Eight is Great

Back in July, this handsome boy turned 8.

We spent the day at Black Ridge Reservoir in Herriman with our good friends the Snedakers.  The boys had an absolute blast playing on the sandy beaches and in the warm water.  We will definitely be going back there next summer.

For his birthday, Carson had really wanted a dog.  My boys have wanted a dog for the longest time but we have always told them no because our backyard isn't fenced.  Jeff had challenged our boys to keep their Legos cleaned up for 2 weeks(a really big challenge because with four little boys we ALWAYS have Legos on the floor somewhere!) and he told them that if they did, he would consider getting a dog. Well, our boys sure wanted a dog and they were very diligent about keeping their Legos cleaned up. After considering a lot of options, we decided we wanted to go with a medium to large sized dog because we felt it would be more "durable" with four little boys. Carson kept praying really hard that Heavenly Father would send him a doggie that would be perfect for our family.  One day about a week before Carson's birthday I decided that we'd better get looking for a dog and decided to set up an appointment with some people who were selling a dog online.  I also told the boys that we would be going to the shelter to look.  I told them we were NOT going to get a dog that day, but that we needed to start looking around so we could decide what we wanted.

We went to the shelter first, and after a quick walk through, Carson picked out a few big dogs that he wanted to look at more closely in the "getting to know you" rooms.  As we walked through the small dog area, I noticed a cute little terrier that looked very friendly and was the only dog not yapping at us. After being told that one of the big dogs Carson wanted to look at was not recommended for kids and the other one had been returned to the shelter for destroying property, I suggested looking at the little terrier. My boys instantly fell in love with this sweet little dog.  I reminded them that we weren't getting a dog that day, and we were just looking.  I asked the shelter worker if they could hold the dog for us until Saturday and she said that they don't hold dogs.  She also said that the terriers are usually adopted in a few days.  We had to leave the shelter to go meet our appointment with the dog that was being sold online.

We drove to our appointment and met up with Jeff to see a 6 month old Boxer mix.  Jeff had a Boxer dog when we were dating and he loves those kinds of dogs.  Carson, again fell in love with the dog (I think he'd love any dog!) but Mason and Jonas were scared of the bigger dog and didn't like that she jumped so much. In fact, Jonas wouldn't even get out of the van to go see the dog. We told the man we'd have to think about getting the dog.  Since Jeff was now off work, we drove back to the shelter to show him the little terrier and to look at the other dogs again.  As we walked through the shelter, Jeff and the boys picked out another big dog, a Walker Hound, to look at it.  It seemed nice enough, just high energy, and it frightened Mason and Jonas.  We looked at the terrier again and the boys were in love. The shelter was running a special for July and all dogs were $17.76 and they came neutered, with a rabies shot, microchip, voucher for a free vet visit, and a bag of food.  This made it very easy for us to choose the little terrier! He is the absolute sweetest little dog and we love him so much.  After trying out several different names on him, we finally settled on Oliver.

Carson loves his little dog and his favorite thing is to have Oliver come hop on his bed at night and sleep with him.