Farewell Justin!

We got to hang out with the whole Metcalf clan, before Justin gets deployed this fall, on this Tuesday and then Wednesday morning (before they headed up to Utah for his last few weeks he has here in the US). Miley and I picked them all up from the airport Tuesday late morning and we went to Sam's Club and ate pretzels, and hot dogs for lunch. Sydney also got to pick if she wanted the Cinderella dress from the Disney store or the one from Sam's Club...of course she wanted the Disney one.

We had home made pizza Tuesday night and then had fun just hanging out and talking with one another. Then on Wednesday we said our goodbyes. Thanks for stopping by and seeing us. Justin, Stephanie, and Sydney, we want you, and others like you, to know that we appreciate your sacrifice and service to us and our country. Please be safe and listen to the Holy Ghost, you'll be in our prayers and thoughts. Love the Deming's.

Our last days with Steph and Sydney

Tuesday after we picked Nate up from school, and Miley took a little nap we went over to Tule Springs to have some fun with the kids. We would go there more often, but you have to pay $6 to get in. Well we brought some bread, which next time I'll bring even more since we all had such a great time feeding the birds there.

Here is the birds going crazy over a big piece of bread Nate threw to them before I showed him to break smaller pieces.

We found out that the peacocks and ducks would even eat right out of your hands, which was quite fun. Nate was a little skittish about them eating right out of his hands. He would jump away from them, scarring them a little, when ever they got one out of his hand, that is if he didn't jump away from them before they even got close enough to get the piece of bread from him.

Miley, on the other hand didn't understand that the bread was for the birds, not her. She would think about throwing the bread to them but would always change her mind and take the piece and put it in her own mouth.

There was so many peacocks too, and they weren't scared of us at all.

The babies sure had grown since last time when we came here in the spring with mom.

So after a while of feeding the birds we were going to head over to the horses, goats, and chickens area, when we turned around to get the stroller and here is what we found, lol, there was a bunch of peacocks checking out the stroller looking for food. I don't think they wanted a ride, I should have asked them.

Here's our white peacock friend again...he was a little more stand-offish then the others. We went to see the chickens next, Miley really liked them and Nate kept acting like a chicken and trying to make their noises. He is so funny.

These chickens always remind me of my pet chickens. Good times!

The goats were next. Below I got a picture of two of my good friends, Steph being one of them and Billy the goat the other. Billy is always so friendly and always comes out to say hi to me.

Here is Nate's horse, or at least the one that he got to ride last time we were here. Thank goodness he had lost his winter coat, unlike last time.

The horses were so pretty, of course I love horses so I'm a little bias. They are such beautiful, graceful, and magical animals if you ask me.

Here we all are hanging out with our horse friends, in the shade.

Bob here, at least that is what we called him, followed us around where ever we went. He was really friendly, or hungry, or both. He was really gentle and sweet, he even had to say hi to Miley.

I got to feed Bob and some of his friends, Bog is the horse above Miley.

After we said goodbye to Steph's cowboy we walked over to the ponds to feed the ducks the rest of the bread we brought.

Miley had to stay in her stroller for this. She would have dived right into the water to get close to the ducks otherwise, and I didn't really want to get wet.

We had to keep our eyes on Nate and Sydney too. We started out with 2 or 3 ducks, and before we knew it we had a ton of them, begging and squawking for food.

This big fellow and his friend were the loudest and most demanding of all the birds. It was so funny to here them begging for more bread.

Here he is right next to Steph honking for more food.

And here is Nate begging for some crackers from Steph, because he had used up all of his bread and thought she owed him some crackers.

Here is Miley saying Please over and over in sign language, begging for more bread. She says Pees, Pees, Pees, while she signs please, it is supper cute and I have a hard time not giving her exactly what she wants when she does this. It's super cute!

Some cute pictures by one of the little streams that join all of the ponds together.

As we were leaving the area were we were feeding the ducks, the Three Amigos swam acrossed the pond to where we were leaving, got out of the pond and came right up to us honking for food. They wouldn't take no for an answer.

They even asked, or begged, by flapping their wings at us. It was funny.

We kept walking and they kept following us.

They where very persistant, and it did pay off for them. Steph found them some crackers and they ate out of her hand, they even let her pat them on their backs.

In the meantime Sydney had a blast being able to push Miley around in the stroller. Her and Nate took turns doing this.

Miley just love walking around, checking everything out. It was so fun to have her out, able to walk around, have fun, and to see the twinkle in her eyes as she explores the world around her. She loves the outdoors and animals. She can't get enough of animals. It will be fun to take her to the zoo next year. I can't wait to see the adventures she has in her life.

Nate is so cute and fun to hang around too. He has so much life and energy. He can talk you ear off if you let him. It's fun to get out with him were he can be crazy and have lots of room to run and be free.

We all had such a great time playing at Tule Springs. Feeding the birds and animals, and walking around in such a beautiful place, with great company.

Wednesday we said our goodbyes and I took Steph and Sydney to the airport so they could fly down to see family and to meet Justin when he flew in to Arazona on Friday. We had a great time and can't wait to see you next Tuesday with Justin.

Sydney and Nate, saying goodbye before Nate went to school.