It’s always nice to take a day off but it’s hard to sneak away when we have babies, especially with Sage having so many, very young ones. But when the kids invited us for a visit and lunch last Saturday, you can bet I was going to do my best to find a way to go!

Thankfully, I have one of the sweetest sister-in-laws in the world, who also happens to be my neighbor! She hardly had to think about it before answering my question about “puppy sitting”.

So late Saturday morning after getting chores done we set out for the kids place (about two hours away). We didn’t even miss church (well, we weren’t there physically) because we listened to the YouTube sermon on the truck stereo system.

We had a wonderful picnic lunch out on the patio with a small group of family. It couldn’t  have been a better day! <3 The weather was gorgeous (although typical of Washington as one minute it was sunny and warm and the next the clouds came and shaded the sun, with a bit of wind.) But we’re used to PNW weather!

Is that a fluffy puppy or a large dandelion?

(Sorry, not sorry for the overload of cute Winter pictures 😜)

After lunch we took a walk to their local park to exercise the dogs (They have a Boxer, named Rousey and we took Winter).

The kids were having fun hitting golf balls while the dogs had fun running around. Rousey loves to fetch her frisbee and Winter got some practice coming when called.

Although my SIL didn’t quite have the quiet day we expected as I received this message from her.

Apparently, in my muddled, sleepy state when doing the chores that morning, I had forgotten to latch the little gate.

This is a small walk-thru gate that hubby made to access the water trough. I had gone in that morning to top off the trough and forgot to re-hook the bungee cord that holds the gate closed.

I’m sure it was one of these boys that played around with the gate and figured out “hey, mom forgot to latch this! We can get out and eat all the grass that’s outside of our pen!” And that’s just what they did. (Although I’m surprised my big mare actually fit her round body through that opening!)

They happily munched on the lawn until my SIL let the mama dogs out into the backyard for a potty break and they immediately started barking at the horses just outside of the backyard fence!

The oldest horse was easy to get back in her pen but the two naughty boys had fun running up and down the hill between our house and my SIL’s (she has horses too so mine went to visit hers) until my BIL caught them and got them back where they belonged. Never a dull moment on the farm!

But despite the “escape” at home it was nice for us to escape the farm for a day.