At the Blueberry Patch

Sunday, we went blueberry picking. One of Kelly's old coworkers has a blueberry patch, so we took a little trip over there and picked some for ourselves. 

Here are a few pictures, if you'd like to see! 

New Chicks Have Arrived

A little over a year ago, we picked up 16 teeny baby chicks from a hatchery a few towns away. We had intentions of keeping half for laying and half as meat birds. Well, that didn't happen and we kept them all as layers. We might have had an attachment issue. 

A year later, we've lost half of our flock. One was a rooster, a couple died of natural causes, a big nasty neighbor tomcat got one and a stinking fat raccoon took another couple. 

Our egg supply was dwindling.

So we decided to put in another order. This time, we ordered 24 chicks. Twelve for laying and twelve for meat birds. Except they sent us 25, which is fine with me - bonus bird ;)

We're gonna do it this time. When they're big and fat, we are going to butcher them.

Not we. Ick. I could never. Maybe if I was on a deserted island... Probably not even then.

But we will be getting them butchered. Promise.

I almost ordered a turkey for Thanksgiving. I was this close. I think I will next year. 
Here they are, our new peepers:

That's the box they were shipped in. We would've like to have picked them up, like we did last year, but because of the avian flu they no longer allow pick-ups. 

We got back from vacation on Monday and I thought, shoot, I still need to order the chicks. So Tuesday morning I got online and placed an order - an hour later I received an email that a shipping label was created, an hour after that I received notice that they'd shipped! I couldn't believe it. So miss Adalynn, her aunt Keeks and I had to take a quick trip to the store for some food supplies.

Wednesday morning at 7:30am I received a phone call from the post office that our chicks were there to pick up. I could not believe it. Less than twenty four hours. It was amazing. 

They were all super healthy when they got here, we put them in their tank and they started running all over the place. When we sprinkled some food on the ground, they immediately started eating and shortly thereafter found their water. 

Now we've got a whole crazy coop set up that I'll save for another post. 

Silver Lake { #3 }

We had the best, and I mean the best, vacation over the Fourth of July weekend. 

Adalynn was such a sweet, sweet angel for our whole four day camping trip! We think we're going to plan another one before summer is over. 

Here are a few more pictures, if you'd like to see...

Crying Kids...

In all of my 27 years on earth, if I was around a child crying, 90% of the time I would be thinking 'please will someone shut that kid up - what is the deal?!'

Yea, real empathetic I was. 

But now it's a completely different story. Every time I see one cry now, whether it's a tiny baby, a stumbling toddler or even just a little kid, I cannot stand it! 

It makes me so sad like I just want to swoop in and pick them up, cuddle them, hug them and love them and make everything okay. 

Last night at the barn, we had a sweet little girl come to ride and it was her first lesson. 

Before getting on the horse, she was so excited. And I mean, so excited. Like you could tell it was taking all of her self-control to keep from running around, yelling and jumping up & down. She looked like she was going to explode out of her skin and was literally trembling with excitement. 

The lesson went great, she dismounted, gave treats and petted her horse. But then when it was time to say goodbye, she got very quiet. Then she started crying. Not like she was throwing a fit, but big fat crocodile tears of genuine sadness. 

To see her go from the happiest child on the planet to being truly heartbroken having to leave her horse was the saddest thing to watch! It made my heart ache and was all I could do to not pick her up, hug and console her... then let her go sleep in the stall with her horse. 

Did anything like that that happen to you? Maybe you weren't so fond of children, then you had your own kid and it completely changed your perspective? Or maybe you have your own children, but you're still not really a kid person - just your own (I definitely thought that was going to be me!).

Anyway, I thought that was pretty neat. Liking kids is a good thing - it will make play dates much easier :) 

We Went Swimming!

I grew up just down the road from two of my best friends; one of those best friends had a pool.

We spent every summer lounging by her pool, making log houses out of pretzel rods, playing nintendo in her fort, eating popsicles and swimming. We learned the Macarena on the deck, pretended we were Power-Rangers jumping off the diving board, and had wiffle ball contests to see who could hit it over the roof of the house. (Cody, Jack knows he still owes you that $100) 

I remember one particular day thirteen years ago, we were teenagers just out of our first year of high school. We spent another day at the pool and this time we were joined by Abby's sister and her niece, who was just a few months old. She spent the day both swimming and napping on a little ottoman in the den.

Flash forward to now. Guess where miss Adalynn had her first swimming experience? Yep. That same pool. And you know what? She even played on that very same ottoman. 

It was so surreal taking her there, remembering those summer days spent there as children. Especially that day thirteen years ago. Thinking back on it makes me smile, but there's a little twinge in my heart. I guess that's nostalgia for you. 

So here are a few pictures from that beautiful day. 

She wasn't quite sure about it at first. 

But she loved this big floating starfish. 

She really didn't like her hands touching the water. Like, at all. Eventually though, she was all in but her head. 

I had to watch Abby because she wanted to dunk her like we did with Ellen oh so many years ago, but no worries, she didn't get dunked. 

Then we spent Father's Day afternoon in our pond. The 'lagoon' as I like to call it. 

Then Addy & her daddy fell asleep so I got a little peace and quiet to read. We're all so excited for many more days spent by the water!