family visits:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day as well. Jacob has always made our Valentines day very special and this was the last one we will celebrate without kids- that seems so crazy to me! Valentines Day also marks 4 1/2 years of marriage for us so it was very special. Jacob bought me beautiful lillys(he knows I hate roses ecspecially red ones...) and kept telling me he wasnt getting me a big gift this year. Well I came home from work Saturday night and my wonderful husband had saved up money to buy me a camcorder! I wanted one so bad before the baby was born, it was so thoughtful of him, he really is an amazing guy! He also cooked me dinner that night and gave me a foot massage... what else could I ask for:) I am so blessed to have:)

Yesterday marked another milestone for us as well. I was 20 weeks through my pregnancy yesterday which means half way done! We are so excited to meet our little one!

2009-01-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Jacob and I spent the day I San Francisco walking on the beach and having lunch at Rainforest Cafe. It was such a fun day, and you can definately see the baby starting to show!

2008- Our Year in Pictures!

2009-01-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

We had such a busy year in 2008! Here is a quick recap of the year... in pictures!

JANUARY- Was pretty uneventful, I worked a lot, hung out with some penguins and worked some more. Jacob pretty much did the same thing... minus the penguins.

FEBRUARY- I went home to Alaska to visit th family, got to spend ten days at home in the snow, and of course went shooting with my papa while I was there.

MARCH- We had Easter of course, and here is Tink all dressed up like the Easter Bunny!

APRIL- Jacob's birthday month, He turned 24! Here is a picture of us in Sonoma. We also went to a Giants baseball game in San Francisco... it was freezing, but we had lots of fun!

MAY- I turned 24 this month. It was a very busy month, Jacobs mom, brother and sister came to visit as well as my best friend Becky! it was a great birthday month!

JUNE- I got my promotion to Trainer at the park, I was very excited and even more excited when I got promoted to Senior Trainer just 3 months later! It was a busy summer! Here I am sharing a cuddle with my very Fave. Animal at work- Mya the Coatimundi

JULY- My mom, Charis and Ned came to visit, we played at the park and even went to Santa Cruz to play in the ocean!

AUGUST- We celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary with a day in Calistoga! It was absolutely gorgeous out, and 80 something degrees all day!

SEPTEMBER- We explored the bay area a little more. we went to beaches on the other side of San Francisco, and shared some good times and good kisses:)

OCTOBER- Was a crazy month! We finally got our house(YAY!), I worked a ton for Fright Fest, I was a bat for halloween:), Andy, Sonnet and their family came for a visit, we played with tiger cubs and the most exciting thing, I didnt know it yet but I got pregnant this month!

NOVEMBER- Also very busy! We found out we were Pregnant! We got to go in to the doctor and see our baby on an ultrasound for the very first time, it was absolutely amazing! The hardest part of this month was trying to not let it slip that we were expecting until we got home and got to tell everyone in person! It was so neat, even though it is her 19th Grand Baby, My mom cried it was so sweet, and Jacobs parents were thrilled. Other highlights of this month include... Glen and Lelya found out they are having a baby girl, We got to spend Thanksgiving with Jacobs family in Alaska, Jacob finally got to meet all of hi nieces and nephews and Cristin my sister in law had a gorgeous winter wedding!

DECEMBER- Finally! The last month of the year- with a MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Cotters and Bacardi the fruit bat:)

And last the New Year brings changes, here I am at 14 weeks starting to show, its hard to see the bump very good in this picture but it is definately getting there, ill have better ones soon to show:)

1 down... 2 to go!

2009-01-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

So I just finished my first trimester of carrying my beautiful baby Cotter. I am now 13 weeks along, only 27 more weeks to go! Right now the doctor is telling us our due date is July 8th, so we are going to have a summer baby! We have our next appointment on Jauary 12th for a baby check up to make sure everything keeps progressing normally and then toward the end of February my mom and dad are flying to California and get to come with us to find out if their next grandbaby will be a boy or a girl:) Here is a picture of how far the baby is developed so far. What an amazing miracle, I am so in love with this baby already and cant wait until I get to see our baby face to face!

November in Snowy Alaska

2008-12-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

So we just got back from a visit to snowy Alaska! Jacob and I went up to Anchorage for his sister Cristins wedding. This was actually the first time Jacob has been back to Alaska since we got married and moved away over 4 years ago! It was such great timeing because we actually got to tell Jacobs whole family in person about the baby and we got to spend Thanksgiving with our family, something we havent done for over 5 years now! Of course it was snowing while we were there and got to a crisp -9 degrees! We still had a great time and so much fun with all of our family and friends.

Here is Thanksgiving day, we ended up having Thanksgiving dinner at the church because there were so many people there!

Here is the day of the wedding. Jacob and Caleb with their sister Cristin who made an absolutely gorgeous bride! Jacob and Caleb were ushers. The best part about this picture was the photographer said ok boys give your sister a kiss on the cheek, they all three looked at eachother then looked at the photographer and said Um No... ha ha ahhhhh my mushy husband.

I was one of Cristins Bridesmaids, here we are before the wedding.

Here is Cristin with all of her bridesmaids, just a few minutes before she was going to become Cristin Bowser!

Chase and Cristin cutting the cake at the reception, before they headed off for three weeks in Florida! Jacobs uncle Danny made their cake, and he was the same person who made ours so not only was it beautiful it was delicous too!

Jacob and I slow dancing at the reception:)

We spent one day n Port Alsworth with my family. Just a quick trip out in the morning and back again that night. My papa makes the best sourdough pancakes in the entire world. That is always one of my fave. things about coming home!

With Menda and Sonnet, enjoying some sister time before I had to leave.

This was the first time we have had my whole family together since our wedding over 4 years ago so we got a family shot. Of course there were a lot less 4 years ago than there are now!

