We’ve had an adventurous week this week filled with lots of time outside, including picking many cucumbers and zucchini and playing with Lily. We went to the zoo three times too and saw so many fun animals. We explored several parts of the zoo we hadn’t previously been through and of course we got in a couple rides on the carousel. Finn absolutely loves to have the dogs around all the time. He climbs all over Lily and talks to both of the dogs all the time. When they walk into a room he often does a little dance. 
Finn continues to love to climb and test the waters with what he should and shouldn’t be doing. One evening in the kitchen he pulled a box off the chair along with his to go bag and proceeded to step on the box while carrying his bag. He certainly is able to multi-task! He also loves to climb on his toy car in his room and stand on the seat and get things off his dresser, in this case, a bunch of homeless socks!
Thursday we were able to host a family gathering at our place as Kevin’s brother Sean along with Chris and their kids Max and Charlotte are visiting from New Mexico. Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong and Brett were here as well. Finn enjoyed meeting his cousins for the first time and the kiddos played together for awhile in the basement and outside. Unfortunately, rather sad circumstances led to their trip to Ohio as they are here to attend two unrelated funerals. So while Sean and Chris traveled on Saturday, Grandma, Grandpa, Max, Charlotte, Brett, Missy, Kevin, Finn and myself spent the day together at the zoo. Though the day started of rainy it actually turned out to be a perfectly pleasant overcast day!
After the zoo the kids had a quick run through the yard. Finn was only wearing his socks, and left cute little trails all over the driveway. 
The highlight of this trip to the zoo for Finn was riding the camels (mamals)! He was super excited (though it doesn’t look like it here) and wouldn’t stop saying “mamals, mamals, mamals!”. 
Several areas of progress this week on the remodeling. On Monday Kevin and Brett prepped and framed the bay window area for new windows (installed on Tuesday) and added new cedar siding. After the windows were installed (by Lowe’s) Brett finished the details. The new windows are shorter than the previous windows since the kitchen sink and counters will be along the wall. Kevin primed the wood with tinted primer, so from the outside you can’t even tell anything was done. These guys are professionals 🙂 Our new refrigerator arrived on Thursday and Brett also finished up the food pantry with all of the shelving and framing for various items that will be installed (a drawer freezer and either the wine fridge or ice maker). Kevin filled the nail holes and then sanded everything so now all that remains is for the shelves to be painted and the counter to be installed. Things are moving right along!
