August 18th

We heard back from the hosts in Belgium, and they said we could come any time. But we are actually going to arrive later than we planned rather than earlier. Harri and Mona had made mention of wanting to take a little holiday, so we said that if they wanted to go while we were here, we would be happy to keep an eye on the farm for them. So the whole family left this morning to go camping til Monday. After all their hospitality, we were glad that we could help them get away for a few days…it’s not an easy thing to do when you have so many animals depending on you.

We took a nice walk this afternoon after the kids were up from their nap to check on the ponies, and we picked wild blackberries along the way. I took care of most of the animals this evening while Carter was getting the kids ready for bed: milked the goats, put the turkeys up, checked the hen and chicks, put the rest of the chickens away, put the ducks up, fed the dog, etc…

Evan got to see a baby chick hatch two days ago! There’s a hen that just hatched 10 chicks and another one whose chicks should start hatching in the next couple of days. The chicks were especially welcome because they had just lost all but two of their last set of chicks to a fox. There was confusion one day because the door to the chicks house was closed in the evening, and no one checked to find out that the chicks weren’t inside. The next morning there were only 2 of 20 left.

We finished painting the little house that we’ve been staying in today, and tomorrow Carter is going to finish putting the floor down on the second loft in the barn. Then we’ll have most of the afternoon free to relax. Today was beautiful, so we can only hope that tomorrow will be as well.

August 14th

Well after all that work leading up to the weekend, what did we do yesterday? We went to the beach! We came for breakfast yesterday and Mona said, “I’m tired and it’s too rainy to work, I want to go to the sea”.  So we all packed up and went off for the day, and it was great. First we went to Hag’s Head where there were some really great sea cliffs and very few visitors (probably because you have to climb over a fence which says “NO TRESSPASSING” all over it). It was incredibly windy, but the views were amazing.

 looking out of what was left of the tower on the hill.

 this is the tower I was in when taking the picture at the top

 this is the "Hag's Head"

 there were lots of little caves to explore

 Killian enjoying the cliffs

Killian and Jonah

Then we headed down the coast to Ballyvaughn and to a beach near there. The weather was great – the sun was out a good bit and even the cool sea breeze wasn’t too cold. We both figured the water would be too cold for the kids, but Evan ran right out and started wading around as soon as we touched the sand. Elliot took a lot longer to venture out to the water, and chose instead to spend his time playing in the soft grey sand. He finally got around to getting his feet wet, and before we left, he was having a grand time laughing as he ran naked through the water.

As always, our children end up naked in the end.

August 13th

Our kids are getting big. Sometimes it just hits you all at once that they have grown a lot. It’s so hard to believe that Evan is already 5 and Elliot is going to be 3 in just a couple of months. Evan seems to love it here, and I think this kind of life really suits her well. She loves all the animals and always wants to help out with them. She comes with us to milk the goats and has had some tries at milking. Any time I tell her to wait because she can’t milk right then, she’ll come back with “well, if we are going to have goats, then I have to learn how to milk them too.” Last weekend she was sitting up on Serena (one of their big horses) and she looked right at home and just as happy as she could be. I don’t think we are going to have a choice about horses – she and Carter are both hooked.

Elliot has changed so much since we’ve left as well. He’s really come out of his shell a good bit on this trip…he used to seem so shy, and he still can be at times, but he is a lot more outgoing for the most part. He still warms up to men much quicker than women. When Harrie came to pick us up at the bus stop, he just said “Hi, are you Lisa and Carter? I’m Harrie and I’m here to pick you up”, and Elliot immediately took his hand and walked off with him.

The most obvious change, of course, has been that he is finally talking! It’s amazing to look back at before we left how he could hardly say much at all and now he talks in actual sentences (although they can be a bit difficult to understand). I told Carter the other day, that the one thing I think we will both remember him saying throughout this trip is “whatdoin?”. This is his normal greeting whenever he enters a room or sees someone, “helwo. Whatdoin” (Hello, what are you doing?).

The kids do bicker and fight like any siblings do, but it’s also nice when we get to see how much they care about each other as well. One day Evan was upset because she couldn’t ride Evi’s bike (it’s too big for her and has no training wheels), so Elliot went and got the little balance bike he’s been playing with (and not wanting anyone else to touch) and brought it to her to ride. They are also good about kissing each other’s “boo-boos” when one of them gets hurt.

They can both drive us nuts over the things they just can’t seem to get (like potty training for Elliot), but overall, I think we have a couple of great little kids.

 Evan and Fin 

 He does love trains

 I came in to check to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble...he had fallen asleep eating his snack.

 His favorite outfit.

 Hers as well

 Nope,we haven't cut his hair yet.

 Elliot and his "fishing pole"

 Daddy's boy

It's hard work being carried around on a long walk.