February to May with no posts... It appears I haven't had much time for sililoquizing on a computer screen this spring. Facebook has been my outlet for letting the world in on some of our big family events. Things like announcing a new baby (due to arrive in November), our milk cow calving, Carolina wrens hatching in the tack room, and demolition of the old barn. Important stuff.
Between midwife visits, farm chores, riding lessons, occasional music gigs, home and farm projects, educating the children and driving to swimming lessons (to name a few of our activities) I have also started a Fellowship Breakfast for ladies at our church -- which I have been HUGELY blessed with -- and dealt with our downstairs being ripped apart and in a semi-permanent state of disarray as we work through a complete remodeling.
Computer time has become pretty low on the priorities.
But with that said, I'll let our annual trail ride be an excuse to not completely disappear from the blogging world.
What with all of our busyness, and the fact that we had to get home to take care of the dairy cow, we decided to not actually camp out this year. But we still managed to get a (kind-of sort-of) early start and take advantage of the absolutely beautiful spring weather and spend a full day at the trails.
We set up a base camp around the trailer and took turns heading out on the trails. The kids played and ate and did pony rides while the grown ups took turns riding and babysitting.
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| Susannah loves Aunt Kayce! |
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| Margaret rode with Aunt Kayce on Lady. |
Margaret and William did an especially long stint with us and were fabulous troopers.
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| Samson has made a lot of progress since last year when he went trail riding for the first time and I could barely steer him! This year he carried William in a buddy saddle and was solid and amazing. |
They even survived a group of 50-100 young Mennonite men galloping by on their fiery steeds. The kids' mounts (Lady and Samson) took it in stride and handled it amazingly well, thank goodness. My horse, on the other hand, nearly had a conniption. But, as it turns out, that particular horde of horses weren't out to kill him after all, so we survived just fine.
Most of the trail ride was spent enjoying the beauty around us, spotting wildflowers (Beard Tongue, Bee Balm, Indian Paintbrush, False Dandelion, Wild Sweet William, Spiderwort and Golden Alexanders), and listening to William's incessant chatter about how we were all riding to attack fearsome dragons and which dinosaurs were his favorites.
And listening to Chico complain about having to carry me around all day.
(This video does not accurately depict the steepness of the hill we were descending, nor the intensity of Chico's groaning....but it still manages to capture my absolute favorite part of Chico's personality.)
Exhausted from a day in the saddle we all collapsed around a campfire in the glowing light of evening, and in the stillness of a quickly emptied campground (turns out all the hundreds of other trail riders were only day campers too).
Hot dogs devoured, the kids really enjoyed the waffle cone s'more desserts that Aunt Kayce fixed. Thanks, Kayce.
What a fun family day. Once again, I can't wait til next year.
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| Cousin Kathryn & Margaret rehydrate. |
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| Susannah steals Daddy's hat. |
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