The Log Dog Blog: Life Lately April 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Life Lately April 2023

I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired. Physically tired, yes, but I'm talking about mentally and emotionally. Things have just felt really heavy and it's like I can't get out from under it all. I know there are times like this in everyone's life where so many things seem to be happening at once and you feel like you can't come up for air. I'm hopeful that the dark skies will clear soon.

April was a mixed bag. We started the month in Switzerland, which was a fabulous trip, and then also enjoyed a quick trip to Canada. One pretty cool thing was that C went hiking with my dad in the Grand Canyon. My dad goes with one or both of my brothers just about every year, but C had never gone with him before. This is not a leisurely sightseeing trip, but rather an intense "hike to the bottom of the canyon and back out in one day" excursion. Going down, their trail was about 7 miles with an elevation change of almost 5,000 feet; they came up on a different trail, which was almost 8 miles with an elevation change of almost 4500 feet. They did it in about 16 hours, with the temperature at the bottom of the canyon close to 100 degrees and the temperature at the top at the end of the hike in the 40s. This is not an adventure for the faint of heart! This was C's first time doing it, and I'm so incredibly proud of him! My dad, on the other hand, has done this THIRTY TWO TIMES. 32!!!!! I'm truly in awe.

While C was away, I took Avalanche to daycare three days in a row because things at school were just crazy busy and I didn't want to leave him alone at home for 10+ hours a day. He did great and was excited to jump out of the car each morning, which I took as a very good sign. If you'd told a few months back that I would be a person who takes their dog to daycare, I would have rolled my eyes, and yet here we are.

We also took Avalanche to Ocean City, MD because dogs are allowed on the beach until the end of April. We thought he would be all about the water, but we could not have been more wrong. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the ocean. He was, however, happy to sit on the sand and take in the sights, sounds, and smells.

We spent a couple of weeks helping my mom move - she stayed in the same facility, but transitioned from temporary respite care and is now a full-time resident. That meant moving her things - furniture, clothing, etc. - from our house over the course of many trips. We were packing her stuff, disassembling furniture, loading up our cars, driving out to her place, moving stuff in, reassembling said furniture, and unpacking belongings. Most of this happened in the evenings after we'd worked all day, so it was grueling, but other than a few things we still need to get, she is settled in her new apartment now.

Two happy things from the month:

1) After far too long, WDW started selling annual passes again, so we jumped at the opportunity to become passholders again. We won't activate them until August, but we have plans to go one weekend a month next school year, which is something we did during the 2008-2009 school year.

2) The Toronto Maple Leafs won a playoff round for the first time since 2004. If you aren't a hockey fan, you might not understand the enormity of this, but trust me, it is a HUGE deal. The disappointment year after year after year was so frustrating...and we know there's no guarantee they'll advance any further, but for now, we are reveling in this victory!