The Land of the Free

As you may have noticed, with all my posts thus far about things going on in and around the 4th of July, we had a busy weekend. I enjoy busy weekends.

The day of the 4th wasn't particularly whirlwind, but we did a couple of fun things involving food and horses. Nothin' better than fulfilling my need for food and horses. Oh, how I love them both.

First off, was the food, of course. Nearby tiny town of Greencreek hosts a to-die-for breakfast fundraiser event with all the fixin's. Pancakes, eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage. And you fill your own plate, so you can pile it high. Sadly, I forgot (gasp) the camera. I know! Can you believe it. If my mantra is "Pictures for the blog," how can I leave home without a camera? I wish I had a picture to share of Glenn's plate. It was piled HIGH. That boy can eat. We joke that he must fill his hollow leg.

After we all stuffed ourselves, the kids and I ventured outside to take in a couple of kiddie-rides. Again, no pictures. My deepest apologies. I will do better next time. Really.

Then, we hurried Glenn away from his socializing with all of north central Idaho to get to the horse portion of the day. That boy can eat AND talk. He's very talented, that Glenn.

So, we hurried home and loaded the horses to go to Grangeville and ride in the parade. I know. I posted the other day that we rode in a float in the Grangeville parade, but Grangeville takes its 4th of July parades seriously. They have a parade every day for three days every year to go along with their three rodeos. Nicole had been longing to be in a parade, so we decided to humor her. There was an open invitation to anyone to join a big group of horse riders. They were trying to get as many as possible to celebrate the 100th year of Border Days in Grangeville.

Here she is perfecting her parade wave. Really, she waved the entire time. She was a very happy camper. And, surprisingly, her horse did famously. Sometimes, he seems afraid of his own shadow and there are lots of things to be scared of in a parade, but he took it all in stride. Then there was my horse. He's usually my rock, but as we walked through the area of the egg toss, he was not himself. (And they toss close to 1,000 eggs every day for three days.) He was a tense ball of nerves just during that portion of the parade. He felt like he was going to come undone, but I reassured him and we got through it fine. My theory is that the odor of all those raw eggs on the pavement is disturbing, but I'll never know why he has such an aversion. Maybe he was pelted with eggs in another life.

While Nicole and I were fulfilling our horsie desires of parade riding, the other two Poxleitner children were fulfilling their candy desires of parade watching. Sadly, there were lots of other kids fulfilling those same desires, so they weren't able to collect as much candy as they would've liked, but fun was still had by all.