We had left our wedding cake topper at Jacobs mom's house. It was pretty funny because traditionally you are suppossed to eat it on your one year anniversary. Well we were living in Washington so Vickie saved it for us this whole time and thawed it out while we were home. It was frozen for over 4 years.... I wonder why Jacob wouldnt take a bite?

Our last night in Alaska , Jacobs Grandma Shirley took us all to dinner at Applebees. Jacobs mom Vickie, Jacob and me, his cousin Katie and Caleb and his girlfriend Julieanne. It was a fun trip but we are glad to be back in California sunshine!

Home is where your heart is

2008-12-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

So we did it, we are finally home owners! We moved into our very first home together about two weeks ago:) I wasnt much help because about a week before that Jacob and I found out that we will be expecting our first baby in July! We are so excited, the due date right now is set for July 8th and when I went in and had my first ultrasound we saw a clear picture of our little sweet pea and its beating heart! What a miracle! we feel so blessed and so excited so have a house for our children to grow up in!
Here are Eric and Kurtis moving in the couch and Jacob supervising:) We are so thankful for all of our good friends that came over and helped us move that day!

So not everything is set up yet, since we got on a plane for Alaska just one week after moving in but here is the start of the bedroom sort of thrown together, eventually I would like to paint some of the rooms but that is going to have to wait for now.

Here is the living room, complete with fire place!

And I think my fave. part of the whole house- The kitchen! I love the granite countertops, its so much fun and so much room compared to what we have been living in. God is so good!

I Heart Jack Johnson!

2008-10-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Every year in October the Brdige school for disabled children holds a benefit concert. This year one of their main acts was Jack Johnson so Angela and i being the fans that we are decided to go:)

Here we are at the beginning of the concert around 2:30. We figured Jack Johnson would go on around 4, but when we got there we found out he would be basically one of the very last acts to perform:( The concert is put on by Neil Young so he did a lot of guest apperances. Besides Jack Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, Wilco, Norah Jones, Smashing Pumpkins and Josh Groban were there.

I thought my family would be very excited to see the Josh Groban stuff:) He came out and im gonna say he is just a bit of a dork. Needless to say he was wearing plaid and glasses so Angela absolutely fell in love and you cant deny that he does have an absolutely gorgeous voice!

Here he is singing one of his songs, all decked out in plaid:)

Here is a video of Josh Groban singing and Angela confessing her love for him...

So finally after 6 hours it was time for Jack Johnson to come out- here is Angela all ready for the big perfomance!

And there he is... Jack Johnson!

Here he is singing Wasting Time, one of my fave. Jack Johnson songs! It is so much fun to hear him perform since live he sounds exactly like he does on his albums! He also sang constellations and Better Together which are my two very fave songs of him! And finally after we got to hear Jack Johnson we decided to call it a night and skipped out on Neil Young. It was a long sort of shilly day but lots of fun... and hey we did it for the kids:)!

Fright Fest...

2008-10-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

Fright Fest is here! Every year at Six Flags, the park gets all decorated for halloween and fright fest. During the day its all kid oriented and then at night they do haunted houses and have "zombies" walking around to scare you. I am terrified of well everything so I spent most of the time with my eyes closed clutching the person clostest too me.
Here we are kicking it off at 5:00. dr. Proctor is in the middle she is the most wonderful veterinarian in the entire world! These are some of our best friends here, Angela, Kelly and Kory.

Carissa, Me, Kelly and Angela getting ready to ride some coasters then heard to spooky sealion show.

Jacob and I in the front plaza of the park, its starting to get dark.... so scary!

This is such a typical picture of Jacob telling me not to take his picture.... What a silly boy. This is before we went in to one of the haunted houses Camp Chaos and I was just telling him how it is not funny for him to try and scare me on purpose....

In line for Camp Chaos, I dont know why i get so scared, I put my hood up and clutched on to Carissa's arm the entire time, I never opened my eyes once yet I still seemed to do all the screaming. Apparently I was squeezing Carissas hand pretty tight poor girl... I hope her fingers are ok today!

We met up with our seasonal Kurtis so we could get some pictures with him before we ended the night and went to our monster free home!

So During the day its not quite so scary... This is Jordan posing for some halloween pictures with a pumpkin.

Java the bush baby taking a bite out of my nose.

This is my costume I have to wear for our halloween show that we do during the day. A Witches Brew and A Wildlife Zoo. So my coati Mya decided to pose with me for a few shots:)

My best friend st Wildlife Kimberly,we decided to use both bats for the show so here we are getting ready to go out to perform:)

And finally a picture of Java all dressed up. He is such a cute pie:) I definately prefer the "daytime monsters"!

A visit from my sister!

2008-10-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sonnet and Andy were here a few days ago with their family visiting us:) it was so much fun to see them:)
We of course went our for Indian food where I introduced Sonnet to Saag Paneer and bahtura:) She was a big fan! She also had sushi for the first time and tried her first In-N-Out burger- it was quite the adventure for her!

Here is uncle Jacob with Sonnet and Andys youngest Tyler. It was the first time Jacob had ever met Silas, Teagann or Tyler so it was fun for him:)

Giving some kisses to miss Teagann Skye:), I cant believe how much she looks like Zoe now!

We of course went to the park so that they could see where I work and meet some animals, Mya really liked Andy a lot:)

They got to meet Taj the 67 year old elephant. Here they all are, Sonnet with Teagann and Silas, Ali and Tyler and Andy and Zoe

Zoe loved Java the bush baby, and Java was quite taken with her as well.

Teagann wasnt quite so sure about Java

Miss Ali and I in front of In N Out

It was a long day so we took a nice nap at the hotel

One of the only time you will ever see me in the water unless its a hot tub!

