Happy Fathers' Day!

To all the wonderful fathers in my life, I hope you have a great Fathers' Day. And to my sweet husband and my own wonderful Dad, I love you! Thank you for being such wonderful fathers! Remember that you are loved in this world and the next.

Water Park Fun!

My family came to visit last week. It's always so great to have them here. We had a wonderful week that just wasn't long enough! We spent time doing all the "fun" things around here...sweating, sitting under a fan, waiting for the A/C to cool us down. But we also did things we don't usually do. One day we went to a fun water park down in Tempe.

The kids all had fun, but Julia was in heaven! She is finally tall enough to go on the tube slides and start doing all the fun stuff. She went on every single slide and loved it.

Just when I was thinking she is a bit of a thrill seeker, she discovered the wave pool. They had some fun rafts that Julia started riding like a boogie board. She wanted to go out deeper and deeper to get the biggest waves. She could have done it all day long!

Belle

For those of you who don't know, our dog Janey ended up getting really sick about a week after we got her. She got Valley Fever and it went into her joints so she couldn't use her back legs. It was really sad, especially for Julia, but we had to say good-bye to Janey.
At first Ben and I were inclined to just leave it at that. We tried the dog thing and it didn't work out. But Julia and Kara were both really bummed.
 Kara kept saying, "Puppy, puppy?" allllllll day long. For weeks.
Julia was really sad too.
So the Monday after school got out with the prospect of a long, lonely summer ahead for Julia, Ben and I found her a new dog.

This time we decided to go with a new puppy in the hopes of training it "our way" instead of trying to re-train an older dog. Julia fell more in love with this sweet little pup than she was with Janey. When I mentioned it, Ben pointed out that she carries this one around like a baby every where.

So far she's a typical puppy. Happy, energetic, likes to nibble and very loving. Julia named her Belle, because "she's the prettiest dog ever!"

Kara still loves to let the dog lick her face. (I still think ewwww every time.)

Julia really wanted to let her sleep in her bed. I said no, but later we couldn't find the puppy in the kitchen and I knew exactly where to look.

 I was very opposed and went to move the puppy back, but Ben suggested that one night would solve the problem. Julia's a clean person and puppies aren't always so clean. It totally worked. One night of the puppy getting the sheets wet was enough to convince Julia to have her stay in the kitchen. So when I can't find Julia now I know where to look.

We totally love the sweet puppy and are having lots of fun with her!

So here's hoping that Belle will be a friend to the girls for many years to come!