Happy 100 Happy Family: The Ashauer Travelling Petting Zoo. Free Admission

I’d like to introduce you to the Ashauer family from Fort Collins, Colorado. What an amazing bunch they are! Check out their story (I just love how Erika tells it!):

The Ashauer Travelling Petting Zoo. Free admission.

Our family is furry, restless, colorful, fluffy and oh-so-silly! The Ashauer farm consists of Erika, the mum-mum; Derek, the papa; Claire, the sweetest baby with the best dance moves; Toby, the bichon-cocker mix who will do anything for his mama, human food and a good nap; LittleWing, the greenwing macaw thats afraid of flying; Loki, the itty-bitty trash can kitty we adopted off a homeless man in Del Mar, CA and is the weirdest cat we’ve come across; Montgomery, the “ferocious” ferret who loves stealing pens and chapsticks from purses; and Lola, the terrapin (aquatic turtle, not pictured) who loves doing yoga. I must mention Emma as well because she is a huge part of our family identity…she is Claire’s identical twin sister whom passed away last May. Although no longer with us physically, we know she is shining down upon us and warming our hearts and souls each and every moment.

Both my husband and I work from home so we have the pleasure of keeping each other company all day long. As a family, our most favorite thing to do is going on walks…yes they all come with us…ok, maybe not the turtle. You know. Because she can’t keep up. The children in our neighborhood love us and the fids (Furry and feathered kids) love the attention. Long leisurely walks allow us to talk about our day, our goals for the future and anything at all. We usually end up at a park and watch the animals play with each other and Claire chase after them. It’s so perfect to see every member of our family enjoying each other.

Erika, Derek, Claire, and “fids”, thank you for sharing your story. And thank you for inspiring me today!

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I’d like to explain to everyone my process for choosing the winning families. I spent several hours sifting through your many entries this afternoon. I copy and pasted all of your “what activities do you love to do as a family” paragraphs into a text document—all without names! I had not read them before hand, so I didn’t know any names or photos that belonged to the stories. (I had only looked at the photos as they came in… you are all so cute!) Really, truly. And as I read, the ones that stuck out to me the most got pasted into a new document of “favorites.” Let me tell you… I am Miss Indecision herself! So in the beginning, pretty much EVERYONE of you were in the “favorites” document. I even told my husband, “I don’t know how I’ll choose.” I’m such a visual thinker, that as I was reading, I was already composing images in my mind of most of you… thinking, “Well, if I choose this one, this is how it’ll look.” So if you don’t make it to screen, know you’ve probably made it in my mind at least! ha! You guys are awesome! So many great stories! Such loving and happy families we have reading this blog! It was so fun to read! I so wish all of your stories could “win” this week!

Can’t believe we’ve made it to the week of my 100th illustration! What a journey its already been! In about 2 weeks, I’ll be 1/3 of the way done already! Crazy! Thanks for celebrating with me this week!

Another Happy Family winner coming soon….

Katie

P.S. Don’t forget to say hi on my Facebook page if you didn’t get to check in this weekend.