Trout!

Yesterday the kids discovered the joy of trout fishing in our own backyard (well the neighbor's yard anyways).  Our neighbor let us know the fish were biting and to hurry and get down to the bridge for some trout action.  Ben and Sam are able to go to the bridge on their own to fish.  They are working on getting over the willies of taking the fish off the hook and hoping to use Uncle Joe's method, "THE GLOVE".  It is hard to describe how happy it makes John and me feel to see the kids outside enjoying nature, independence, and one another's company.

Ps... Sam caught five and Ben caught one

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

Another reason to love the dump/transfer station.  People get rid of the BEST stuff.  Ben had a great find this week and found a complete game set of  Heroscape.  He has spent the week setting it up and learning to play (they even had the instruction book included!)  Ben is trying very hard when he takes something at the dump to "repay it" by taking something from our house that we don't play with anymore to leave for someone else.  This is a lot harder than it sounds!

Oh Rats!

Yup.  Need we say more?

Sweet Maple Alpaca Farm

Fun Fun Fun!

When the Deans and the Morgans came for a visit we went to Sweet Maple Alpaca Farm.  We found out that llamas and alpacas are not the same animal and we decided we liked the alpaca much better than llamas.  They were not pushy and they really were quite sweet.  

We went in the sugaring shack to watch the sap get boiled down and made into syrup.  We all had little cups of hot syrup and agreed it was delicious! 

The farm was fun but sharing it with our friends from back home made it even better!

A view from above

A few pics from Ben's favorite spot - the top of the Pine Tree in our front yard

1 Van + 2 Adults + 4 kids + 900 miles = FUN!!!!!

Really, it was fun.  But then again, we didn't do the driving, Afarine and Babs did.  We were lucky enough for them to give up 4 days of their lives to drive out to visit us with their kids.  We had a great time together despite the rainy cold weather.  We spent time hiking in the woods with the kids, knitting, doing crafts, chatting, and just laughing.  It was what we Zinks needed!  Babs brought the stuff to color eggs and the kids had fun coloring them while John and Sam have had fun EATING them.  Here is just a snippet of what was going on.....