EEEEEEEEEK!!!!

Also, ICK!!

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

If you've Kept Up With The Brinkerhoffs over the past year, you've more than likely seen a picture of Jasper, our newest cat. Despite kinda being bamboozled into adopting him by my clever niece Alicia and her husband Daniel, we've accepted him into our pride, and have decided he's pretty cool to have around.



Though he is almost always pictured curled up on a chair, couch, or warm body, he is actually a highly skilled, bred-for-success hunter.

He's demonstrated his skill from time to time - we found a ratsicle outside last December, and early this Spring, he brought a dead mouse or bird (sorry, I can't remember the specifics) into the dining room while Cindy was having a lunch with some of her friends from church.

But we'd never actually witnessed the hunt in action. For all we know, he just had a subscription to the "Dead Vermin o' the Month Club".

Now we know that's not the case.

Last night, Jasper was hanging out by the couch in the living room, but rather than sleeping on it, he was howling at it. On top of it, next to it, in front of it, howling, howling, howling. I was starting to get annoyed by him, so to give him the benefit of the doubt, I peeked behind the couch.

As I suspected, nothing there. Crazy Cat!!!

Then he repositioned himself at the side of the couch, crouched as low as his feline body could get him.

And howled.

I thought, "Man, that cat has lost his mind!" but to have a clean conscience when I scooped him up and tossed him outside, I got down on the floor in front of the couch and looked under it.

Nothing.

Then, just to show that I really was giving him the benefit of the doubt, I put my hand under it and pushed up the bottom fabric.

And saw an outline. A distinctly mouse-shaped outline.

I didn't go all '60s Sitcom Crazy and jump up and start screaming, but I was stunned! A mouse... INSIDE our house... I called to Cindy in the next room, and told her what I had found. After confirming that THAT was why Jasper had been acting so psychotic, she suggested taking the broom and scooping Mr. Mousey out toward our waiting hunter.

Brilliant plan!

As I pushed the broom under the couch, I looked at Jasper and said "This one's for you!"

What happened next was a great example of the circle of life... ya know, the death part of the circle of life!

Jasper became a blur of teeth and claws, there was some squeaking, some scuttling, and in about five seconds, he came strutting into the living room with his prize dangling from his jaws.

It took a little convincing to get him to go outside with his new plaything, and when he did, it seems he found another one, because he spent the next half hour playing cartoon-style Cat 'n' Mouse with it, at one point even holding its tail while it ran in place...

Yes, being a Western Washington Native, I felt a tingle of guilt. But then I remembered that it was IN MY HOUSE, and I started rooting for Jasper again.

Hey Alicia, thanks for the great cat!

All's Quiet on the Hen House Front

Tonight looked very promising. After that last post, I did as I said - I went out and released the hens so they could have some free outside time, and to give them an opportunity to do the right thing at bedtime.

As the sun was starting to set, I looked and saw one of the girls walk up the ramp and into the house all by herself! YEAH!!

Then she walked back out... but that's okay, it wasn't really bedtime yet.

Then a while later, a bunch of the youth from church stopped by, doing an "amazing race" of quick service projects at as many houses as they could. Part of the fun of coming to our house was, of course, to see Danee... But the other part was getting to see, hold, and pose for pictures with, our chickens.

It wasn't dark yet, but the three model citizen hens had done the right thing, and were perched on their roost waiting for night time. Psycho Chicken (aka Trouble) was still wandering around outside, not giving me a lot of confidence that she had any intentions of caving to The Man...

Then to make matters more interesting, suddenly two carloads of teenagers were grabbing chickens out of their cozy hen house and holding them for pictures, pretending to lick and/or eat them, etc, etc, and yes, etc.

When they all left, I had my doubts that the girls would go back in... So I checked outside regularly. They'd be huddled outside the door as if pondering going in... Then they'd be nowhere near the door...

Finally after bathing Danee and putting her to bed, I went out to check on them. Imagine my utter shock when this is what I saw through the little side window!!



Ahhhh... Nighty Night, Little Henny Pennies!

Kids @ Play

Tyler wrapped up his Basketball season last week, and I missed the last game of the year, thanks to a baby girl who decided - right as we were about to leave - that she was hungry, and needed to be fed RIGHT. THAT. MINUTE.

