Our family vacation this year was a two-part vacation that began with a long over-due visit to my older brother, Dwayne, and his long-time girlfriend, Robin. They live just outside of Lexington, KY, on a bunch of property that backs up to a river (so there is an abundance of wildlife all around them---which we love love love!). As we drove up to their house we were greeted by several peacocks (and some of them were just little baby chicks!). The girls we thrilled and immediately went on a feather gathering frenzy.
Aunt Robin and the girls.
Dwayne....he's nothing short of awesome.
Ellie and her animals...she has yet to meet an animal that isn't immediately drawn to her. We call her the Animal Whisperer....and you'll see why below.
During the visit we went to some good friends of Dwayne and Robin that own an Alpaca (and Llama and sheep and chicken) farm. The girls got to meet and pet so many different animals....
...and they also got to collect fresh eggs from the chicken coop.... of which Quincy immediately dropped!
A Llama.
While we were in the Alpaca barn, Ellie squatted down and all (and I mean ALL) of the Alpacas just began to walk up to her and rub their soft noses against her. I am not a writer so it's hard for me to convey just how strange (but in a beautiful way) it was to see this. When I said something to the owner about it, she stated that all animals (not just Alpacas) can sense a calming presence in certain people and those are the people who animals are naturally drawn to. That statement makes perfect sense when I reflect back on all the different scenarios of Ellie around any animal over the past two years. They truly do just flock to her.
The photo above is the back of a baby Alpaca's head as it went up to Ellie and literally rubbed noses with her. It was just amazing.
Quincy, as you know, doesn't have a quiet presence so she didn't get to pet too many of the Alpacas...but she did get to pet a sheep!
...and Tim was able to pet their little house-dog!
We had a GREAT visit!