Uncle Jacob and Teagann:) We had so much fun, the only bad part about family visits is how much more we miss them all after they leave!

Home sweet HOME!

2008-10-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

Looks like we finally have a winner! On monday we met our agent and house inspector at 2:00 to get our house inspections and make sure there was nothing terrible going on with the house that we couldnt see. after 3 hours of carefully looking over every detail of the place the inspector was very happy to announce that our house is in excellent shape! No major problems, just a few minor fix it yourselfs. If all continues to go smoothly we will be closing October 30th and be home owners for the first time! Please continue to pray that it all goes well, God has been so good!

This is the outside of the house... First thing I want to do is plant a palm tree.... you cant live in California without a palm tree!

The Kitchen! One of the major reasons I totally fell in love with this house, it is so beautiful brand new marble counter tops and stainless steel fridge:) I finally can have a real kichen!

This is the big sun room area, Jacob is going to turn this into his "man fort:)" A big work out room dedicated to the miami dolphins im sure:)

and finally the back yard, plenty of room for the girls to run around, we even have our own little apple tree- a lemon tree is definately going in next:) Its the perfect started home and worth the wait to own a home in California! After we move in i will definately post more pictures of what everything looks like with all of our stuff in it:)

Georgia on my mind

2008-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been so crazy busy over the past month or so, i am not very good at keeping up with this lately. The past few weeks I have been helping out cleaning Kevin Keiths compound. He is out on the road right now doing shows but he has a few animals that have stayed here in California. Georgia a spider monkey definately is one of my very faves! She is such a sweetheart and she loves to sit on my lap and cuddle with me!

She gives the best hugs!

We have gotten to be such great buddies i am a little sad that it is almost over and I wont be helping out there as much:(

Moss Beach

2008-09-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday We took the girls to Moss Beach, about 20 minutes past South San Francisco. The Beaches there are so gorgeous, full of white sand and the day was a perfect 80 degrees!
Here is us with our little family:)

This is a view from the top of the beach where we parked and hiked down.

Miami wanted to play in the water but the waves were a little bit too big.

Jacob and Tink- what a handsome man i married!

we had such a fun day running around in the sand and enjoying the sunshine!

A visit from good friends!

2008-08-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

Last week our good friends Corbett and Rachel Haas came to visit us for two days. Corbett was in the same class at Grace as Jacob and I, and was one of Jacobs best friends in high school. It was so fun to have them here!
We went to the park and took pictures with Merlin the dolphin:) It was about 95 degrees out that day so we all enjoyed the sunshine!

We rode the roller coasters... This is Medusa

And then of course we met some animals. Here is a picture of corbett and rachel with Java the bush baby.

We also road the elephants, met and fed the giraffes and of course took pictures with a bunch of animals from Wildlife. Here we are with Mya my Coati girl. For some reason she absolutely adores Jacob and wouldnt get off of his head:) it was pretty cute

It was such a great visit and we hope they will come back to see us soon!

4 year anniversary!

2008-08-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today I said "I DO" to the most wonderful man in the entire world! We have had such a great 4 years of marriage together and I can't believe how fast it has gone! Jacob has been with me supporting and loving me as I chased my dream of becoming an animal trainer and he has never complained about my crazy hours, stinky clothes when i come or even having bear cubs in our house. We have gone from Alaska, to Washington, to Idaho and finally California. And here we are planning on staying! Happy news, we had an offer on a house accepted a few days ago so hopefully we will be closing on a house in Fairfield by the end of September! But to get back to the amazing day we had celebrating our anniversary...
We drove to calistoga about an hour away near Napa Valley and decided to be tourists and tour a vineyard. It was actually very interesting and so beautiful.

Some wine grapes grown at Sterling Vineyards

Overlooking Napa Valley

I think the coolest thing about this vineyard is when you get there you have to take an air tram up the mountain to the main building. It was so gorgeous!

Beautiful Northern California! Once we got to the top we walked around the winery and checked out the napa valley views! It was a perfect 98 degrees out:)

And so we had a beautiful and very romantic afternoon together. I am so thankful for the amazing man God gave me and I am looking forward to the rest of our lives together:)

Swimming with Ella!

2008-08-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to do one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life... I got to go swimming with a two month old baby sea lion named Ella!
Here is Ella before the swim checking out my camera:)

Here she is checking me out... Not quite sure what to think and not sure if she should get in the water or not

After checking out what was up on the land she had to look in the water to make sure everything was ok there too:)

So here we are swimming in the water! Ella would come and lay on me( you can see her on my legs) Apparently I made a good floatie:)

Here she is on my legs again... i did my best not to drown, Thank goodness for wet suits that make you float!

After we were all done in the water she gave me a wave goodbye- ok not really but doesnt it look like it:)

The best family in the world!

2008-07-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful visit I had from from my amazing family! My mama, little sister Charis, and nephew Ned all came down to visit for 8 days. It was such a great time! Of course we spent lots of time in the pool!

On fourth of July we spent the day taking some pictures and playing at the park then for dinner we went to the melting pot, a fondue resteraunt right outside of San Francisco. It was a blast:) The kids werent quite sure about the beer and wine in the cheese until Mom explained that it got cooked out... they seemed to be ok with that:)

That night we went to the Golden Gate bridge to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately most of them were covered by fog but we did see a few and it was such a beautiful night!

On Monday Jacob took them to the city while I worked.

On Tuesday we all went to Santa Cruz and played in the water and on the beach:)

The water was a little chilly but lots of fun once you got used to it!

