A Menagical weekend

Last Friday night I rode to Jerome with Dad because he was going to spend Saturday doing some projects for Grandma on the Farm.

After breakfast Saturday morning, he headed outside to get working and I drove into Twin to check out a sweet new exhibit!

This past March my uncle passed away, leaving a legacy of his love for all kinds of critters.

In memory of him, one of his daughter's and her husband decided to build a little petting zoo in their backyard and fill it with all sorts of interesting creatures - the kind to make Uncle Brian proud.

It's still a work in progress but so far it's looking super good and there are many more plans and additions for it in the future, like: a chameleon, a fox, and a skunk (they're on Heather's "wish list", that is).

Anyway, one of the current pets they have, and the one I was super excited to see, is the baby hedgehog! 

 Isn't he cute?! His name is Quill and although he isn't exactly soft and cuddly, it was fun to hold him and feel him get all bristled up when something startled him. After I'd been holding him for a minute, he started licking my finger, then I felt a tentative "chomp" as he started trying to nibble on me. Uhhh...that wasn't part of the deal.
     Heather tried to explain why he does that (no, it isn't because he wanted to make a meal of my finger), it's some sort of method relating to him getting my scent and trying to hide himself by smelling like me - or whoever he nibbles on. I don't know, but it was pretty interesting.

They also have 3 little ferrets that she put out in the room and they scampered all over us, and tried pick-pocketing my stuff! When we were younger and I would have sleepovers with Heather and her siblings, they used to have a ferret and I remembered what a funny little guy it was; now all these years later here she is with three of them! :)

Brad and Heather's girls are getting quite a cool experience by getting to have all these critters around and they totally love it!!

    This next guy turned out to be one of my favorites, and I think he's little Brit Boo's fave, too!

  Meet Kingsley Shacklebolt (for all you Harry Potter fans out there, this name should sound familiar to you!).

  He is an African tortoise, a very small one....for now. But he was so cute! We took him out on the lawn and let him meander around while we played with Quill and the ferrets. Every so often I'd feel something bumping into my leg only to look over and see him trying his best to climb over what must have seemed a mountain in his little world.
 Quick story! 
    I spent lots of time with Heather's family- remember Ben who I visited in Rexburg? They're brother and sister - just a little connection for ya! :) They have 3 other sisters, too, so among the 5 of them, there was always something fun going on and I loved every chance I got to go hang out on their dairy with them, or have sleepover parties wherever they lived.
  Well, one time when I was about 14, I was staying at their house during the summer as our family was passing through on the way out of town.
    My uncle always had fishtanks and aquariums full of fish, lizards, or turtles in various parts of the house - at one point in life, he even had a baby alligator (which didn't live in the house, it lived on the back porch turned greenhouse/pond!).
  In a nutshell, "expect the unexpected" was the way I got used to things when I was with these guys.
    Anyway, Dad come to wake me up early so we could get headed out for our trip. I was pretty tired and my vision was still trying to come back to life as I shuffled to the bathroom.
    Dad was kind of herding me along, I guess to make sure I didn't try to go back to sleep, and as we walked down the hallway, he stopped a little ways behind me and said, "Tiana, come here!"
  I groggily stopped and looked back and there was Dad examining a little dark object on the carpet right next to the floorboard on the wall.
  After a second he was like, "Is that a turtle?!!"
I took a quick look, calmly assured him that it was, and then stumbled on into the bathroom.
  I heard him out in the hallway just laughing at the absurd situation he found himself in. I'm not sure what was funnier to him - 1) The fact that there was a tiny, live turtle just hanging out in the hall, or 2) The fact that I had been so un-affected by it.

 Ok, so back to Saturday! After my time at the petting zoo, I headed back to the Farm, where my animal adventures continued.
  Grandma and one of our cousins, Maddie, have been talking about getting a baby goose to raise. Grandma said she's always wanted to have a pretty white goose on the Farm, so Maddie said she'd help with it.
  We took a trip into D&B and they are now the proud owners of this little guy.

   It's name is Kevin. We never found out if it was a girl or boy, but Maddie remembered that in the Disney movie, "Up", the big bird that they find, was originally named Kevin - even though as the movie went on, they find out that Kevin is actually a girl. :) So we figured this name could go both ways in the case of the baby goose.
    We went outside and got it all settled in its place to live and now we just hope it gets loved on enough that it won't get super mean.....

  Saturday was also the twins' baptism day! These two totally crack me up! I remember how exciting it was to find out that we were going to have twins in our family and they have not left anyone with a dull moment in one day of their 8 years! :)
    Yes, this is their "goofy" picture, but it actually doesn't look much different than the one I tried to take of them "just smiling". Haha!!

   After the baptism Grandma treated everyone to a treat from Dairy Queen (one of Grandpa's favorite places).  Dad got a tasty choc./PB something or other. Delish!

  I don't know why this picture makes me laugh so much. For some reason though, everytime I look at it, it just gives me the giggles.
  I really am mostly above this kind of humor - mostly....but not always. Maybe it's just 'cause I look at it and think, "Yep, that's my family!"

I told Dad as we headed home, "Our family's weird, but it's fun!" :)