Claire had a very hard time walking around the jump house with all the kids tossing her around. She had a moment alone in the jump house and was able to enjoy it a little more.

Matthew found a use for the jump house screen that I hadn’t yet seen. Of course, I don’t spend much time around jump houses, but this looked awfully strange to me.

Matthew gave Kai his first John Deere die cast tractor. Now they have matching tractors.

Claire’s a lot of fun to push because she looks back and gives that cute smile to show that she’s really enjoying the ride. She doesn’t care for the helmet so much though. We eventually just decided to let her ride without it since the seat has straps that keep her from falling.

At first, helping Matthew ride is a little hard on our backs. You can see Jenn reaching over and holding the handlebars. Matthew was having a mild panic if we let go. I think he was mainly panicked because he realized that he didn’t know how to use the breaks. So we focused on helping him learn to use the breaks. Which basically amounted to me pushing him to experience going fast. I would then encourage and later yell at him to stop, peddle backwards. Then I would reach down and manually push his foot backwards so that he associated and experienced stopping with the backwards peddle motion. He somewhat understood during our training sessions, but was still mostly panicking. Suddenly, one day without my coaching, he pushed the peddles backwards hard, stopping on a dime. And I’ve seen him use the breaks several times to avoid running into things. Now he loves using the breaks so much that we have to ask him to stop using the breaks!

When I first bought the bike it needed some minor adjustments to the seat height and the training wheels. In the photo above, Matthew is stopping to “pretend” fix things. I think on this adventure we even brought the wrench because Matthew wanted to be prepared to fix the bike along the way. Don’t tell him, but actually, there was nothing wrong with it. Ssshhh!

And here’s Claire as a pink poodle.

One of our neighbors was very scary with her real live snake around her neck.

Another neighbor had setup his sideyard as a haunted house experience, complete with animated skeletons and scary sounds. It was the most crowded house on the block when we first arrived, with literally around 50 people flocking around the front and girls were screaming with terror.

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Back on the beach, Claire seemed to have the same personality as Sayrah. Claire would get wet by the waves but keep on going back. Sayrah used to do the same thing. And coincidentally we sometimes call Claire, “Sayrah”, by accident. I joke that we’re changing her name to Sayrah from now on.

That night back at home I put her in the backyard for fear that we might wake up to a pool of blood on our carpet. At around 2 am I woke up and checked on her, she was asleep. At around 4 am I woke up again and checked on her and her head was up and she was awake. So I put on some warm cloths and went out and layed with her. I went back and forth from spending time with her, crying and doing other things around the house.

Morning time came, I made latte’s, breakfast, took showers, got dressed, etc. Sayrah’s scheduled time was 11am. So there was plenty of time for everyone to say their goodbyes. Jenn and I were going to the vet while my mother and father watched Claire and Matthew.

The drive to the vet was very difficult. I was crying, and Sayrah was making whimpering sounds in the back. I reassured Sayrah that it’s okay, everything will be already and it will all be over soon. She quieted down after that.

Once we arrived at the vet, Jenn said a prayer of thanx to God for Sayrah while I cried. I went in to let the staff know I was there with Sayrah. They said they would come out and get me. I opened up the back of the Tahoe were Sayrah was laying. Jenn and I sat in the back of the truck with her and told her how good of a dog she’s been and how we love her and will miss her. We talked to her about all the things we appreciated about her. In all her years with us. She never bit anyone. She was always so tolerant of Matthew and Claire’s irritating things they would do. There’s so many good things to say about her.

She was sniffing around at the tidbits of treats that were around her, so I put the rest of the freeze dried liver treats and more of the beef treats and she ate them up.

A lady came out to get us, I carried her through a side door so I didn’t have to go through the lobby. At this point my heart was racing. I was trying not to cry because not only was I walking out in the open, but I had to carry Sayrah and didn’t want to drop her. But I couldn’t hold anything back at this point. I was a sobbing while carrying my dog. I felt like I was in one of those war movies carrying a wounded friend who was shot on the battlefield and wasn’t going to make it.

We walked into a small room and placed her up on the metal table that had a towel covering it. Sayrah didn’t struggle, but quietly layed there. The vet came in and took one look at her wound and knew in a moment that she was ready to go. She explained that the vet techs would come in and prepare her arm to receive the injection. We would step out while they do this and they would call us back in. Then we could spend more time with her. When we were ready for the injection, I would poke my head out into the hallway and let the staff know that we were ready.