And we had such a fun time when the rest of the family the Erickson part joined us for some time at the park. On their last night here we had all the kids stay over at the house for a big slumber party:) Here they are at the house with our dog Tink. On the couch is Charis, Chloe, Trule, Ned and Sydney

Eddie has gotten so big and soooo cute my goodness he looks so much like johnny! He is absolutely hilarious and I cracked up the entire time he was here! He thinks he is spider man and whenever you tell him something he doesnt like he turns around and "webs" you. He poins his hand at you and makes a noise and shoots you with his imaginary web. It was pretty funny.

It was such a great visit from all of our family we had so much fun with them and want them all to come back soon!

Work is always more fun with the family!

2008-07-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

So of course the visit wouldnt be complete if we didnt spend some time at my work:) The family had so much fun and we got to set up some cool animal meet and greets:) Ned was amazing and knew so much about every animal at the park:) People were very impressed! Charis isnt so into all the animal stuff, but she had fun getting all the pictures:)

Ned was very excited to meet valerie the elephant. When he was a little boy elephants were his fave! I remember buying him a little elephant suit that he wore all the time, he woud even sleep in it when he was little. He told us that elephants werent still his very fave. but when he saw the show then actually got to meet an elephant he was so excited! It was very fun!

The family all met Java, the African Bush Baby, he really loved Charis hair beads!

Charis played with Kong the tamandua:)

Jordan the serval waveing hello

The family also got to meet Doc the sea lion:) He gave everyone hugs!

This is the new bactrian camel. He is still very young and his name is not decided yet. Mom thought he was the cutest animal there, him and Charis werent quite sure what to think of eachother.

He let me give him some kisses though:)

And of course Fin the penguin. That was quite the adventure. Mom got a nice warm present from Fin on the hand:) and Ned got a little peck:) I guess thats what makes the good stories!

yup, more animals... i cant help it, its my job!

2008-06-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

Just a few more animal shots...

Bacardi flying....

Coati on my head!

Jacob actually came over and met some of my animals! Too bad he wouldnt touch any of them:) this is us with Quillson the porcupine!

Hanging with Kong the tamandua

and finally us with my baby girl- Mya the coati- she walked all over his head:)

God of Wonders....

2008-06-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

Life... sometimes it can be so overwhelming and it seems like when you are at your wits end and caught up in all the things that dont matter our God of wonders lets you know its time to relax, trust in him and remember everything thats important in this life.

This past week I have felt so exhausted trying to deal with life, being away from my family and close friends, frusterated with all of the house hunting, trying to figure out my new role at work, not spending enough time with my husband and being completely consumed with thoughts and prayers for my baby sister when finally it hit me, none of these things are mine to worry about and INSTEAD I should be focusing on what is really important, and all of the many blessing I have recieved.

Thank you father for the roof over my head, for the job that I you have provided me with, for my wonderful friends, that encourage me and are there for me, even though I know i dont always keep in the best touch with you all but I know you are there when I need you. Cissie I have been thinking a lot about the last few years and how thanful I am for our many memories growing up, you are and always will be so special to me, and I cant wait until we can get together again someday, this time as married woman and rekindle that friendship.

My family that are some of the most amazing and Godly people I have ever met in my entire life. I am so Thankful for you and the example you have been to me and everyone that has been blessed enough to meet you.

and finally for my amazing husband. How blessed I am to have you in my life, I love you now and forever and thank Jesus for you every single day.

Promotion to TRAINER!

2008-06-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

So this has been a very busy past few weeks! Last Saturday after our other senior trainer had her very last day at work my supervisor sat me down and gave me a promotion to trainer! It was pretty exciting since it has only been a year and a half since I started working there and it usually takes people over 2 for their promotion! On the flip side of all that she also made me second in charge of my department, its a tough situation since I skipped over two other girls to get there but i guess my bossiness paid off:) I would appriciate all of your thoughts and prayers as I attempt this next chapter in my life!

Here are a few pictures flying our bat Bacardi:) What a nice landing:)

Us Cotter Kids:)

2008-05-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Jacobs family came to visit this week.... We had some fun being tourists in Napa Valley

Cristin and I at V. Sattui
Jacob, Me, Cristin and Caleb

Domaine Chandon, kisses for my honey

Jacob and I shared a hug in the sun.... I love him so much, what an amazing man i married!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-05-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

So really these are some photos over the last week or so with my birthday pictures at the end... but hey it works

This is a group of us swimming in the tiger island pool. They cleaned the whole thing out this past week and it happenned to be 104 degrees that day so we decided to take a dip in the pool and do some under water tiger poses. For anyone that hasnt seen the show the tigers dive under water to grab pieces of meat and push right up against the window... just like this:)

This is one of my last photos with Mara, sadly she wont be around much longer so a few days ago we took her out for a long walk and cart ride... she really enjoyed herself!

Hanging out with Kong one of the tamaduas... showing off that prehensile tail!

These are the two tamanduas kong and kamala, they found themselves a nice little sunny spot and decided to take a little nap:) They were so cute and cuddled there for such a long time!

So here we are the actual birthday! I had to go into work at 6 in the morning for a radio appearance so i was half way done by the time everyone else got in. Kimberly made me a dirt cake... yummmmmm the best! I was so sugared out by the end of the day! Kim brought the dirt cake, Eric got me pie, Jennifer made me a cheesecake and Lynette brought me a peach cobbler and when i got home Jacob had an ice cream cake.....it was good stuff but i did not feel good by the end of the day!

Here I am posing with Jordan one of our servals. he didnt cooperate very well!

some of my friends from work all went to Olive Garden for my birthday. This is Angela and Ricky, she is one of my best buddies here in Cali!

Ruben made me this shirt for my birthday- if you cant see it it has Erics face on it, its sort of an inside joke but its pretty hilarious... well Eric didnt think so:)

So that was in my 24th birthday and now its over:( Jacobs family comes this week so it will be great to see them! Angela and I are having a double birthday get together in a few weeks so i guess i can keep celebrating right:)

A Visit from my best friend!

