A visit with Aunt Alli

My future sis-in-law (aka Aunt Alli) stopped by our house on the evening of June 17th (Wow, am I that far behind on this?) on her way home to Monroe, LA, and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was an EVENT. Chris and I were totally unprepared for how excited our kids would be at her arrival. It probably didn’t hurt that she brought my kids’ future cousin/dog Gus, a German shorthaired pointer. The girls had been preparing for several days, making lots of cards, colored pictures, and tissue flowers to give her, and even had the presentation planned out. What followed was an absolutely disgraceful display of attention-hogging and “watch me, watch me!” by my kids. Honestly, Gus demonstrated more patience and manners than any one of my kids, much less taken as a whole. It was embarrassing, folks. So, we had a really fun, quick visit, but next time I’m throwing those kids in bed despite the guaranteed tears so Chris and I can have a real conversation with Allison!

This picture to the right cracks me up. Take a look at Caroline in the bottom corner. She’s a little scared of dogs, although she loves them, but she’s not scared of the tail end, so that’s where she finds a handhold. I’m so impressed with Gus’s concentration – he’s about to shake Elizabeth’s hand, even with Caroline distracting him.

 

 

Caroline squeaking as she gives Gus a treat.

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel is throwing Gus’s chew toy. Ideally, this is not done inside… but we made do.

 

 

 

 

This kinda sums up how my kids feel about Gus, although I’ll admit it might not be mutual. Yeah, there’s little twinge of guilt about how much these kids NEED a dog, but I’ll get over it.