Holding the Moon

One night I was trying to take pictures of the full moon with my fancy new camera and Ellea somehow came up with the idea to try to take a picture of her "holding" the moon. I was skeptical, but I'm always game for a good picture, so we gave it a go.

I sat on the ground and tried to direct her where to stand and how high to reach. It's not easy taking a picture of someone when it's pitch dark outside.


We only took one picture and look how good she did! The moon has never felt so safe and supported!!

Wet Cat

We may not have gotten the big hail at our house the day our van was damaged, but it sure rained hard enough.

Ellea's kitty, Vandal, got caught out in the rain storm. He was looking a little wet when he came in!

Damage

We had an incredible hail storm here last week. We didn't get the golf-ball sized hail right at our house, but the kids and I got stuck in it driving home from Cottonwood.

It was incredibly intense. It was incredibly LOUD! It was especially alarming when the hail starting cracking the windshield. Poor Nicole in the passenger seat was really squirming. I told it was fine, because they design windshields not to shatter. When we got home, she noticed there were little pieces of glass on the dashboard.

Ellea counted 27 points of impact on the windshield and 43 (or more) on the hood and roof. Turns out there are dents in almost every body panel.

But, no biggie, because we have insurance, right?

Right? . . . .

Um, no. I'm sorry, you forgot to pay your premium and your insurance EXPIRED two days before the hail storm. . . . That was a major heart breaker. Glenn and I both felt terrible for not paying the bill. What if we'd been in an accident?

No big surprise, Progressive denied our claim. Who could blame them?

Big surprise, my husband with his magical powers of persuasion, got on the phone and convinced some guy in Boise that because we'd been with Progressive for 12 years that they should pay for the damage.

God is good!

Moral of the story? Stay home during hail storms, and pay your bills on time!

Cost of Gas

Yup. It's official. The cost of gas is through the roof!


Won't be able to afford to fill up too many times at these prices!

Darth

After Morgan had a friend over all day for his birthday, we went to Glenn's employer's summer BBQ! They rent out the Grangeville pool, serve yummy BBQ-esque food, hire a DJ and offer face painting.

Then it was on to Grandma's house for some present opening--every little boy's favorite part of birthdays!

You may notice the little boy in the picture seems to have a black face. To go along with his new found fascination in all things Star Wars, Morgan asked to have his face painted to look like Darth.

As in Darth Vader. One of the young men doing the face painting was all too happy to oblige. I think this Star Wars obsession may be a boy thing.

Morgan said his face painting was one of his favorite "presents" of the day. He was terribly saddened, however, when I informed him that he would not be wearing his Darth Vader face paint to church the next day. He thought that was pretty unreasonable of me, but I stuck with my gut on this one.

We happen to have a new priest. I can just imagine what he'd think if we showed up with little Darth Vader in tow.

Then again, the new priest said he likes science fiction. And he is a boy. He'd probably get it better than this silly mom does!

R2

Morgan had a birthday last weekend, and what's his newest obsession? STAR WARS! So, he wanted me to make him a Star Wars cake. He suggested Yoda. I did some looking online and there were examples of Yoda cakes, but have you seen the ears on that guy? Thankfully, Morgan was open to an R2 D2 cake instead!

I found some simple instructions and away we went.


Not too pretty, I know. I'm no Martha Stewart!

Thankfully, I have my trusty assistant.

Not too bad for a couple of amateurs! I was quite please with our efforts.

It even passed the birthday boy's inspection! Sad thing was, after about 2 hours of work, it took us about 10 minutes to destroy it. Poor R2.

Boots

Ugh! I could've sworn I posted this first thing this morning. Computers. . . .

Nicole was cleaning her saddle and bridle for her horse show, and the kids and I were inspired to clean our cowboy boots.



We have quite a collection. Morgan even got his daddy's boots out and polished them.


Glenn's workboots were especially in need of some help. Morgan insisted I take a picture, so we went with "before" and "after!"

Cousins

My brother's family came to visit awhile back and we went up on the Cottonwood Butte. Always looking for excuses to take pictures, I suggested some family pics, and then we moved on to cousin pics.


They decided it would be fun to sit on the forks of Glenn's tractor. Glenn humored them and lifted the forks off the ground. How far off the ground, you ask?

Maybe way off the ground?