2008-05-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yay for the month of May! It has been an absolutely fabulous month so far, and yes im still like a 5 year old child, i get so excited for my birthday and I chose to celebrate it all month long! So this past week my absolute best friend in the entire world came to visit me and it was oh so much fun! Some of you might remember her, she was in my wedding her name is Becky:) Becky and I went to Grace together so we have known eachother since Junior year and we were always together when i lived in Anchorage. Becky lives in Virgina now and is a barn manager where she works with horses. Because of the distance we have only spent about a week together in the last 4 years, a few days at my wedding and a few days at Amys wedding two years ago. Needless to say there is nothing better than being with a great friend, and we both were so in need of some time together!
This is in Napa Valley, we went and did some sight seeing, its fun to be a tourist when people come to visit!

Becky loved the anteaters so I got to do a meet and greet with her and Kong after a show:)

One night we went to Monkey Buisness it is a company owned by kevin Keith. He has different types of monkeys and other animals he does a show with. He is like the only guy in the US that works a full grown uncut male baboon its pretty scary!this is Mickey one of his baboons. It was so crazy having a baboon on my head! You cant tell in this picture but Mickey likes to "play bongos" on your head, so i ended up with some pretty good bruises from where he hit me:)

We of course played at the park and took pictures with a bunch of the different animals. This is us posing with Shouka the killer whale.

This is the handsome dolphin Merlin:)

Sorry you can see down my shirt here a bit:( that was not on purpose but i love this picture. This is Sivuqaq he is our big male walrus at the park, the one that was in the movie 50 first dates with Adam sandler. He is so huge it is absolutely amazing and when he gives you a kiss it feels like a giant suction cup that is going to take your cheek completely off!

Of course we also have the looney Tunes Characters. Heres Marvin:)

On Beckys last day we went to the City and played all day. Here we are in our matching shirts in front of Lombard street. the crookidest street in the world!

I had to take a minute to give my honey a smooch on Pier 39:)

And here we are, one last picture with the city in the background as the sun was setting on the bay! It was such a great time with Becky, i had so much fun and cant wait to see her again! And for those of you counting down with me.... Only 10 more days until my birthday:)

dolphin kisses and animal paintings

2008-05-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

This past week we did some animal paintings. We attempted Mya the Coati. The paintings turned out pretty cute but I think I ended up with more paint on me than the canvas did!

Here she is taking a little rest from her tough job as an artist!

Look at those beautiful paintings:)

Shouka our killer whale also made me a painting. It was pretty awesome, obviouslly she doesnt have feet to walk on a canvas so she is actually trained to hold the brush in her mouth and actually paint with it:) it was really awesome to watch!

Here it is all finished, i think she did a fabulous job!

After we were done with that we took a little break to hang out with Merlin the dolphin:)

and what visit with a dolphin is complete without a kiss:)

its a bird...its a plane...its a bushbaby?

2008-04-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

This past week was pretty much like every other week, walking animals is always on our list of things to do and it was the last Friday that we were closed of the season. We took all three cougars for a walk and i walked my baby Ashkii. What a good boy he was!
He only freaked out a few times, it wasnt too bad except when we were trying to take pictures and he pulled me all over a grassy hill, got some nice bruises from that one!

This is most of the cougar trainers. We took some time to pose as group on the front stage- and oh my goodness we actually got a picture of all of us looking right at the camera!

One of the coolest parts of my job is training actual behaviors and show routines. This is a six month old bushbaby Java. He is such a cutie pie and so young but I am working on getting him to be able to do some behaviors for our Wildlife Theater Show! We start with easy things for the babies and bushbabies can actually jump over 20 feet in the wild! Java here started with just three or four feet at a time and by the end of the day i was getting him to go about ten feet! This is him getting all geared up to jump!

And here he is flying through the air! I think its pretty cool!

All of this working with animals there are always some very horrible accidents. Some of you might have heard about the grizzly that killed his trainer last week. Sadly it was a horrible accident and as life has it such a small world we live in. The bear that was involved in the accident was a bear that was born at bear world where i used to work. I worked there with his dad and brother and sister which are great bears as bears go! That bear went to Cat Tales where i went to school then on to Randy Millers predators in action in southern california. Now one of the students i managed works there and was a back up during the attack. Thankfully she was not hurt but my thoughts and prayers go out to her as well as Randy and Stephan Millers family. And to all of you i would appriciate your prayers in my daily work routine as well. Even when all safety precautions are taken accidents still can happen in this line of work!

On a happier note I would like to say huge CONGRATS to Corey Lynch, one of my closest childhood friends Cissies husband who was drafted by the Bengals! We wish you absolutely the best and im excited to wear a Lynch jersey someday! Love you guys!

sometimes you need to take a break from picking up poop and put on a dress!

2008-04-29T21:02:00.001-07:00

So my lovely friend Abby had a bithday this past week. She decided to do something unheard of for animal people and actually have people dress up:) It was so strange to see all of my work friends walking around in dresses and heals and not head to toe in kahki smelling of various animals:) They all clean up so nice!

This is me and the birthday girl herself- Abby~

hanging out with some of my coworkers.... I guess David needed a good place to lay down!

One of my best buddies here in the bay area, the lovely Angela, and Captain Lee peeking out fron the back!

And my handsome husband. The ladies just cant stay away from him, but really can you blame them?

strictly work...

2008-04-20T08:12:00.001-07:00

Just some photos of the last week or so at work.... its a tough job but someone has to do it!

Walking the cubbies, that arent so little anymore. This is me and a tiger trainer Ruben:) with Takoda and Yazhi

Odin the famous diving white tiger:)

hangihg with the bushbabys Mo and Java

Mara in front of the dolphin tank:) shes a pretty girl!