But I did make it to the team banquet after the game! Tyler forgave us for missing the game, on the condition that he got to hold his baby sister...



There was one thing his team did this year that I really liked. Instead of giving the kids yet another trophy to collect dust on some shelf, they made up T-Shirts with the team logo! That, along with a certificate made for a bunch of happy kids, including our own Tyler!



We mentioned a couple weeks ago that Water Polo season was upon us, and that Ellysa made the cut and is on the Varsity squad! It's a huge accomplishment for her, and we're very proud! Time for a fresh batch of pics to capture the 2009 Varsity Water Polo experience.

First, here she is, with some teammates, coming out from the locker room to the pool.



About to jump in, looking relaxed and happy.



Then it's like a bunch of sharks in a feeding frenzy, only it's high school girls instead of sharks, and they're not fighting over a wounded seal, but a volleyball-looking ball... and they have to tread water the whole time! (Ellysa is #9, on the right)



As she pulls herself out of the water, you can see the exhaustion on her face. But her eyes remain glued on the ball!



At the end of the game, it's all worthwhile. Another opponent bites the dust.



And since these days, it feels like a post isn't complete without a picture of Jasper sleeping on something not meant for him. He's upgraded from the boring old recliner, to Danee's vibrating bouncy chair! Next time I see him sleeping in there, I'm totally turning on the vibrating feature...

Commenting on Your Comments

It's time once again to turn this whole blogging thing inside-out! Normally, we post things, and then you respond to them. But every now and then, your responses are so great, that we want to respond back - but don't know whether or not you'd actually check back to see if we had, so we do a post like this. Got it? Good!

First up:

Last week I posted some info about Ellysa playing Water Polo. My cousin Amy responded...



Thanks, Amy! We love it too! Ellysa had tried Soccer and Softball, but she is a true Water Baby. Her sports are Swim Team in the fall, and Water Polo in the Spring. Also, she just received her lifeguard certification, and hopes to spend this upcoming summer down at the neighborhood pool, working as a lifeguard!

---

Also last week, I posted a picture of our Jasper kitty snuggling in our (his?) recliner. There were a couple noteworthy responses to that, from my wife and my sister...




Yes, as Cindy stated, he is the best Mighty Hunter Cat we've ever had - which is cool, although it is kinda unsettling that those vermin are around in the first place... And Susan.. Oh Susan... Rusty the guinea pig is no longer with us... But don't worry, he's in a better place. A much better place! One of last summer's daycare kids has a dad who fell head over heels for Rusty, and they adopted him from us! He's so spoiled now that he even goes to grandma's house every day so he's not home in an empty house all by himself. The only downside in this situation is that I don't have any pics to put up here for you!

---

I'm sure by now, all of you went and entered my niece Heidi's contest, where the winner will receive a mythical Box o' Awesome! Her rules stated that I had to promote it on my blog, which I did. I didn't think I did anything special, but Heidi said...


Thank you, Heidi. I look forward to opening the Awesome! The unboxing ceremony will be shown here!

---

Heidi also asked a good question about our upcoming trip to the Temple, where Cindy and I will be Sealed...



Like I said, it's a good question! We don't have a set date yet, but we're getting close. What we can tell you, is that we'll be doing it at the Seattle Temple, and that's a good thing because there appear to be a lot of people who want to come with us, and we've been told that Seattle has a large Sealing Room! We're waiting until the adoption is finalized, and it's looking like it'll be sometime in April.

---

My cousin Debie just had a baby of her own last week! I've been thinking for a while, that it would be really nice if we lived in the Tri-Cities so that Danee and her Emma could be friends. What is it they say about great minds??



Yeah... Some day, hopefully not TOO far down the road, we'll get a chance to be neighbors!

---

My sister Susan, always willing to give out loving, sisterly advice, was very concerned that we let Danee fall asleep in our bed...



Oh don't kid yourself Su!! I could NEVER forget the terror that was Brian being weaned from Mom and Dad's bedroom! I shared a room with him at the time, so when they locked him in the room, who do you think got to hear the screaming the loudest??

