Tractoring

While we were at Austin's grandparents' house last time, Austin decided he wanted to drive their old tractor around. It was pretty fun, but we had it in the lowest gear, so it was also really slow.

Camping Trips

We have gone overnight camping twice so far this summer. We went with our friends, Jake and Cassie. The first time we went, we slept in their tent, but the second time Austin decided to build his own shelter. He used a tarp as the top and cardboard and a yoga mat as the floor. It started raining just as we went to bed, but luckily it didn't rain very hard and Austin's shelter was very well constructed, so we didn't get wet at all. We only slept until about 4 am when a bird started making a bunch of noise and Austin sat up saying that he was well-rested (I was okay-rested:). The moon was really bright, so we walked up a dirt road and looked at the stars, then came back to camp and got the fire going again, waiting for our friends to wake up. The best part of camping for Austin is all the chances to use his new axe. He chops fire wood, carves sticks for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, carves stakes to hold the tarp down....

Dad's Birthday Party

We surprised my dad with a birthday party this weekend. He knew all of the kids were coming, but didn't know that we had invited all of his friends too. I made the birthday cake, Abbey grilled the hamburgers, and everyone else helped out. It was pretty fun and I think Dad loved it. Of course we had to bring Lola along and Abbey takes her dog, Thor, everywhere so we let them meet. Thor was very well behaved and Lola didn't seem to scared.

Lolita

This is the newest member of our family--Lolita, or Lola for short. I gave her a Russian name so that Austin would like her more. She is a mini lops bunny, so both of her ears are supposed to flop down. All of her brothers' and sisters' ears were down, but one of Lola's hasn't flopped yet. It probably will soon, but if not, it gives her character :) She is about 8 weeks old and will only grow to be about twice the size she is now. We just got her yesterday so she stays in her cage unless we have her out to play, then she loves to explore the house. So far she hasn't really tried to chew on things very much, but I think she will get around to it when the shock of being in a new house wears off. When she gets older and we have her trained to use a litter box, Lola will probably be allowed to wander around the house whenever we are home. Lola will also go traveling with us since bunnies are social and I would feel bad leaving her home alone for more than a day. We are taking a weekend trip to Utah tomorrow and are going to Oregon in July, so we got a carrying case sized for a small dog, which should be plenty of room for her.