VIP seats for a great view of Shouka and Merlin:)

Visit from the Robisons!

2008-04-20T08:01:00.001-07:00

So we got to have our wonderful Idaho family come and spend some time with us this past week. It was such a great time to see them. We swam with dolphins, played in the city and ate lots of great food:) We havent see them since we moved to California almost two years ago. They are such great people and took such good care of us when we lived in Rexburg! We love you guys!

Jacobs 24th birthday!

2008-04-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

What a fun/interesting last few days we have had!

Today was Jacobs 24th birthday but we actually started celebrating on Monday:) Jacob is not so into the whole birthday thing ("im turning 24 not 4" in his words) anyone that knows me knows that i am always up for a celebration! As I look back at the past few days i just have to laugh at how things turn out...

All the madness started a few days ago after we finished our week of work and both of us were ready to enjoy our nice long three day weekend together! Monday we went to Sonoma Valley and enjoyed the beautiful gardens and yummy cheese factory:) it was a lovely day for the most part and we had a nice day together.

Tuesday was a little bit more exciting. We decided to go a giants game, thats what Jacob really wanted to do for his birthday so we got some cheap tickets and went in to the city to enjoy the day. as it would turn out it ended up being very windy and very cold! We tried to walk to chinatown and check that all out but we ended up getting a bit turned around so decided to head to the stadium instead. Turns out its a good thing that we did, if anyone reads the newspaper they were bringing in the olympic torch through san francisco today and i guess there were hundreds of angry protesters that got a head start on the torch! Glad we didnt get in the middleof that! So we shared some snuggles in the car and bundled up to head to our game.
AT&T park is huge and beautiful. What a cool stadium, one side of it is directly up against the bay so you can see out into the ocean and last year when Bonds was breaking the record there would be kayaks all over in front of the stadium trying to catch homerun balls:) How fun, dont even get me started on Barry Bonds though... thats a whole other topic!

There was lots of good advice throughout the stadium:)

We couldnt believe how cold it was! Oh goodness we were all bundled up with winter coats and blankets! we never thought we would go to a baseball game in California and freeze! I guess next weekend its suppossed to be in the 80s.... of course it is!

Jacob in front of the field... They ended up winning 3-2 against the Padres. It even went into the 11th inning. Unfortunately the bitter cold drove us home before that:(

So today was the actual birthday. We went to Fairfield to continue the house seach and looked at a few places. Nothing too spectacular today but its always good to look! We met a group of our friends at Red Robin for some dinner. Kelly and Carissa got jacob some good birthday stuff:)

He even had to wear a pin that said "Happy Birthday to Me!" and he let the red robin people sing to him without getting too angry. Our night finished unfortunately with a flat tire... but i guess thats how it goes sometimes. Now we are home and ready to head back to work for another week:)

Work Work Work...

2008-04-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

So it seems as though its what i do... its how i spend so much of my life right now... working. I guess I cant complain too much i do get to play with animals for part of my day, but oh my goodness it can be exhausting. Its hard to explain to someone in the non animal how irritating it is to have a coati that wont do her behaviors because she just wants to cuddle, or a fruit bat that will only work when he feels like it. I took some time this weekend to hang out with our mexican porcupine Cholla. This little girl only weighs five pounds but is covered in 20 thousand needle sharp quills!

This is Burma, she is a 22 year old Giant Indian Fruit Bat. She can be such a grouch sometimes but pretty cute at other times:)

My spoiled rotten Coati Mya. Oh she can be so difficult sometimes but i love the little monster to death! And yes, she is sticking her nose up my nose in this picture that nose goes everywhere and you cant help but get it in your nose and ears when you have her out.

Jacob finally got to meet her this past weekend, he thought she was the coolest ever since she was a tiny little baby!

Other than the animal things going on in my life, we are still on the search for a house. Waiting is such an irritating process! My goodness, i just want a decision but we are trying to be patient. I am so excited to here my sisters are going to be coming this fall, Sonnet for sure and Menda i hope with all my heart you will be here too, there is plenty of sushi, indian food and fondue to be shared with you:) Its going to be such a busy summer, Jacob has a birthday in just 8 days, Robisons from Idaho come on the 11th if April, Becky comes in May and then the family starts their visits in June! Well I am off to head towards bed, i just finished my weekend which went by WAY too fast and now its back to work... and to my crazy little animals!

HAPPY HAPPY EASTER!

2008-03-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER! So i realize that today is the day that all the proud parents dress their beautiful kids up and take pictures of them looking their best... My photos are a little different. Unfortunately I had to work today so I decided to make the best of it and thats right, i took in Bunny ears! But first before i went to work I had to try them out on the pets at home:)

So When I got to work, i had a rule that anyone who came to Wildlife Theater(the department I work in) had to take a picture with me in the Bunny Ears! David was the first to visit us:)

I made little pink bunny ears for our fruit bat Bacrdi, he was less than thrilled to be wearing them but he is a pretty good sport!

Eric came down to Wildlife next, it took some covincing but I finally got the bunny ears on him:) Its fun stuff to get the tiger trainers to be goofy:)

Quillson, our big North American Porcupine was not too happy about playing dress up, but it was soooo cute i just couldnt resist!

Jordan the serval, was too busy trying to eat the ears so this was the best shot I could get of him!

Kimberly and I even wore the ears in the show!

And finally the cutest thing in Bunny Ears, Miss Violet the opossum, she always looks so adorable:) The crowd thought it was pretty adorable when I brought her out after the show for people to pet her and she as all dressed up!

Well I guess I should say Violet was the second cutest thing in bunny ears, because Jacob is clearly the first:) Yes he was probablly the worst sport out of everyone but i couldnt resist:) it was worth it, right:) haha I love my husband!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! GOD BLESS!