I love Brian dearly, but that was a kid with issues, man!! You weren't around for some of the worst, but Janice and I could tell you stories - oh, the stories!! Anyway, Danee doesn't ALWAYS go to sleep in our bed, but it is her favorite place. She also does a good job of laying down in her crib and putting herself to sleep. Right now, as I type this, she's doing that. I hear her in the monitor occasionally pretend-crying, but she's been quiet for five minutes now, so I think she's asleep!

---

And finally, to top off my blogging week (and this post) my cousin Kendra, a long time lurker, first time commenter, had this to say about my Friday Funny post this week:



THANK YOU!! Obviously, I already had the funny pictures... But I love sharing the fun, and all it takes is an occasional comment like that to remind me that it's worth doing. When a comment like that comes from a normally silent lurker, I know that the Friday Funny post serves a vital purpose and must continue!

So there you have it! Your questions and comments have been answered, Danee went to sleep without snuggling in our bed, and I actually had enough time on the computer to put up a post about all of it! AMAZING!!

Six More Weeks of Winter...

The Ground Hog saw his shadow today... I could be disappointed but...

This news just gives me more time to plan for our spring garden!!

Happy Ground Hogs Day!

Good-bye to a Feline Friend

Kaylee had to make a very mature decision. A hard one, but a decision only she could make. For her 9th birthday Mike and I let Kaylee choose a kitten to bring home for her very own. She choose a noisy little tabby cat that was cute as a button and that really wanted to come home with us. The problem was that this little cat was afraid. I mean afraid of everyone and everything. She occasionally would let us pet her and Kaylee hold her. But that trust wasn't consistent and it never lasted long. We decided after three years of coaxing and sweet talking with no lasting affect. That maybe Tabby's nature was to be wild, a feral cat, one who would be happier in a barn chasing mice, away from the people she so feared.

Last night a new family came and picked up Tabby. They live in Gig Harbor on 5 acres. We hope she will be happier there. Kaylee is sad, she will miss her loved one. I am proud of her, what an unselfish choice she has made, a mature one.

Good-bye Tabby, we hope that you will enjoy your new home, bounding through acres of land, catching mice and being free to be a wild kitty. We love you!

Tastes Like Chicken?

This is our little Pink Lady apple tree in our front yard! It's been there for two years now, and for the first time, has real, credible, edible apples on it!

But this is no ordinary Pink Lady apple tree... It's FORTIFIED!!

Allow me to explain...

In Spring 2006, we got four baby chicks, because they're cute, and because the make eggs way fresher and tastier than anything you can get at the store. We had a much easier time naming them than we are having coming up with a name for NewBabyGirl who is coming in a few weeks... In fact, we were rather proud of the names we had come up with!

Two of them were named after chickens in the movie "Chicken Run", Babs & Ginger. One was named Marzipan, after the character on HomestarRunner.com. And for the 4th one, we got REALLY creative!! The first pet we ever got was a kitty, who we appropriately named Kitty. So naturally, if we had a cat named Kitty, we HAD to have a chicken named Chicken. So we did.

The chicks grew quickly, and before we knew it, they began to look like chickens. Chicken herself was leading the way developmentally, and was showing signs that she would soon start laying eggs. Then one August morning at about 4:00, my peaceful summer slumber was shattered by the most horrible sound I'd ever heard. It woke me up from a deep sleep the first time it went off, and I laid there wondering what it had been. Before I'd come up with any good answers, it went off again. It wasn't cats fighting, but it was definitely not human. After the third time, I heard a quiet "cluck" after the screechy noise, and immediately knew that something had gotten into the hen house.

Normally we lock the henhouse up every night to prevent such intrusions. But I'd gotten home late that night and forgot to check... So naturally that was also the night that a raccoon came prowling through our yard on the hunt for food. And it felt like Chicken Tonight. As soon as I heard that telltale cluck, I threw some clothes on and ran outside, with Cindy close behind, armed with a flashlight. It didn't take long to find our poor, now dead Chicken... And it was Chicken who had been grabbed. At first we weren't sure what had gotten her, but then a rustling in the bushes led us to a raccoon who was waiting (impatiently) for us to leave so it could take its kill off and eat it. I had other ideas... I told Cindy to shine the light right in its eyes, and just as I'd hoped, the 'coon froze, balanced on top of our fence. I looked around for something substantial to throw at it. I found a brick, wound up, and clocked it right on the side of its head, spinning it around and off the fence. Immediately, Kitty took off after it, and they disappeared into the night. We hears occasional fighting noises, but didn't see anything else from either of them for a while. About 15 minutes later, after we had fortified the chicken coop to where nothing could get in OR out, Kitty came prancing back into our yard, as if to proudly inform us that the raccoon had been dispatched to the demon portal from which it had come.

