Winter Walk

The kids came with me on a walk around the neighborhood today as I went visiting teaching. At Kay's house, Natalie played puzzles and a Jessie Doll. We've recently introduced the little kids to Toy Story, and when it was time to go Natalie was so sad to leave Jessie. "I wish I could have Jessie..." Kay, the lovely grandma that she is, asked me if it was okay to let her have it. Of course, so thoughtful and kind of her. So I told Natalie that Kay gave it to her, and Natalie took it with us as we walked to the next house.

The snow was melting fast and we about fell and killed ourselves at Michelle's house next, kinda funny. Her front porch was worse than ours! Although Owen thought he was gonna slip and die coming in to our home. It was a fun walk around the neighborhood and it was fun to watch Daniel discover the cold snow.
Lots of snow but the sun was shining and it was a fairly warm and pleasant day for winter. After Sophi got home from kindergarten, Natalie let her have a turn playing with Jessie, but not long enough for Sophi, and the little girls have been kinda fighting over Jessie since then. We're gonna hope that Toy Story 4 comes out asap and we can get more toys then, though I am keeping an eye out at the second hand store too.

So most of this snow came from a big storm over the weekend, but there was a small layer of snowdust today. On our way over to the first visit, I noticed some strange animal tracks in the snow -

Four little paws, and some of the tracks appeared to have a tail...

They seemed too big to me to be a mouse... and too far apart. So maybe a big rat?

 They led to/from our home and next door and across the street to some of our neighbor's homes.

Several weeks ago, Abi and I and a few of the kids at different times all saw some wild rodent in out by the garbage can and in the garage (a wild rodent as opposed to our domestic pet guinea pigs). We can't have wild animals in the garage or the house, so I put out some traps. We didn't catch it but the food did get taken a few times. But then one night as I emptied the trash, I heard an owl hooting in the neighbor's tree and we didn't see the black rodent again. So I figured the owl got him. But now I'm not so sure... We shall begin again to keep a watchful eye.