Our New Addition

Have you ever taken a trip that completely changed your life?

One month ago... we did.

Remember THIS?

Well, after saving and saving.... finally their work paid off!

It was all planned! The day of our eight hour road trip to Oregon to pick up our puppy was finally here. The excitement of Christmas morning even felt incomparable!

First stop - to buy a collar for Gunner. We all agreed that red would be his color after seeing all the pictures that the wonderful breeder had been sending us the past eight weeks.

Now, there was nothing to stop us.... well.... except for the coolest looking slide at a park in Oregon!

AND some beautiful scenery .....

After that, we just couldn't get there to meet little Gunner fast enough!

Once there, we were taken on a wonderful tour of Thornwood Labradors. Imagine forty-five beautiful English Labradors all extremely excited to see us! It was quite overwhelming!! It was hard for everyone to wait.... but finally the time came. Finally, it was time to meet the puppy who would be coming home with us to stay!

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It was love at first sight... for everyone!

The kids didn't want to go to the hotel that night without Gunner, but we all knew we had to. We had fun that night, talking about what it was like to meet him and what it would be like - life with a dog. (I don't think they had a clue what this was really going to be like!)

You can imagine how excited everyone was to wake up and get ready the next morning, the day we actually took Gunner home!

The drive home was great because Gunner was so calm, just trying to figure out what the heck was going on!

Every hour, on the hour, we stopped so Gunner could pee. We have read that he needs plenty of praise when he pees outside..... well, he definitely isn't short of praise around here!

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This is a big swarm of praise around him!

Poor Gunner had no privacy - the kids all watched intently till he peed - okay, we all did.

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Even when he ate, nobody could take their eyes off of him! During the drive, everyone sat in the official "hold Gunner" chair for 1/2 hour at a time. They could all hardly wait their turn to stare at and snuggle with him!

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Introducing Gunner to his new home was really fun for the kids (and chaotic and crazy too)!

Welcome to your new home Gunner! We really think you will love it here with us!

After such a looooooooong day.... what we all really needed, was sleep.

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And if you think that really happened.....THINK AGAIN!!!

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It has been one month since we welcomed Gunner into our home. It has been wonderful, terrible, difficult, exciting, frustrating, fantastic, and exhausting. After four children, I can honestly say, that these puppy days have been just as overwhelming as those newborn days. But I can also honestly say, that I KNEW it would be this hard, and thank goodness I had been mentally preparing for almost a year now. I would have gone completely insane by now had I not!

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So, it's a new world for the Schultz's. But you know, perhaps the most interesting view about this whole experience, is right through Gunner's Eyes!