Oh yeah, one other thing. When we bought our house, there was a big, old apple tree in the front yard. About a week before the great Chicken massacre, one of our daycare kids had been running across the yard, and in a brilliant episode of slapstick humor, completely clothesline'd herself into one of the branches on the apple tree. She was okay, once she caught her breath again. But a couple days later, the tree just fell over. Roots came up out of the ground and everything.

Soooooo... here we are with a gaping hole in our front yard, and a dead Chicken. Cindy actually wanted to have Chicken cremated, but I wasn't having that... I pointed out that we would likely eat chicken for dinner that night, so no way was I paying to have a dead chicken - pet or not - cremated. Instead, we decided to bury her deep in the gaping hole in the front yard, and plant a new apple tree on top of her.

I had visions of plucking the first apple from the tree, taking a big bite, and saying in a very Timon way, "Tastes like Chicken!"

This week, I decided it HAD to be time to pick an apple from the tree... I picked the largest one and washed it off. Kaylee wanted to try it too, so we had an apple biting ceremony... And it tasted like...

...an apple... Seriously. No subtle chicken overtones, just apple. It wasn't even all the way ripe! In reality, I'm GLAD it didn't taste like Chicken... That would have impacted me in such a way that I wouldn't want to eat apples again for a VERY long time.

Now that the mystery of whether or not it would taste like Chicken has been solved, I'm hoping that next year it actually produces more than three apples... Like our egg-laying hens, I'd love to have apples that I don't need to buy from an outside source!

An Outing to Point Definace

Yesterday the girls both had early release days from school. Kaylee wanted to do something, and I didn't want to spend any money... what to do?

......one of the nice things about living in Western Washington is that we really have it all! Beautiful Mount Rainier, The Cascades, Puget Sound, The Arts, Fine Dining and lots of Marinas. One of the nice things about living in Fircrest is that once again we get to have it all. The safeness of a small town, relationships with neighbors and with just a small drive down the street, we can be in the city or on the coast!

OK - Back to yesterday... I decided that it would be really cool to take a walk along the Marina at Point Defiance Park. I am not sure why I don't go there more often - it is absolutely stunning! First we toured the Rose gardens. There are still quite a few roses and they smelled heavenly, and the Dalia's are also in bloom, and wow are they beautiful! Ellysa was trying to remember the names of all the ones she liked the best, so we could plant them in our yard.



Next up was the Asian Gardens... Unfortunately by the time we walked through them, all the dahlia names had been long forgotten. Abigail loved the pond at the Asian garden. She was so funny noticing her reflection for the first time, and swiping at herself with her paw. She did try to take a dip but it was just a little too cold.





So we headed down to the Marina, and WOW! On one side of the promenade the trees are all changing colors. There was everything from Green, Yellow and Orange to the Red of fire! The water was really calm and we could see fish jumping. There was a single boat on the water as we looked out to Vashon Island, and they appeared to be having dinner and relaxing on the peaceful sound. As we walked along, we noticed that people had submitted poems which had been stamped into the concrete. Kaylee and I took turns reading them out loud and pondering the meanings. Here is an example of one:

Pebble Beach, Water blue,

Sea, Aquarium and Zoo,

Life, flowers, Forest Dark

Parts of Point Defiance Park

It was such a nice afternoon, and I felt blessed to live in such a beautiful place that I can share with my daughters and puppy. If you are ever out this way, make sure to plan a day at Point Defiance Park! Not only is it beautiful, but it is free! And if you want, the Zoo and Aquarium are just a stone's throw away too!

Walkin' the Dog

Last year in our neighboring town of University Place, a new world-class golf course opened up. So world-class, in fact, that right after it opened, they announced that the 2015 U.S. Open would be played there!

