A Week of Firsts

This is Carter's first week in the mission field. He left on Tuesday, which seems like forever ago.

In reality, it's only been five days. But I keep thinking, I just have to get to Wednesday and then I get a letter. Then, I just have to get to the next Wednesday. I do better if I just think a week at a time rather than try to picture the whole thing.
Suddenly, two years seems like a really long time.

Here at home, we've been enjoying our last few days of summer. We tended the Remund's (family friends) cute little yorkie while they took a trip up north. His name is Coda and he was a delight to have around. The kids ran around the house and played with him. He weighs a whopping five poutnds, doesn't shed, and his poop is about the size of a tootsie roll. Even Tyler was smitten. 

We are officially Coda fans.

He found Carter's room and jumped on Carter's bed. 

Of course, I haven't been able to clean his room or change his sheets yet, 

I just left everything just as it was. I'll get to it next week.... I just wasn't ready yet. 

We also spent time at the pool. I went grocery shopping on Saturday and Spencer found this inflated dolphin in the toy aisle. I told him we could get it if it was less than $10.

It was $7.99, so we had a deal. He walked around with it in his personal cart the whole time I was at the store -- just to make sure some other kid didn't come in and buy the last porpoise while we were in the juice aisle.

What's better than an inflatable porpoise to give your pool life extra meaning?

We took the dolphin "Willy" to Grandma's pool. 

The boys had a blast. 

It was worth every penny.

This next week is busy! In addition to being Carter's first full week out on a mission,
it is April's 7th birthday on Wednesday, and Chelsea's 16th birthday on Thursday.
It's also the first day of school on Thursday. Lots of exciting firsts!