Nature Preserve

We have a new hobby. When Cooper and Phoebe and I pick up Peter from school, we don't go right home. Instead, we drive around town and look at houses. Some of the neighborhoods around here have gigantic homes. Peter calls those "the ones I would get lost in." We've also looked at smaller homes, so now my children will call out "those are modest homes" or "those house are huge!" In addition to size, we make note of architectural style and materials used. Apparently we all prefer homes with stone accouterments.

On our drive today, we saw something that I haven't seen the whole time I've lived in this valley.

Mountain goats. Or at least, they were goats, standing on the side of a steep hill, grazing. I'm not sure if they were really mountain goats, but it was still impressive.

Can you see those white specks on the hill?

Want a closer look?

After oohing and aahing over our brush with nature, we pulled back onto the road (because I had pulled off to take the pictures), turned the corner, and saw deer. Here's one of them.

Who needs the zoo?