Now if you know me, you should also know that golf is NOT something I follow, or participate in, unless it's the Mini-, Wii- or Super-Monkey-Ball- varieties. But our lovely new course also has a great walking trail that loops through and around it, making a very nice three mile walk. I'd heard many people talk about what a great walk it is, and have wanted to go tour it for a long time, but never had gotten around to it.

Never, that is, until yesterday after church!

We got home, had a quick lunch, loaded up the puppy and headed for the trail. I also packed the camera, just in case the opportunity arose for a few good shots of Cindy and her dog.



By the mid-point of the trail, I was so glad I'd brought the camera! I didn't take many pics of Abigail, but the scenery was spectacular! The sky was mostly overcast, with occasional bright clearings. When I saw the sparkling on the water, I snapped a shot, full of hope that I could capture even a fraction of the scene. I was actually surprised when I got home and saw that it looked this good!



Shortly after that one, it seemed like everywhere I looked there was another picture just begging to be shot!


The Tacoma-Narrows Bridge


Sweet, Juicy, Delicious Blackberries






Several Shots of the Chambers Bay Golf Course

It was such a great walk! As long as the weather holds, I think this may be a new regular after church activity!

At Long Last, Pictures!

Hot on the heels (well, not TOO hot, it's been three days...) of the "Welcome Abigail" post, here are pictures of Cindy's new puppy...

Once again, Meet Abigail!


In the evenings, this is usually where she can be found. Hanging out by the gate, waiting for someone to come play with her...


And tonight we took her down to the park to start learning how to play with balls and frisbees - and wore her right the heck out!

Welcome Abigail!

I brought her home this morning. My sweet baby girl Abigail. She is a 3 month old German Shepard/Golden retriever puppy her names means "brings joy".

How I obtained her is as much a story as actually getting her but first I must give you some back ground.

For Ellysa's 10th birthday there was nothing she wanted more then a dog. After a lot of deliberation and some strong convincing Mike and I decided that we would allow her to get a puppy. So off to the Humane Society I went. I found a little German Shepard/Mixed puppy that was totally adorable but full of himself. We named him Butch and brought him home. My husband is not fan of dogs and most of his reasons are valid but with proper training I felt like these could be handled. Well Butch was a handful and a bit thick for my training abilities. Ellysa lost interest as most kids will and I became the primary caregiver. I loved Butch , I walked him everyday and trained him to do fun things like sit and play catch, but his manners were horrible and he was over bearing for the kids. I finally decided that I needed help from the family in his training and care. NO ONE stepped up and it was voted that we would find him a new home. I have never been more sad and regretful of a decision. So for the past 5 years I have hinted that I would like another dog, my hints fell on deaf ears.

Well a few weeks ago these two baby kittens showed up. They looked to be litter mates and seemed pretty scrappy. The daycare kids of course fell in love and asked to feed them, this led to Kaylee feeding them and housing them in our garage. My concern is that we already have three cats and these two kittens to my knowledge hadn't been vaccinated or cared for. So Friday I packed up the one I could catch and took him to the Humane society. They gave him shots and took him in. While I was there I decided to meander thru the dog section. That is where I found Abby. She was in a pen with two other dogs, A really mean Chihuahua, and a Terrier that was pretty silly. Abigail was just laying there so calm and I am thinking annoyed by all the noise. I called Mike and he agreed I could put a deposit down. We had to wait until Tuesday to see if she would be claimed before officially adopting her. This would give us time to think it through and for Mike to meet her before I brought her home. So Yay....

Saturday morning Mike and I are canning pears and listening to music when the doorbell rings........ it's the crazy lady from next door..... she wants to know if I have seen her grey kitten??? It has been missing since Friday???? OH-CRAP!!!!!!!!

I panic, no way did I haul off the neighbors cat!! OH -JEEZ..... I tell her "no...... but I will let her know if I should"..... yikes, what to do. She is NUTS so I am a bit afraid of this women. She has gone after our tree trimmer guys and yells across the fence. I was freaking out! So I did what any other coward would do, I start trying to justify my decision to lie. "they didn't take care of the cats", "we fed them all the time" oh " I did ask her husband if he knew who the cats belonged to a week ago, and he said no - doesn't matter that he is deaf"... ahh man I can't lie. It was wrong anyway I slice it.... shoot. Off to the neighbors I go. Now, not only do I have to admit I turned her cat into the FEDS but also that I told a big fat lie! I felt like five year old. o-well it has to be done. Fortunately she was so happy to know that her kitten was safe that she didn't freak out on me. I feel a bit ashamed but am getting over it and through our conversation we were able to clear the air about her craziness ( I guess she realized she does some weird stuff). All ended well, the kitty is back ( was eating out of our cats bowl this morning) and I found Abigail who is napping on her soft bed in the garage.

