It's 9am and I'm sitting outside on the back deck with my computer, a cup of coffee and watching seven children playing in the backyard.  My oldest daughter is still sleeping and my oldest son is downstairs learning to do magic tricks. It's a beautiful day! I think today will be a pool day!
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I think it's funny that my relatives are posting stuff from our childhood on facebook about the bear named Zack. Apparently one of the relatives was telling her friends about Zack and the stories she was relating and remembering were kind of unbelievable so she started doubting if the bear really existed. Seriously, who keeps a bear as a pet? So she asked and then tagged a bunch of our relatives. It was fun to hear what people are remembering about him. A cousin, either Mark or Kevin, had him since he was a little cub.
My favorite memory of Zach was when he was older and much bigger and I was maybe 10 years old or so. My mom was nervous about letting us near him because he had gotten so big. My friend Marin and I rode our bikes the mile to visit him. We opened the enclosed cage/pen and went inside to play with him. It had rained recently so the ground was a bit muddy. Zack rose up on his back legs while I was turned around and put his big paws on my back. We left the cage soon after that and I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how I was going to explain the huge muddy pawprints on the back of my white shirt. They never did come out! :)
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