September

September started out with a big celebration that it is vacation month! We have been busy planning, shopping, checking out hotels, scheduling activities and making dozens of lists! A list for things to do before vacation on the house and in the yard. A list for things we need like clothes, shoes, luggage, etc. A list for places we want to stop at. A list for activities we want to do. A list of things to know for the family staying at our house. A list of phone numbers and addresses! We made a paper chain at the beginning of July and we are excited to see that it is now down to the last couple days! We still have so much to do, it's been a long time since we've been on a long vacation... 6 years in fact!

September started out with celebrating Labor day. We were excited to get a long weekend to work on the house and get the deck completely finished. The kids went to Red Fox Stables on Labor day. They were invited to come and watch a "horse whisperer" work with the horses and teach how horses think and why they think that way. They came home telling lots of stories and can't wait to try some things out on their own!

Chris the trainer worked with Whiskey Girl... one of the stables most stubborn horses! Whiskey gave Chris a good run for his money, but in the end, Chris came out on top!

Kaitlyn petting Daphne, the black pot-bellied pig... who was pregnant, and recently gave birth to 6 piglets!

We celebrated a good friends birthday... with this YUMMY chocolate cake! It was homemade and SO good!

the yummy, three-layer chocolate cake. it has lots of holes in top where LOTS of candles were!

In getting ready for vacation, we had to make a hard decision. Our 17 year old cat Vixie had started to go down hill. In the past year, Vixie lost almost half her body weight, was having accidents on the floor, would forget where her food was, wasn't cleaning herself, and was just getting old. Other than that, she was healthy. We've had her since she was just a kitten.

We made the decision to put her to sleep before vacation so that we wouldn't worry about her.  Diona took her while Meagan, Collin and Kaitlyn stayed home with the daycare babies. There were many tears shed. Diona brought Vixie's body home so we could let  Sadie and Smokey smell it so they wouldn't search for her. It's amazing how they know. Sadie even had a hard time that day! She followed us around sharing our sadness.
We'll miss our gorgeous Vixie, but we feel better knowing she won't be in pain or confused while we're gone.

Our last picture of Vixie posing on our plaid couch.

The next couple posts will probably be all vacation pictures! See you then!