Im in love with a fruit bat...

2008-03-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

One more week to get through spring break and then we are back to normal. Its been a busy week but the days go by so fast! We are still waiting to hear back about a house, who knows when that will be. Keep us in your prayers. Also my uncle John was in a horrible car accident and we would appriciate prayers for him as well. Sounds like he is in so much pain and its tough to not be there with all the family.

I spent some time with Bacardi this week, apart from miss Mya the Coati he has to be my absolute fave! He is a giant Indian Fruit Bat, with a 4 foot wingspan! He's such a cool animal, and so different from anything else that I have ever worked with. Its amazing to see how God designed each and every animal so perfectly! He has such a funny personality, he is very particular about who and what he likes, fortunately he seems to think im ok. Its an odd thing to have a bat excited to see you in the morning and crawl over to say hi:)

Bacardi love to hang out in his bag, he sleeps in it most of the time silly Bat! And yes... he is a boy...

The best weekends are spent on the beach... its nice to get away and go for a stroll by the water!

And finally the day ends, Jacob has to get up so early to be at work 4:40 AM to be exact so he usually ends up crashing before i do. Sometimes this is what i find when i finally go to bed... they are so not suppossed to be there but they do look nice and comfy!

Spring Break is here at Discovery Kingdom

2008-03-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

SPRING BREAK IS HERE! That means we have two weeks of being Open, every day at the park. It really shouldnt be a big deal but it always seems like nothing is quite ready and there is a lot of stress. To add on top of work, we put an offer in on a house in Fairfield. Wont know anything for another week or so, but its always hard to wait on an answer... any answer. Keep us in your prayers!

So this has been quite the week, we had a tough weekend, very busy, lots of stress, so yesterday after we had all of our closings chores done we goofed around and took so silly pictures on the stage. These are two of my lovely co workers- Kimberly and Jennifer. Jennifer is getting married next May and Kimberly and I are two of her bridesmaids:)These girls have been great buddies to me and I am thankful to have them in my life.
This is Mara our 15 year old cheetah! Cheetahs should really only live ten to twelve years so she is ancient! What a sweetheart she is! She loves to spend time with her trainers and lick their hands, too bad she has the worst breath of any living thing on this earth! Oh well, shes an old lady so i guess its ok:) Unfortunately she probablly wont be with us for too much longer.

So Now it is our Friday, this is a pretty typical sight when i come into our bedroom. No, Tink is not suppossed to be on the bed but as soon as Jacob falls asleep she creeps her way up. Apparently she is a very good cuddler because they both sleep so soundly!

She definately has turned into a spoiled Diva since moving to the warm weather!

So this is the view from the house we live in right now. Not too shabby! The sunsets are always so beautiful and its so cool to be able to look down the street out into the harbor and see the water and boats. Its beautiful views like this that give me peace about the future and think... if we dont get this house, this really isnt so bad!

Opening weekend

2008-03-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just another week at work, nothing too exciting this week, same old thing as every other week. On Wed. I went in at six in the morning and went to Sacramento with Captain Lee to do a tv appearance to get ready for the park opening. This is Kong one of our Tamanduas or lesser ant eaters. He was the start of the show!

On Friday I went with Eric to try and feed the gators. It was time to see if they were ready to eat after the long and cold winter. Billy and Lisa the gators werent too excited to eat yet, still a little too chilly i guess, but i did have a good time trying to get Billy to stay out of the water!

Finally it was a training session for the cubs. Its pretty funny to still call them cubs when they weigh 120 pounds or more, they are babies at heart though! They are getting to be big boys now. This is Yazhi and he is actually the runt of the three. Here I am doing a rise with him, its one of the many behaviors we work on with the boys.

We were open for our first weekend this past Saturday and Sunday. It went well, i had some difficulties with Mya the coati during our show. She is sort of in her bratty, teenager I dont want to do anything unless its my idea stage. Oh it can be frusterating when you have a crowd of people there and instead of doing her behaviors she just stares at you like what?!?! Ahh the joys of working with animals.

Apart from the animal world, Jacob and I went to look at houses today. There is so much out there right now so we are hopeing to be able to find something we can afford. With the market the way it is right now it is actually looking realistic! I found one house that i pretty much fell in love with but we are going to see what else is around. Just keep us in our prayers that we will make wise decisions. Its crazy, its almost like we are all grown up:)

fun on the beach...

2008-03-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

We spent the last few days playing on the beach in San Francisco. There is a place called Chrissy Fields where you can get a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We took our dogs there Tink and Miami and let them play in the ocean. It is such a blast to live so close to the city! Jacob and i have found one of our very fave. things in the world to do is head to one of the many beaches and spend some time walking around and enjoying the views:) Definately something we didnt get to do growing up in Alaska, well at least not on sandy beaches, and for sure not in March! Hanging out on the beach was a wonderful way to spend our weekend!

Jacob with Tink, our mastiff/great pyranees and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

This is our whole little family minus the kitty. Jacob and I in front of the bridge with Tink and Miami. It was so hard to get the girls to hold still long enough to take a picture, Miami was too excited to be out running around and diving in the ocean.

It was a beautiful 71 degrees today in the bay area. Its something that we are still getting used to being out in t shirts and shorts in March! As you can see i have spend the whole winter with my leg very covered up so i am very very white right now:)

Tink had a lot of fun on the beach running around, with her ears flopping in the wind:) She was scared of the water though and she wouldnt go in at all. Miami on the other hand wouldnt stay out of the water!

This is me with the girls in front of the beautiful city of San Francisco. The big gold building in the background is the fine arts exploratorium.

A view of the golden gate bridge on the non San Fran side. What a gorgeous sight!