Nope, not so much. (Us mother's were present, after all!) It's all perspective. Brother Tony was the photographer that day. I was just going to take a plain old picture, but he saw the potential for something more!

Happy Birthday, Morgan!

Dear Morgan,

I cannot believe you are eight years old already! Where has the time gone? I remember when you were so little. Now you can barely sit in my lap.....you squash me!! But I still love holding you. When we were camping in May, you fell asleep in my lap at the campfire. I didn't want Glenn to take you and put you in bed because I knew that very soon, I'd never had a child of mine sleeping in my arms.

You're such a sweet, happy little boy. We still frequently have this conversation:

Morgan: "Mom?"

Mom: "yes?"

Morgan: "I love you."

It melts my heart every time. Don't stop being the same kind, loving boy that you are. Daddy and I love you so much. God bless you now and always.

Love,

Mom

Waiting Around

Horse shows are fun (to us horsie people, anyway!), but there is a fair amount of waiting around for your next class. Nicole and I didn't mind so much, but the rest of the family were very good sports about it!

For some reason, Nicole talked her daddy into getting on her horse. It gave Zeus a new appreciation for having a 13 year old rider most of the time!

Nicole even talked Ellea into getting on with her for a few minutes.

Then we heard someone say later that riding double was against the rules (for safety reasons). Whoops!!

Even Zeus was a good sport!

4-H Horse Show, 2012

We had a fun, hot day at the Idaho County 4-H Horse Show last Saturday. Nicole and her skinny 23 year old horse did fabulously together.

Blue ribbon in halter.



Blue ribbon also in the "Western Equitation" riding class. She did so well that she got called back into the ring for the grand champion round of Western Equitation for her age group (12-15 year olds). She was super excited. So was her mama!

There was some great competition, but she managed to come away with Reserve Champion which is essentially second place. That's out of about 15 or so other riders! Because of her Reserve Champion placing, she'll get to show in Western Equitation at the 4-H District Horse show which is in Lewiston this year!

Brave

Our girls were lucky enough to get to go visit my brother and his family for a few days recently. While they were gone, we decided to take Morgan out to a movie in Grangeville. It's not often that the youngest in the family gets mom, dad and grandma all to himself!



Brave is an exciting, fun movie. There were a couple of "scary" scenes, but Morgan got through them. The girls weren't too excited to hear they missed out on a movie night. I guess we were supposed to sit at home doing nothing while they were out playing with their cousins!

Daddies

Daddies are great guys. They wipe your tears. They hold your hands.

They take your fish off your hook for you.

Thank God for daddies!

Cousins on Horses

Nicole and Emily went for a little ride together when the Mangini's were here the other day.

It was a short one because we had to squeeze lots of fun activities into one afternoon.

Just like old times!

Always the drama queen!

July Date Night

The week of the 4th of July, we went out dancing with friends. It was just a few days after our June date night, but it counts. When it rains it pours!




I was so proud of us. When we were in our 20's, we could dance all night. As the years have progressed, we have had less stamina. We dance one song and wait an hour before we dance again! That night, I lost track of how many songs we danced to.


It was like we were young(er) again.



Except, that we do sometimes wait until a song is half over, so we don't get so tired!

Family Pics

While my brother and his family were visiting recently, we took a 4-wheeler ride up on the Cottonwood Butte. The view was beautiful, as always.

I even managed to get a few family pictures taken. The kids weren't super excited, but they are still (mostly) cooperative when the camera comes out.

Glenn had his tractor up there, doing some other work. (He's always looking for ways to multi-task!) What better backdrop than a green John Deere tractor?!!

All Terrain Vehicles

Some of us prefer riding horses.

Some of us prefer riding motorized vehicles. (Ellea and cousin, Sophia)

(Morgan and Uncle Tony)

When I was a kid, my brother had a 3-wheeler ATV. I had a horse. He did have a good argument that the ATV ate less hay, but they're not as much fun to pet either! And they don't smell as lovely. I know you non-horse lovers won't understand, but those of us who are fond of horses, love that sweet horsie scent. Can I get an Amen?!!

Rodeo Time

We went to family night of the rodeo in Grangeville on July 3rd. It was three-and-a-half hours of horses, cows and cowboys and girls. It was fun, but we sure were tired when we got home at 11pm.

I'll never understand why men feel compelled to climb on the backs of large animals and encourage them to buck them off! I can't imagine how long that 8 seconds must feel! I prefer to ride animals that I am fairly certain will not buck me off, but I'm funny that way.