I will put up pictures when Mike gets home. I still can't seem to remember how to post pictures on my own yet.

The 2008 Summer Egg-Olympics!

As the Olympics kicked off on the other side of the world, our "never wanting to be left out of anything" hens decided to have a little competition of their own!

Pictured above is today's entry from each of our actively laying girls - Ginger is conveniently molting, so she gets a pass from competing in this event. Although in the all time records category, she is the only one in our flock to have laid a double-yolk egg! Starting on the left and going clockwise are eggs from Marzipan, Layla and Babs.

Let's see what the judges have to say...

First up: Marzipan!

Somewhat respectable, but not really a championship effort... I think ol' Marzi isn't really interested. And for the record, she is by far the biggest (aka: fattest) chicken in the yard)

Next: Babs

Nice one, Babs! .35 ounces better than your roost-mate!

Finally: Layla

HOLY GIGANTIC EGG!! Topping Marzipan by a full ounce, with the biggest brown egg we've ever gotten, Layla definitely brought her 'Grade A' game to these Egg-Olympics!


...now if only the cats would get off their nap mats and do something worthwhile...

Monday Quickie Catchup

It's catch-up time again - today was a very busy day, kicking of a very busy week!

#1

First up - From Cindy's Puddle Jumpers Files:

One of our PJs who was with us all school year long, has been gone for the past month and change, vising Japan with his parents. Today, Kaoru surprised us all by coming back to daycare before Summer ended!


And a return from Japan would never be complete without some exotic Japanese candy for all!



Reviews were split down the middle between "Love it" and "They can keep it!" among his Puddle Jumper Peers...

#2

Doing a Good Deed for Mother Nature:

We've written about, and shown several pictures of Fircrest Park, the big open park and swimming pool just down the hill from our house. But if you go in a different direction, and go a bit further, you'll come to Thelma Gilmur park, or as it's more commonly known, the Haunted Trails. Every year at Halloween, the park is infested with ghosts, ghouls, spooks and other assorted scary good times! It makes such an impression, that it's pretty much called the Haunted Trails year round. At least here at our house...

Anyway, Cindy has been taking the PJs down there a couple times a week, where they run wild, play hide 'n' seek, and generally have a wonderful time. Then last Friday, when they got to the park, they saw a horrible sight. A turtle had been brutally attacked, and lay near the entrance to the park with a broken shell and a fair amount of blood. There was a lot of justified anger at whoever would do that to a turtle... and then today they went again, and the poor thing was still there. So after dinner tonight, we took a shovel and some grave markers that Kaylee and Tyler had made, and gave it a proper burial.





It felt really good to do something nice for the park that brings us so many good times throughout the year.

#3

"Are They Ripe Yet?"

From the Haunted Trails, we headed over to another local nature spot, Blueberry Park! We had gone there last week, and the bushes were loaded with berries, but were still small and green.



Tonight things were looking a little better, with most bushes having a handful of plump, juicy blueberries... Hopefully NEXT week we'll actually be able to get enough to really use.



And the evening is winding down with everyone gathered around the living room watching "Penelope."

With that much going on, I never got around to writing a Music Monday column this week - but I have some good ideas rolling around in my head, and hopefully NEXT Monday I'll get one of them published!

The rest of this week looks to be equally crazy - Wednesday I'm taking the day off work and we're taking the whole gang to Wild Waves, followed by Fircrest night at the Tacoma Rainiers... Thursday we've been invited to our friend Winnie's house for dinner, and then Friday night we're heading over to the Tri-Cities for a weekend of fun times with family and friends!

Man, it makes me exhausted just thinking about it!

Summer is here!

The first week of summer vacation is here!

Well a partial week, but I filled it so full that it is only Thursday night (day two) and I am pooped, exhausted and I am sure, quite stinky :) We have one more very full day tomorrow and then just ten more weeks to go... um mm, lets not focus on that right now.

