A Menagerie, complete with Dinosaurs and Fireworks

Will LOVES going to Aunt Lisa's house (but this year it was always "Juli's house").  She has a literal menagerie in her backyard, thanks to her neighbors.  Pygmy goats, emus, miniature horses, geese, and in the next field over, deer.  It's awesome.  Lisa saves her food scraps so they can go out and feed the goats.  When we skype with them during the year, Will always wants to see the goats, so if Lisa is feeling the love, or its not the middle of the night or the dead of winter, she will take her laptop outside and call the goats for him. 

Both kids got the hang of the trampoline this year, and that was a blast. 

We even took a little field trip around the block to see the rest of the neighbors animals, including the adorable, fuzzy puppies.  I am hoping that with all the puppy and dog time the kids are getting this year, including the loud barking from a few that they don't love, that we will make it another year without pleas for our own four legged friend.

Finley practiced her ladder skills and loves slides, so she was entertained for hours out here.  Plug for hanging on to all your kids toys - Aunt Lisa's house is like a toy store for my kids!  She has saved tons of great stuff.

We spend the 4th of July with the Halversons again - and Brad's brother Doug and his family were around to bbq and light fireworks.  Doug and Nate spent a lot of time together growing up since they were both about 8 when Nate's sister married Doug's brother.  Now Doug has a little boy, Dallin, who is Will's age, and a baby girl just a few months younger than Finley.  Will and Dallin had a blast playing together; Dallin's love of fireworks helped Will overcome his fear of the noise.  Every time we lit one, Dallin would dance and shout, so after a couple, Will jumped on the dancing train, he just kept his ears covered the whole time:)

The boys had so much fun together, we went to the dinosaur museum with them the next day.  Fun was had by all - it's such a perfect size - just 2 1/2 rooms, and pretty kid friendly skeletons, so they could climb all over a few of them and compare foot sizes to dino tracks.

I love Bridal Veil Falls, so we took the kids up there one evening - just ahead (we thought) of a huge thunderhead.  We got to the falls before it started raining, and by the time we jogged the quarter mile back to the truck, the wind was whipping, and rain was pouring.  Lisa and Juli had Finley and she was not pleased about being caught in the storm.  We were all drenched - but it was kind of a fun summer adventure to get caught in the rain.

We went to church with the family, but a power outage caused an early release.  Lisa sent this super cute dress to Finley for Christmas - I was so glad that it fit her now so she could show it off.  I tried to get Will in the pictures too, but he only had eyes for the goats, so all the shots with him he is looking the wrong way.  Thanks to Lisa and her family for giving up their rooms for us, and playing with the kids, and feeding us so much delicious food - we had a great week with them!