stuff

A few weekends ago my parents came up and helped around the house. We walked the trail and cleaned out the bird houses and put up a bunch of shelves in the basement. We have a load of boxes just sitting around down there and those shelves really helped in organizing a bit. I bought a bunch of brackets and we used scrap boards I had laying around the house so it was a fairly cheap project. We've been working to unpack some boxes and it looks a lot less cluttered down there and it is much easier to walk around without tripping over everything. I found a big box of clothes that I hadn't seen since moving so that was a good find.

Elena also put up a bunch of decorations in the kids rooms so they look a lot more like a room instead of a cell.

Olivia has been a good big sister. When in the bathtub with Zach and he gets in her way she will volunteer to help Zach out of the tub. She will ask him, "Zach, get out of tub?" or she will tell us that wants to get out and get behind him and lift under his arms. In the most innocent of faces tell us that Zach is ready to get out.

Zach is getting much better at walking. He will giggle and laugh as he is puttering around showing off his big stuff. He still is eating and eating.

We went to the Byron Zoo yesterday. We saw a turkey vulture, some otters, some hawks, bald eagles, badgers, a cougar, coyotes, wolves, snakes, owls and a bobcat. It was a good time except that Zach was crabby from needing a nap so we didn't see the whole thing.

We went to Stewartville yesterday and bought a lawn tractor. A John Deere 135 series. They're going to deliver it on Tuesday so that will be a good break for my poor little push mower. Even though that is probably the best push mower I've ever used. It isn't self propelled but it had a 6 horse motor and was brand new.