Last week of June

The summer is already going by so quickly, here are some other things we did during the week.

I had book group on Tuesday, it was on the Book Thief - no one was able to get the book from the library in time so we just visited for awhile and then watched the movie.  A few of us had read it previously - I've read it twice but a few years ago.  It was a good movie, well done and very close to the book.  Of course very sad.

During the movie there was a thunderstorm and we got marble-sized hail.  This is what our zucchini plant looked like the next day.

 The girls like to color more than their brothers.

 On Wednesday I braved the store with all five kids.  We went to the dollar store first, they had earned their next prize for riding 20 miles on their bikes.  They each got to pick a toy.  Then we went to Walmart - these trips are just so exhausting.  I put one of the girls in the front and then I strap the other in the basket sitting down.  It works pretty well.  I did it right from the beginning so they don't know any different; they haven't started to fight me yet to walk around.  We got the normal things and picked out some birthday presents for friends that are having parties soon.

Tyler went to his friend's birthday party on Friday.  They went rock climbing at the beginning and then swimming after sandwiches and presents.  He had a fun time.  It was a pretty nice wall.  It made me think of my brother who likes to rock climb :).

Tyler made it all the way up the easy route and rang the bell (3 stories high).  

On Saturday we went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  We meet another family there that works with Doug.  This place helps animals that have been abused or been pets but can't be cared for anymore.  There were lions, tigers, and bears - oh my!  There were also some other cats (leopards, lynx, bobcats, and jaguars) and some wolves.  There were also lots of rabbits hopping around.

 The viewing was done on a raised walkway.  It was about a mile long to a final tent that had some lions in it.  There were some female lions there that roared for us, it was pretty cool.

This lion was pretty close to the walkway and sat nicely for us, then we saw a snake coming close.  The lion saw it too and flinched back and cautiously walked away.  It was pretty neat to see his reaction.  You can see the snake in this picture at the bottom - the lion hadn't noticed it yet. 

 Then he saw it.

It was a fun day.  Everyone was getting tired at the end.  We brought the stroller for the girls but they kept wanting to get in and out; Chris actually rode in it more.  They walked pretty well, but Doug and I took turns carrying them too.  

Damon doesn't know why he was pouting so much in this picture, he did have a fun time.  He is sad about it now.  Hopefully he will learn to smile more in family pictures :)

 The rest of Saturday was busy with cleaning and normal things.  Doug went to Home Depot and bought some plants.  I have wanted to get some planting done in the back yard but we haven't had the time.  We are not done, but at least we have started now.  We got some vinca, purple perennial flowers, a couple of flowering bushes and some strawberries.  We got about half of them planted yesterday and hopefully we will finish tomorrow.

A nice Sunday today, not many kids in primary.  The girls slept in until 7:15! That's about an hour later than usual, it was great.  I still got up earlier, but I had some time to myself to get things done. :)