Much of June was spent healing Owen. We had several doctors appointments and lots of physical therapy appointments for his knee. I still can't get over how deep of an indent his knee made in my flower bed. Every time I saw it I was traumatized. If I remember correctly Ainlsey was thoughtful and took it upon herself to clean up the blood that was on the curbing where he fell. I'll forever be grateful that I didn't have to see that.
Logan came to visit Owen often. And we were so grateful! Owen couldn't do much and I struggled keeping him entertained when he wasn't supposed to do much other than his exercises and occasional walking. The boys got really into Connect Four. Which I thought was hilarious and endearing. How many 14 year old boys spend hours of time mastering strategy and technique for Connect Four? Only awesome ones. (On a side note of awesome things Owen does, he's been really into music lately. All kinds of music. Some drives me crazy, but a lot of it I actually like. I especially love it when he plays old classics. My very favorite is when he blasts Frank Sinatra and sings along, in his best operatic voice. I've tried to catch him on video but I have yet to be successful.)
I found this picture of Owen on my phone. It was during our day trip to Warm Lake. We had this trip planned with some friends before Owen had his accident. We had a hard time deciding whether to cancel or go. After getting approval and guidelines from Owen's physical therapist we left the decision up to Owen. He chose to go. I think he realized that ultimately it was the difference between sitting bored at home and sitting bored at the lake. While this picture makes it look like he had a horrible day, I think he was still glad he chose to go. Even if he did spend most of his day sitting on the beach chatting with the parents instead of off playing with the kids.
And thanks to Brandt, we have a million pictures of the day! We spent the day with the McCarneys and the Demars and Brandt's sisters and their families. It was a great day.
For the kids, I think the best day of June was when we told them we were getting a puppy. Covid made me cave to Emmie. That girl has been begging for a dog practically daily for years. (Please don't remind me that we already had a short stint with a dog.) Emmie was relentless. After polling neighbors and friends and family I reluctantly decided I could do it for the kids. I think my uncertainty was finally pushed over the edge when my dad said, "Every kid needs a dog." And then he promised he'd help watch him when we traveled. And I promptly called "No take backs!"
These pictures are from when we went to the breeder to pick our puppy from the litter. Ironically we didn't chose the one we thought we were going to chose. We chose the chubby round puppy that was significantly larger than his siblings. But he was confident and curious and immediately took a liking to the kids. We brought him home about 2 weeks after this picture.
At the end of June, and before we brought the puppy home, we traveled to Utah to go to Rachel Hansen's wedding and to drop off Ainsley for her week in New Hampshire with her best friend Elisabeth. These two are truly kindred spirits, and I hope they are always friends. Ainsley flew to Boston with the Hansens (which we were nervous about but ultimately decided this trip was worth getting Covid over.) I'm so glad she went. She really doesn't have any close friends right now and I knew that being able to spend some time with such a great thing would be incredible for her. And it was. I haven't seen her as happy as she was when she and Elisabeth saw each other. I literally started crying. My one wish for Ainsley is that she could have a best friend that lives nearby, but if she can't have that, I'll take a best friend that lives across the country.
(Owen also got to meet up with his old friend Seth, which was super cute in it's own way.)
Erin was great and kept me updated with lots of pictures while Ainsley was away. Each one made me so happy!
While Ainsley was away we busied ourselves with our new puppy. Leo. We picked him up on our way home from Salt Lake. Ains was a little sad to miss his first few days home, but i assured her she'd have years to bond with our new family member. The kids were in love. He promptly peed on the kitchen floor when we got home. Potty training was scheduled to begin immediately.
We lived in the kitchen for the first several weeks we had him. He wasn't allowed anywhere else. Owen and Emmie took the night shift. They got a true taste of parenthood! They were exhausted. The first night they catered to his every whimper and need. By the second night they were a little more willing to let him cry it out a bit. And by the third night he was happily sleeping through the night. Although we did have to set our alarms for about 7 hours after putting him to bed to let him out to go to the bathroom. But after hearing about others' puppy issues during the nights I won't complain about the early mornings!
It was the end of June when we picked Leo up, so the days were getting hot. My mom was kind and let us bring him to her house to sleep in the shade while the kids swam. We were now tethered to a puppy night and day. The kids did (do) a pretty good job of taking care of all of his needs.