The vet techs placed an IV in her leg with a receptical for a syringe. Some dogs would give a struggle and it would become a little unnerving, which is why the wanted us to step out during that time. But we were later told that she was a very sweet and peaceful dog during this and gave no struggle or whimpers to the vet techs. She was ready to go.

Before the injection, we spent maybe 10 minutes with her, saying our goodbyes, crying, telling her we love her, petting her, and kissing her. Then we called the vet in for the injection. She explained that it was basically a narcotic overdose that would first give a cold sensation up her arm and would soon after stop her heart.

I told the vet to wait, while I knelt down next to the table so that my face was level with Sayrah’s. I held her face up to mine, cradled it in my hands and looked into her eyes. I told the vet I was ready. She began the injection and I told Sayrah again and again that I love her, she’s been such a good girl, “that’s my girl”. She pulled her head up out of my hands for a moment as she felt the narcotic solution’s coldness come through her leg. I directed her head back into my hands and continued telling her “I love you Sayrah”. In a moment, I felt the weight of her head slowly rest completely in my hands. I let her head down and kissed her face. Jenn burst out into tears and crying, as did I.

The vet said “that was the most peaceful euthanasia we’ve seen in a long time”. She said, “she was ready to go”. She gave us hugs and comforted us and told us we can spend as much time as we wanted with her. And if I wanted to have some hair shaved off Sayrah, I could pick a spot, and let her know when we were ready.

We spent another 5-10 minutes with Sayrah, telling her our goodbyes, kissing her, smelling her. Each time was to be the last, but I didn’t want it to end. Even though she was dead, I didn’t want to leave her. Her eyes were still open and it seemed perhaps she can still see and hear me. I continued to look into her eyes and tell her, “I love you, Sayrah” and everything else.

Looking into her face I always appreciated how beautiful a dog she is. It was as if God had dressed her face up with makeup. She had beautiful eyes, eyelashes, coloring on her face. I would often tell her, “that’s my beautiful girl”.

I wanted to remember her smell forever, so I breathed in deep to smell her. My favorite spot being the same spot I love to kiss. It’s between her eyes and her nose, right on the side of her face. It’s like three’s a little nook there to hide away a kiss. Jenn also kissed and smelled the spot.

I called the vet back and she shaved the spot under her neck were she has a beautiful strip of white fur that meets with the tan fur. She shaved along the border where we got a mix of white and tan fur and put it in a small ziplock bag.

We spent another 5-10 minutes after with Sayrah, repeatedly spending our last moments with her, and not wanting any moment to be the last. At a break in our emotions, we left, paid the clerk in the front office and got back in the truck. Jenn was driving, so she climbed into the driver’s seat, and I into the passenger’s seat. As we prepared to leave, we each had one last welling up as we realized we were leaving her at the vet and wouldn’t see her again. Jenn was crying more than me at this point. I asked Jenn if she wanted me to drive. She gave a sobbing laugh, saying no. We headed back home where I spent more time crying and sobbing on my bed.

The day before, I had already decided to make use of my day off and take the kids to the pumpkin patch since Halloween would be on Friday. There would be very little time during the rest of the week to take them and it would be a good break from the sadness. When grandma and grandpa brought the kids back to us it’s always amazing how they just cheer me right up. They truly are a blessing.

Matthew doesn’t like me to be sad. He’s says, “Daddy are you sad?“.

I’ll say, “Yes, I miss Sayrah.“

He’ll say, “It’s okay Daddy. It’s okay.“

We’ll ask him. “Where’s Sayrah?“

He’ll say, “She’s in heaven, with Jesus.“

We’ll say, “That’s right Matthew. You’re right, it’s okay.“

They they played a game of following simple fun instructions involving a little red cloth.

Meanwhile, Claire sorta did her own thing.

And the parents were up against the wall with their cameras.

One of the hardest things for Matthew was to stand still on the little spot.

Then they did a little tumble routing, each person taking a turn.

They also had some yummy cake and played with balloons. It was a lot of fun and what a treat Annie had to spend her Birthday with friends in such a exciting place.