Tikka, the "Favorite"

One thing I love about having a dog (in the summer) is that Owen is so content to just be outside as long as Tikka is out there with him. He usually doesn't let her lounge without going up and giving her some love :)



And it helps that she is SO patient with him! She'll playfully act like she's trying to bite him but never actually does.


Owen is quite the pest with lots of grabbing and poking but I think Tikka is just grateful to have him as a buddy
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Darrington Zoo

Ava had been asking to go to the zoo all week long but since we were in Declo we decided to show her some farm life instead. We actually thought we were just going to see the bunnies at the house of someone at Devin's parents' church. They also run a dairy and we happened to get there right in time for "chores" so we got to follow Val around the entire dairy and see all the animals!



He let Ava pick all the eggs out of the little boxes where the hens lay and they filled a perfect dozen container so he let us take them home! Here they are, fresh as they come:





Ava's pretty fearless around animals. Loved being in there with all those chickens (they could have cared less that we were in there with them), almost let the bunny nibble her finger off, and loved their huge friendly dog!



See that smiling face up there? First of all, this guy is so so nice. Second, I'm sure it made his day to see us girls walking through the milking house (yes I just made that up) all over a floor covered in manure in our cute shoes. I should have shoveled some up to bring home to our garden.



Then we got to follow him over to the pig stall. Luckiest pigs I ever did see - those buckets full of fresh milk were for them!







Making a fun stop like this on the way home from the movies is definitely a small farm town perk! Ava still talks about the pigs and the bunnies and the eggs :) Pin It

Weekend in Cascade: Boating on the lake

Our friends, the Pratchetts, just recently moved to Donnelly, ID which is on one side of Lake Cascade.  We stayed the night there after the Ryan Shupe concert so that Devin could go early morning fishing with a friend bringing his boat up Saturday morning.  I didn't want to go out on the boat that early so Ava and I hung out at the house until lunch time.  The view from their house is BEAUTIFUL.  I took the picture above from just out their back yard.



This is their dog, Tuck.  He looks scary to a lot of people who don't know him but he is a super chill dog and really patient with the kids - and Ava is in love with him.  Here she is trying to put a helmet on him :) Ava also loved their big backyard with room to run and a trampoline to jump on!

Boating!

It was so nice of Duane to come back and pick me and Ava up around lunch time to come out on the boat with them.  It wasn't 15 minutes of being on the boat in Devin's arms before Ava was sound asleep...and stayed that way for a little over an hour!  Made it really nice to enjoy the ride.

Duane works for an RV/Boat company and had this fishing boat he wanted to test out.  Devin was in heaven on that "Custom Weld"!  Duane even brought some ribs and chicken for lunch that he warmed up on the motor all morning >> genious! Unfortunately the fish were NOT biting, not for anyone out on the lake that day.  At least it was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery and Ava thought being on the boat was the coolest thing ever.





Before heading back to dock we stopped at a beach/sand area for Ava to get out and play.  Somebody's dog was also there that we played catch with forever using sticks and pine cones and Ava thought it was so funny to watch him jump in the water to get it and bring it back.

Basically, we're loving summer!

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Memorial Day 2013 | Camping

MEET:

Tuck and Koa

                                                                                    Ava                                                                                  Holland

Madison

As you can see, we had this awesome portable high chair that all the girls (and parents, obvi) loved! My mom sent it to us for Ava's half birthday - which was the perfect timing for how much we plan to use it this summer!

Devin and Patrick rocked the tin foil dinners while the girls made the peach cobbler in the dutch oven.  No to self (actually, Devin): don't leave tin foil dinner on chair, unattended, near carnivorous canines. Or if the said canines are going to be tied up anyway, tie them up away from your food. 

Sleeping:

The high the day we were there was only about 58 so the night time was chilly! However, Devin bought a "Buddy Heater" before we went, so our tent stayed nice and warm. Oh how I loved that heater!  We slept on our air mattress with Ava in between us.  I had her pjs layered pretty good, then Emma let me borrow the adorable little fleece bear suit seen below to put over her pjs.  THEN we put her in Devin's North Face down vest - it was like her own little sleeping bag :) She was nice and toasty and slept SO good! 

This is Ava waking up at 7 am, such a happy camper :)

Race, Emma, and Holland were in our tent with us, so these girlies were so happy to see that they had a friend to play with in the morning!

We forgot a spatula for the eggs/sausage in the morning so Patrick made a makeshift spatula out of tin foil wrapped around our saw.  Genious!

^^Sleepy girls going on a walk to the hot springs

There were hot springs just a short walk away from our campsite! There were some small pools and then one larger pool that you had to wade through the chilly river to get to , but so worth it because it had this amazing waterfall that showered hot water down on you in large droplets.  Amazing!

The campground was called Pine Flats and we loved it because we could hear the river from where we were.  All we had to do was walk a couple yards from the fire and look down the hill to the river.  It was close to where we were rafting, had a nice fire pit, outhouse, and not too many other campsites so it was really quiet!

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