Today I took my Puddle Jumpers on a walk to the Tacoma Nature Center. Yeah, seriously, we walked a round trip of 4.5 miles plus the one hour hike we enjoyed during our "Wetland Wonders class" .

It was a beautiful day and the kids did really good on the long walk, no complaints, other then my Audrey who is 6 and really, really had to go... on the way home. She wasn't up for a trip to the bushes so we booked it to the local espresso shop and fortunately made it in time (it was questionable if we were gonna make it). There truly is no bigger urgency then when a child needs to use the restroom and you are in the middle of no-where!

We had so much fun touching animal pelts, inspecting skat (poop) for berries, fur and bones (makes you wish you could have been there too, huh?) We also walked the trails and found a Red Breasted Robin, a squirrel, several ducks, birds of prey and a couple of lazy turtles sunning themselves.


Oh and we couldn't leave out the countless GIANT ant hills, I am talking HUGE three to four feet tall ant hills!

We also were able to get plankton from the Snake Lake (wetland) and look at the organisms under the microscopes.

The kids had fun, learned something new and I got some much needed exercise and sun. Tomorrow we head to the local bird sanctuary to look at birds and play in tree houses and tire swings. Can you guess this weeks theme?

Tonight I will rest , I am gonna need it!

Welcome to the Fircrest Zoo and Petting Farm

If you were watching last week, you saw a hilarious semi-cruel post which foreshadowed the announcement that our niece Chelsey is coming to live with us in a couple weeks.

My sister Susan almost instantly left the following comment:

See, Alicia is another niece... My sister Linda's oldest daughter... She writes a blog that is linked in the links section over on the right side. And she and her husband Daniel have had a batch of kittens they've been trying to give away. And they've gotten pretty creative about it!

First, they named the whole crew after characters from Gilligan's Island, with Skipper, Gilligan, Ginger, and I think MaryAnn. Alicia posted pics of all of them on her blog a while back, hoping to pawn a few off to innocent readers.

Then, for Mother's Day, she took one (Ginger) over to her mom's house and tried to leave it there.

Didn't quite work.

After Mother's Day was her mom's birthday, and another attempt to unload the GingerKitty.

More fail.

Yesterday was Father's Day. The obvious ploy was that they were bringing Ginger back to Linda's house to try and unload her to Alicia's Dad, Eric.

And it reportedly ALMOST worked...

BUT...

Cindy and the girls swung into Linda's house last night to pick up Ellysa's dress for her 9th Grade Formal Dance this week. Linda's an amazing seamstress and had made some modifications to the dress. When Alicia and Daniel heard that my girls were going to be there, they stuck around for one last attempt at giving the gift of Ginger... And they weren't even playing fair! They brought out a laser pointer to show off how cute and kitten-like she is, chasing the red spot on the floor...

To cut to the point:

So now we have our existing two cats, Kitty and Tabitha, and now, Ginger. Uh-Oh, NEW problem...

WE ALREADY HAVE A GINGER!!

Yes, she's named after the character in "Chicken Run", and with good reason. She's our escape artist, our non-conformist... And she's had her name for a couple years already, so the Kitten named Ginger needs to switch to The Kitten Formerly Known as Ginger.

Since both Ellysa and Kaylee are completely hooked on the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer,

they chose the name Bella, rather than TKFKAG. I guess TKFKAG is a little too gutteral sounding... kinda like a Welsh name...

So I am happy to present for your introduction, a picture of Kaylee holding Bella (TKFKAG) in her room on Father's Day Night.

And the other latest addition to our Petting Zoo, Cindy's new Guinea Pig, Rusty.

I've never been big on Guinea Pigs, but Rusty is AWESOME. He is a complete spaz, thinks he's a bucking bronco. Seriously, he spends his days trying to kick ALL the wood chips in his cage out on to the floor. And squeaking. Which is more like Shrieking. If he hears people walking around upstairs, or worse yet, the fridge opening, he goes off like a high powered smoke alarm! So he provides high entertainment...

And now you've been properly introduced to the newest members of the Fircrest Zoo and Petting Farm. Please don't tap on the cages, keep your gum in your mouth, and be sure to tip your hosts!