Dog day of Summer

Today we drove 420 miles (round trip, mind you) leaving home at 6am to go down to Minneapolis to the dog park. Mom and I, Alex and Emma, and Hailey, Kate and Chloe.

Eric stayed home with Comet. She got spayed on Wednesday, and although she's feeling fine, she's under strict doctor's orders: no water until the sutures come out... 10 to 14 days. In other words: NO FUN until the stitches are out. We could not imagine taking her along, and having to keep her on a leash in the dog park, where dogs are allowed to roam free, to keep her out of the Mississippi River while her mom, aunt, sister and daughter all go play like water babies. Wouldn't be fair, and there's no way to explain it to a dog... Eric volunteered to stay home with her, and although he is the youngest of my children, he is also the one I trust most to stay home alone. I did not worry that he would bail on her and go spend the day with his friends (Alex) or invite a bunch of his friends into my home to create a mess, and again, ignore the dog (Emma).

So we went, and it was wonderful... after I got over the initial worry of Hailey. See, she is my dog, and she listens to me, only me, and only MOST of the time. She's also slightly nervous aggressive... nervous dominant, I guess. I was concerned how she'd be at the park with strange dogs, unleashed and roaming free.

Not a problem, not at all. So I relaxed. She was wonderful, she came whenever I called, and she played in the mud, and ran (FAST!) up ahead on the trails, and then came back to make sure I was still there, and she jumped in the river and swam out after rocks that Emma skipped and she had this smile (yes, dogs DO smile!) plastered on her face the entire time.

You see, yesterday, July 24th was Hailey and Kate's birthday... they turned 7 years old.

I will be posting pictures soon, I'm too tired to upload, view and resize, save and publish them tonight. But it was great, it was so much fun, and next time, JP and Comet will join us.

Speaking of JP, he'll be home next weekend... home from his last summer 2 week camp. Then we just need to get through the next year of drill weekends, and then he's no longer Staff Sergeant Honeybear, he's just my husband, Honeybear. Officially retired at the age of 38 (well, he will be 38 by next July!) Just one more week... and then one more year.