Some Furry Winter Friends

No, we haven't lost our mind and purchased any critters, though begging, pleading, desperate children make their case for them daily.  But we have had a few close encounters lately that are worth noting.

First were some friends that paid us a nighttime visit after the last snowstorm.  The children were nestled all snug in their beds and Marc and I were poking around, cleaning up the house before sneaking in an episode of our new guilty pleasure (a TV show called Revenge) when he called me over to the play room window.

This is what he saw...

Luckily, the streetlights glinting on the new fallen snow (and a spiffy camera with manual settings) let me brighten things up considerably.

It was BAMBI!!

And she had a buddy!

This is literally 15 feet from our house!

And then, unbelievably, a THIRD one snuck out to join his friends.

They all went across the street to the open field, looking for a midnight snack I suppose.  It was a regular deer party!  We showed the kids the next morning and they couldn't believe it.

Then last weekend, I took the kids on a "Mystery Ride".  Our old neighbors Mike and Kim used to take their two girls on these, and my kids were always jealous and begged for mystery rides of their own.  Once in a while I come up with one (like the time we pretended we were going to McDonalds and after picking up happy meals we drove to Starved Rock State Park for the weekend).  

The funny thing is, while they THINK they like mystery rides, they actually can't stand them.  

The suspense KILLS them!  They complain the entire time that you simply MUST tell them where you are driving to.  But if you tell them, they will cry just as loudly that you ruined the mystery!  And if you don't tell them, once they figure out where you're taking them, it's never as good as they imagined (were they thinking we were going to China?  Disney? Free toy day at Toys R Us?).

So then they cry and complain some more.

They haven't figured out yet that this is why they don't get mystery rides very often!

Our mystery ride this time ended up at a place we know well.  We used our Arboretum membership (thanks for renewing it for us, Nana and Papa!) to see a husky sled dog demonstration.  All the kids love dogs, but especially Molly.  And she has a particular affection for huskies, bringing home library books about them and asking for one for Christmas.

So being able to go pet two dozen huskies was a pretty exciting treat!

This picture is my favorite!  That's Ben, sweetly petting a pup, who was so good to let him, and seemed to enjoy it as much as Ben did.

This sweet thing has sensitive feet, so they treat her like a princess and have her dressed in special pink booties and a matching scarf.  She looked like a little bird in a nest all curled up in the hay!

A little six year old princess figured out what this sign said, 

and Mommy didn't hear the end of it ALL DAY.

This is Kiera below.  She was a bit skittish, so her owner gave Molly and Ben fistfuls of cookies to help  convince her they were friends.  

She was no dummy, peeking inside Molly's jacket looking for more!

Jack refused to wear the hat I brought him, leaving it in the car.  He then stood in the shade by himself  complaining about how cold it was.  Meanwhile the rest of us were huddled with the crowd in the sunshine where it was an easy 15 degrees warmer.

He's lucky his Mom loves him and shared her scarf.  You *know* he was cold if he was willing to look like this!

Kinda reminds me of that really odd TV show Boobah, by the makers of the Teletubbies

eek!  weird!

But back to the pups!  We got to learn about huskies, and why they need jobs to do, and how much they love pulling sleds.  While they were being hooked up to their harnesses, we got to hear them howl LOUDLY about how excited they were - they didn't stop howling until it was time to go!

And then the sledding started!  Due to lack of snow, they didn't pull sleds, but other contraptions designed to mimic the sledding experience.

This picture is the best I got.  

Sometimes you win, sometimes you get pictures to embarrass them with in front of future dates.

This was that kind of day.

After all the excitement (and freezing temperatures) one little sled driver passed out COLD, fourteen seconds into the drive home.  

Not counting the whining, crying and gnashing of teeth at the fact that they didn't actually bring HOME a husky...it was a pretty fun afternoon!