First Half of July with Three Word Captions

The first half of July has been good to us.  We finally got some rain, which we are very thankful for! We spent the 3rd and 4th at our old house to take care of a few loose ends. We needed to pick up our mare from the vet because she is pregnant with a May baby; hopefully she stays that way so we can finally have our guaranteed foal we've been trying to get for way too long.  Our yard was a bit out of control, so we spent a good chunk of time pulling weeds and getting it looking decent again.  Hopefully it will just sell soon so we don't have to worry about it any more!  It was weird to go back and see our house completely empty, and camp out with the air mattress since there's no furniture.  It was nice to see some friends while we were there though, especially those we didn't ever get to tell good-bye.

  

Banner for float.

For the local parade they wanted a float representing each community in the county.  I helped my friend put it together, but Maggie and Lane missed out on riding on the float since we were out of town.

 Riding friend's horse.

 Made her night!

 First "solo" ride.

We stopped in to visit our friends.  Renae let the kids ride her horse around before we left.  Thanks for the hot dogs and fun!  It was good to see you and your family!

 Mother to be.

 My lilies bloomed!

 Smeared marker shiner.

If Maggie leaves her markers out, it's almost guaranteed that Lane will color on himself somewhere.  He smeared purple marker under his eye, and only under his eye. It looked exactly like he had a black eye.  I tried to figure out what had happened since I had just looked at him sans marker and I never heard him cry.  Fooled me :)

 I am trouble.

 I am drooling.

 Souffle, first attempt.

Jonathan's boss likes to bake, and Jonathan swears we are in a bake-off. He asked Jonathan if I had ever made souffle before and from what I understand there were some cravings for souffle.  I took the challenge and made some.  Half turned out, half fell in the oven.  I decided they're overrated though.  I'd much rather just have a good chocolate cake, which is much less work.  However, they would be good for our niece with celiac since they contain no flour/gluten.

 Trimming Lane's feet.

Maggie watched Jonathan trim the horse's feet.  The next day, with the perfect form of a farrier, she lifted up Lane's foot, stepped over it and held it between her legs and said, "be still horsey, I'm trimming your feet."  Poor Lane. I know what he has to put up with since I'm the youngest in my family.  I did find it quite amusing nonetheless; plus a little frightening how much she picks up just by observance.   

 Brown chubby bear.

 Calm before storm.

We saddled Smokey for the first time since we've had her (we traded our log bed for her last winter because it was too big for our room and we were sick of stubbing our toes on it. The lady we got her from needed to cut back on the number of mouths to feed through the winter and was willing to trade for pretty much anything that didn't eat. We were already thinking we might need a different mare to breed since Sally wouldn't stay pregnant, she was put together well, I have always wanted a grullo, and we needed a new home for the bed, so we did it. I never blogged about it because at the time I'm sure people thought it was a stupid choice on our part considering it was winter and the horse market was still pretty crummy. I think we got the better end of the deal though.  

Anyway, supposedly she was broke, just needed more miles.  She saddled fine, but then crow-hopped around the corral with it on for a little bit.  After she calmed down and would stand for Jonathan, he worked with her a little more and she took the bit just fine and didn't have any problem being bridled.  She let him on her back, also with no problem.  He sat on her for a long time to let her take everything in and everything was fine.  Then he gave her some leg pressure and she was completely clueless what to do with it.  It was pretty obvious she had never been ridden, and if she had, she sure forget a lot!  She just stood there kind of confused and wouldn't budge.  Then she decided she should walk, so she walked a little bit and it looked like she was figuring it out/remembering.  Then she reared, and reared, and reared some more.  We don't have a round pen, and the corral he was in wasn't exactly the safest place to be testing out a horse, though it was probably the best option. When she was completely vertical and not coming back down any time soon, I wondered how long Jonathan would be able to stay on and control her, so I turned away not wanting to watch any more.  I just kept picturing him coming off and hitting his head on a rock.  Plus I had Maggie and Lane with me and I didn't really want them to see Daddy get hurt.  She decided to stand with all fours on the ground just after I turned away and Jonathan teased me for not being able to watch it all.  I knew he had control, and he didn't seem that nervous, but I still wasn't sure who was going to win.  Looking back, I should have kept the camera out so he could see just how vertical she really was and why I was getting nervous. We're thankful for the high cantle on his saddle!  Since she's pregnant, we weren't planning on riding her this year regardless of how she did. We just wanted to see how "broke" she really was before we turned her out to pasture.  Now we know :)         

 Must hide markers!

Water balloon volleyball.

On Saturday we got together with my extended family at my aunt and uncle's house.  I haven't seen a lot of my cousins in a long time and I haven't seen my aunt and uncle since just before they went on their mission four years ago.  It was fun to see everyone and watch all the kids play.  It's nice to live a little closer now!