July/August

 July started with Caleb and the kids heading North to visit family.  Bowzer, unfortunately, has extreme anxiety and reactiveness so traveling with him or leaving him places hasn't been much of an option for us so far.  We're working through it with patience, but this time I had to stay home to take care of the little monster.

The kids always have a blast and I was very thankful to receive pictures while they were away.  

When they came home we, of course, had to have some Bruster's trips

On August 14 Caleb and I celebrated 14 years married.  We had the best time at our favorite fancy date night.

And the next week was the kids first week back to school. 

When we took the kids for their back to school checkups she said Casen has officially grown 5 inches since this time last year so it's a bit crazy how much they've changed since last.  Casen is in his last year of middle school and Arya her last year of elementary.

Now we are officially back into the school year schedule of things and ready for cooler weather!

June

 We got to start out June with a lot of fun.  Pat was awesome and invited us to join them to Hershey Park.  We had a great quick trip and the kids had a blast.

Mac, Jo, and the dads were on this particular ride

We've been doing lots of training and this guy tests the limits of having to stay on his place.

But gets away with it because he's cute

We got to celebrate Father's Day and my birthday.  I love when they're close together.  Caleb set up the cutest decorations and thanks to twinner I was spoiled with sweets too.

We got to head to another concert this month.  We've seen Ice Nine Kills and Falling in Reverse before, but since they are our favorites, when we saw they were touring together, 20 minutes from our house, two days before Casen's birthday, it was a no brainer.

And, of course, the last day of the month Casen somehow turned 13.  He's kind of too cool for pictures, but he got to take some friends for jump park and laser tag.  He had an overnight filled with pizza, brownies, ice cream, and staying up way too late.  We got to finish the final moments of his bday as a family playing some good ol Mario.  I can't believe how quickly he's growing up.  

May

 Caleb and Casen started out May getting to go to Caleb's I think favorite band, Lorna Shore.  It's pretty awesome having concerts back to normal and living about 20 minutes from a major concert venue.  

Since security is Henrico, they even got to sneak in to the front.

Also just wanted to throw in there, for Mother's Day Caleb got me this flower lego set.  It was super fun to put together and it's really nice to have flowers that never go away.  So if you're looking for a gift, highly recommend. 

We've been a little all consumed with this guy.  He starts with a trainer this week so he can hopefully realize the kids aren't his litter mates and put how smart he is to good use.

And we ended May with the kids last day of school for the year.  We now have a 5th and 8th grader.  Auntie Mo spoiled them with a surprise breakfast their first day off.

March/April

 I think March was pretty empty.  All of us got covid for the second time so not much fun was had.

April we got to have some visitors join us for Easter.  I wish both Caleb and my health would've cooperated a little better, but we still got to enjoy the days.

The kids got to make (and sample) some Easter chocolates.

They got to enjoy their easter baskets.  I don't know how I didn't get any other pictures, but now that the kids are older it just seems to be how it goes.

And long before April arrived, Caleb and I stumbled across a puppy.  If you know us at all, you know we weren't entirely sold on getting a dog.  Arya has literally been asking for a puppy for 10 years.  She had a puppy themed first birthday party because that's all she wanted and loved.  Both kids have consistently asked every year, but it never seemed to go farther than that.  

Well, we saw a picture on a rescue website.

I showed Caleb the picture and he said that's the one.

It ended up being a litter of 9 at a rescue in Texas.  They found the mom and babies on the side of the road eating a dead animal and all of them were starving.  We went through the whole adoption process, interview, house study, all that fun stuff and we ended up getting the pick of the bunch.

Bowzer officially joined the family in April.  They have no idea his birthday, but the best guest is 4ish months.  We know his mom is a german shepard, but no idea who the dad is, some of the litter looks like it could be black lab mixed, some of the litter looked like it could have belgian malinois in them (with Bowzers personality so far we're thinking the latter is a definite possibility.)

We kept the entire thing a surprise from the kids in case it didn't pan out.  When it's a rescue place you never even know if they'll still be there the next day.  The plan was to get to surprise them when they came home from school.  However, he was in a transport coming from Texas so he ended up arriving to our neck of the woods at about 2am.  We were then going to try to surprise them when they would wake up from school in the morning, but he went so crazy with his squeaker toys that both kids woke up.  I wasn't able to get Casen's reaction because we weren't expecting him to come down, but I did catch Aryas'.  Mind you it was literally 3 in the morning, so she actually told us the next day she thought it was all a dream.

So the rest of our month has been full on puppy mode.  He's a little insane ball of energy.  He is super super smart.  He gets most things in one training session. He'll play fetch as long as you'd like to, chase any squirrel in the yard, and zoomies I think are his favorite pass time.  Unfortunately, we're not sure if it was his life before rescue, or personality, or the transport here, he is definitely scared of I think just about everything, including his own shadow and the wind.  We're hoping soon he knows he's completely safe and gets to settle in, but he sure is making life interesting.

This is how he sleeps, which is one of the weirdest things i've ever seen.

He likes to snuggle in the mornings.

Arya said these are the best moments she's ever had in her life.

The floor is lava when he plays fetch

So, welcome to our crazy family Bowzer, you fit right in.