Alpacas

The last couple days were relatively mild, but today dawned downright balmy.  Yesterday was Andy's birthday and while we managed to squeeze in a small celebration, he's on call all weekend and spent most of last night and all this morning and early afternoon in the hospital.  So, the girls and I lazed around, hoping he'd come home and letting the day slip away from us.  I emailed my mom to see if she'd have time for a walk and she texted me to say she noticed a local alpaca farm was open for visitors.  Andy finally came home (poor guy, he was exhausted) and helped me load the girls up and off we went to visit the alpacas.  I don't know that I've ever seen an alpaca up close.  (Llamas, yes, but alpacas in my opinion are a bit more cuddly cute whereas llamas are more cartoonishly cute.)  They were quite sweet and impossibly soft.  It was like touching a life size stuffed animal.  The owner told us that they would probably be a bit nervous around me and my mom, but that they would be friendly to the girls since they were smaller.  Sure enough they weren't keen on my mom and me touching them, but they let the girls get close and one even became quite enamored of Avonlea, sneaking up to nuzzle her hair whenever she turned her back.  It was such a fun and unexpected outing and we'll definitely return.  I went a little wild with the pictures but as you know I think my girls are cute and it turns out I think alpacas are really cute, too, so together it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

The herd--apparently they were all in the mood to graze.

Avonlea was quite bold and walked right up to Stan.  Stan was a little skittish at first as you can see in the picture below.

 

 

That's Max giving Avonlea a little nuzzle when she turned around.  (By the way, this is the first picture of Avonlea with her new bob.  What do you think?  I loved her long waves, but she doesn't like me to style it so it was getting a bit unruly.  I love it now and I also think it'll grow out nicely and will be easier to pull back since it'll be even when it's long enough for a pony tail again.)

Here goes Max again!  I told you he was enamored with Avonlea.

 

 

 

When she turned back around he seemed a little embarrassed and would put on this whole "Who me?" expression whereas Avvie would giggle and point to her head saying "HEAD! MY HEAD!"

 

 

 

Madeleine was a little nervous about the alpacas.  She was caught in that horrible dilemma of wanting to touch them but being too nervous to do so.  She begged me to walk her closer to them but that wasn't much help since they wouldn't let me get close.  In the end it was Avonlea who lead her to them.

 

 

 

 

'Till next time Max!

And yes, we did also go for that walk and I took pictures that I'll share from that, too.  But, this post is plenty long so I'll stretch out this day over two posts.  I might as well savor our warm weather fun since the cold is sure to return soon.