Ellea hangin' on the fence with a friend.

They have a "calf scramble" for kids. This poor innocent calf runs around the arena and the first kid to pull off the flagging tape that's tied around the calf's neck wins a cash prize. Morgan is in this picture. You'll just have to take me word on it. I couldn't find him either, but I knew he was out there so took a picture.

He didn't win the cash prize, but he got tired out running around. And that poor calf. He looked a little shocked when he entered the arena and saw all these little people running toward him!

Parade Fun

Grangeville has a parade every day for three days with their Border Days celebration for the 4th of July. We went over for the parade on the 4th. The kids were torn between watching the parade, and riding on the float for Glenn's employer, Idaho Forest Group.

Nicole and I decided to watch the parade. She wanted to see all the horses and it was a good opportunity for me to take pictures.

The kids had hoped to be able to throw candy, but it had already been divied up to the other float riders when they got there. Morgan got off the float after they went past Nicole and I and he was able to load up with candy.

After the parade, we braved the crazy traffic (this is Grangeville, we're not used to having to wait for cars!) to go to the park and buy some strawberry shortcake from grandma's church group. It was super yummy. I should've taken a picture, but I was so smitten with eating it, that I wasn't worried about recording it for future glory. Maybe next year.

Country Concert

We're doing okay with my resolution to have at least one date a month. We may have skipped the month of May. We waited until the last day of June, but it was a good one.

Country singer, Aaron Tippin, came to Grangeville for an outdoor concert at the rodeo grounds. Grangeville has a big 4th of July celebration every year with rodeos and parades. Last year they built a stage at the rodeo grounds and brought in Mark Chestnut and Mark Wills. It's so fun and the price is right. There aren't many country concerts you can go to for only $20.

So, there we sat on June 30, 2012, in our lawnchairs maybe 100 feet from a country star. Granted, he was a bigger name back in the 90's, but that was okay. We were just transported to our 20's!

Roping

One of the sessions at horse camp on the last day was on learning to rope. Thankfully, it was without horses, because it would be a disaster to try to learn on your horse. It's hard enough to master on your own two feet. I can't imagine trying to control my horse and make sure he's not scared of this snake-like object I'm throwing around!

Nicole practiced a little the night before on a bucket in front of our camper. Candi gave her a brief lesson. She seemed to catch on right away.

I didn't bother giving it a try before the class, but I wish I had. I was terrible at it! I couln't for the life of me figure out how to rotate my wrist correctly to spin the rope over my head. All the other women seemed to do fine. But not me. I was roping my own hat more than anything!

Team Penning

Our favorite class/activity at horse camp was Team Penning. Team Penning is an organized horse sport where you have a group of three riders who work together to move three calves from a group of 12 or 15 into a small pen in an arena. It's harder than it sounds, though! You only have 2 and a half minutes to get them moved, and you're not moving just any three calves of your choosing, usually. They tell you a certain color or characteristic to get. Some of them have colored wraps around their horns to identify them by.

Nicole at the head of the group.
That's me on the right.

Sometimes those calves don't exactly want to cooperate! Nicole and her horse did very well. Me and my horse? We had fun, but didn't always get any calves where they belonged!

My friend, Candi wanted to know if I thought Glenn would let us harrass his calves in this manner. I thought for a moment and said, "For Nicole? Anything. For you and me? Maybe not so much!"

Confidence Builders

What a great time we had a horse camp. Three hours of training with professional horsemen every day for three days, a two-hour trail ride two of the three nights, and other fun stuff like decorating t-shirts, a roping lesson and potluck dinners every night.


Nicole's horse is very old (23 years), and very skinny right now, but he sure is a champ! He is such a good horse.

We played in the nearby river. Nicole was fearless. It helps to have a horse you trust.

Everyone should talk on the phone on horseback. Nicole was saying hello to her daddy after we'd been gone a couple of days.

Happy Independence 2012!

Happy 4th of July!

How do we celebrate our independence 'round these parts?

Why, by eating a big ol' healthy breakfast at a local church fundraiser, of course! I'm so glad we have the freedom to pig out as we see fit!

(Sorry for the blurry bacon, I had to hurry and snap a photo. For some reason my family thought people were looking at me funny for taking a picture of Glenn's pile-o-food.)