This is a view of the city at one of the look outs after you cross the bridge on the way back to our house in Vallejo. The city is only about thirty minutes from our house and we try to get there as often as possible!

The girls were exhausted after their two hours of running around on the sand and playing in the ocean. They spent the ride home passed out in the back of the Santa Fe.

All in a days work

2008-03-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

SO i just realized that my blogs are mainly pictures and not a lot of words but i figure for the family this is what they would rather have:) I know its not really a "typical" job that I have so it seems like it is best described with pictures:)! So here are some photos of my last few days at work. It has been a bittersweet week with everything going on right now. Sadly we had to put down our 12 year old Coatimundi Carmen, but she had lived a good long life and it was the right thing to do. I can say that now after i spent the last 24 hours sobbing over her passing. On a happier note i had some excellent times with my coworkers and the other animals we have. My week just would not be complete without some cougar kisses. This is Ashkii, he is one of our year old cougar "cubs" if you can still call them that when they weigh 120 pounds! Ashkii has always been my fave. of the three boys and he is such a sweetheart. I guess he knew i needed some cuddles after my hard day!

Quillson is our threey year old North American Porcupine. He is such a silly boy. He likes to spin in circles, we call it his dancing. I spent some time with him this afternoon before his walk.

Violet, our opossum.

Miss Tyra, our kinkajou. She is related to a racoon believe it or not. This little girl is the one that put me in the hospital and had me out of work for a week and on light duty for a month after that last October when she gave me a nice bite on my right hand.

One of my newest projects, Java an African Bushbaby. These lesser primates can be a challenge but he is so laid back and has such a great personality. He has been a blast to work with.

Goodbye Carmen. I miss you so much already!

They didnt listen to me when i asked them nicely not to bite my feet!

To end on a lighter note the penguins always make me smile(well almost always they can bite pretty hard!) We stopped by the penguin display today to take some pictures and have some fun:) These little guys were some of the penguins that worked with Adam Sandler on the movie 50 first dates:)

For anyone that is wondering where Jacob is during all of this... today he spent a productive day at home... cleaning up the house and catching up on rest... not too exciting but ill try and get him in on some photos this weekend that we have off together:)

Ahhh what a week....

2008-02-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

Miss Mya the Coati.... Only one year old. She reminds me of a little bear so i love working with her!

So what a week i have had. I have only been back in California for a few days but it seems like so much has gone on! Work is always an adventure but this week has been particularly crazy trying to get ready for our show. We open in just a week and two days and it seems like there is always SO MUCH to do! We spent hours working on getting the stage ready, speaking shows and running animals through routines. I have the lovely task of helping to get a routine ready for our one year old Coatimundi Mya. Luckily my coworker Kimberly is also working on the project with me so i dont have to go it alone! It was been a challenge but I love her to death so i am thankful for the experience.

This is Isa, I have been working on becoming a "back Up" for her. what that means for you non animal people is basically the back up is in charge of the life of the trainer walking the animal. As a back up you walk in front of or behind the animal to make sure there is nothing in the way or coming up behind you. For the smaller animals its not quite as impotant but for larger animals like the cougar its good to have an extra pair of eyes and ears to help warn you of situations and we also carry a chain and a cain with us to step in if needed. I havbeen working a lot with the cubs over the past year and they actually outweigh Isa by a good 30 pounds of so, the difference is the mentality of an adult animal compared with one that you personally have helped to raise. Its an expirience for sure...

AHHHH kong... one of the stinkiest animals on earth. Kong is a Tamandua or a lesser ant eater. He weighs about 15 pounds and has a tongue 15 inches long! Tamanduas eat about 9 thousand ants in the wild every day, their diet is a little modified in the zoo world. Kong and I were out exploring the hill by our compound and doing some sun bathing:)

This is me, behind the rhino working on getting our stage ready for our shows this summer. Ahhh... good times, except not really because i had to move that stupid thing about 18 times!

On another note... My heart goes out for the Salmon family right now in Iguigig. I am so sorry for their tragedy. Dan Salmon was a great man, and he built so much character in all of his kids, i feel so blessed to have his girls as some of my most precious friends. You are all in my heart and in my prayers.

Alaskan Grown

2008-02-26T20:29:00.001-08:00

I just returned from a trip home to Alaska. Its always fun to go home and see the family. When I left Alaska 3 1/2 years ago I had just 9 nieces and nephews and now the number has grown to 17! All of my nieces and nephews are getting so big and there seems to always be a few little ones that i havent met yet:) This trip I got to meet Tyler and Malachi my beautiful new nephews. I fell so in love with them in the short time i was able to spend with my babies! Hopefully Jacob will get to meet them all before too long as well. While I was home I got to go shooting with my dad, eat so much good food, and most importantly spend time with my wonderful family. Its good to be back in the arms of my honey Jacob and the warm weather of California, but we will be back in Alaska in December... This time I am bringing Jacob with me:)

Kisses for baby Tyler- the youngest nephew of mine:)

Miss Zoe with Tanalian Mountain in the background

Shooting guns with my papa. he is such a cool dad!

This is me with all of my nieces and nephews... Yup, 17 in all!

Me with my beautiful nephew Malachi... I just met him this past week and i am totally in love!

My brother and sisters and my parents. Glen, myself, Sonnet, Menda, Charis and Mom and Dad

The last few years...

2008-02-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

So We decided so start a blog. We thought it would be nice for all of our family and friends that dont have myspace (mostly for my sisters:) this way i can post new pictures from California:) Jacob and I have had a very busy past few years. After school in Washington we worked in Idaho for a year where I raised bears before we finally made our way to California. We have been living in California for over a year now and we both work at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Jacob is a carpenter now and I am working as an animal trainer. Its quite the life:)