this is my blog: October 2013

Monday, October 21, 2013

Horse Show and Open House

On Sunday the 13th we headed to the stable that we used to board Margie at for their annual Fun Day & Horse Show. Sophia was so excited to see her old friends, Ayden (above) and Hayden! They are all in kindergarten, and get along (mostly) very well!

We didn't bring any of our own horses (no floor in the horse trailer has a little something to do with it!) but everyone else was happy to share. This is Sophia on Shelly's horse, Cowgirl's Dream... aka "Squirt."

Sophia and Squirt did "Dizzy Izzy," which involves riding to the end of the arena...

Then jumping off the horse and spinning around a bat 5 times....

and then running back! Travis actually won the adult division of Dizzy Izzy using Jess' horse. I also tried it using Squirt... I laughed so hard I could barely breathe!

Sophia inside Jess and Brien's chicken coop with the chicks. There's so much to check out at their place!

Sophia hanging out on Squirt

Sophia and Squirt doing the Egg and Spoon event.

Sophia, Ayden and Hayden riding in the Egg and Spoon

Sophia with her egg. She held onto it for a long time! She lost it when they had to try trotting.

Kaia sat on Squirt quite a bit, and fussed every time I took her off!

Kaia with her daddy :)

We were a little panicky about how long the Fun Day ended up being. We didn't get home until almost 7 on Sunday, and we had so much to do to get ready for our Open House the next weekend! But we had so much fun. At one point we talked about the time, and decided to just let go of our plans for our place and enjoy the day at Brien and Jess.' We deserved a Fun Day! :)

I got home early on Wednesday from a meeting in Becker county, so I took the girls and Travis hopped on Margie for a quick ride! Margie is doing great... she can go pretty strong for 2-3 miles, which we feel lucky for!

Please excuse Sophia's spaghetti 'stache :)

I took this Saturday morning... the clouds were sitting right on the prairie. It reminded me of watching the clouds lift over the mountains in VT when we camped!

OPEN HOUSE! On Saturday Oct 19 we opened our doors to friends, family, and our neighbors. The first people showed up right at 4, and then we had company until 1am! Well, my sister in law Lindsey actually spent the night with her kids, so technically we had company for about 20 hours. ;) This is my boss and his wife!

I made a LOT of food... and people brought food! SO many leftovers! These are my spiral sandwhiches. I thought they turned out pretty well. :)

An "office photo." It was so nice of two of our office volunteers and all of the staff to drive all the way out! I am so lucky to work in such a friendly, close office.

Some of the kiddos

My nephew, DJ

Lindsey with Ava and Kaia, who look almost identical in their baby pics!

Kaia with grandma Carmen and our neighbor, Kathy. All of our neighbors (3 different families) stopped by! It was fun to spend some time with them!

The cousins performing

Kaia with her Grandpa

Lindsey with her daughter, Ava, Kaia, and our nephew, Hudson.

Sophia played "fashion show" with Travis' supervisor's two daughters. We had a total of 37 people cycle through. It was super fun!

In the morning Travis and Lindsey went for a trail ride while I had a sweet time with all the kiddos. We spent most of our time painting a long sheet of paper! Lots of special time together, and it was a very fun weekend!

Her crawling days are numbered!

Kaia just started standing up on her own Saturday, and she even took a TINY step yesterday! This video shows her new ability to stand up without holding something, and also a few seconds of her crawling. :)

Friday, October 11, 2013

Catching Up! State Park, St Cloud, Birthday, Anniversary and SISTERS!!!

A white striped Sphinx moth we found on our porch a couple of weeks ago... I know it's an anticlimatic way to start a photo dump, but the moth was SO cool!!

Sophia picking it up. She just loves bugs!

So cool!

If you look closely you will see the turkeys that we saw on our way into Buffalo State Park during the last week of September :)

Enjoying a beautiful evening in the park!

Lots of color coming out...

My favorite tree :)

The next day Sophia and Kaia played with some sidewalk chalk... something Sophia did NOT do at 11 mo! It's so funny how different it is raising #2!

Sophia with the flower that she planted in a yogurt cup at the Academy in the spring. When she brought it home I tasted it because it looked like a tiny little basil plant!

On Sept 28 I went riding on Sunny with a leadline to Pepper (who Sophia rode) and our neighbor rode Margie for about 3 miles. This left Travis and Kaia home with Bella, who looked beautiful while freaking out about being left alone for about half an hour. :)

Bella is so pretty, and we had such a lovely evening!

The next morning was beautiful, and I took these pics of our horses sunbathing in the pasture

Then we headed off to St Cloud for my annual work conference/training! This is the playground at the hotel. The hotel had GREAT facitilities for kids, and there was hardly anyone there!

Sophia in the kid's pool

Outside by the water feature, which is always fun for kids :)

After some swim and play time we met up with Travis' cousin, Ben, and his family at Olive Garden.

Waiting for the buzzer!

This would have been so cute if Sophia didn't have to make such a grumpy face!

Ugh... twerp!

Enjoying supper with Ben and Charlie (Ashley and Paisley aren't in the pic)... it was really fun to visit with them!

The girls were up bright and early the next day!

I can't remember what candy we were eating, but it made our tongues look pretty funny :)

Sisters :)

I caught up with the family in the playground during one of my conference breaks :)

The arcade was a big hit, with or without quarters!

Trying to get "action shots" jumping off beds :)

It's hard to take pictures and have everyone look good/not blink, etc.

She is really pretty goofy :)

It's too bad I had to work so much (I guess that's why we were there, though!), but we had a great time in St Cloud and we're looking forward to next year's conference!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAIA!!!! Kaia turned 1 on Oct 3, and we had a party for her in Grand Forks on the 5th

Lindsey brought these cute little Pomeranien pups to play with (she works at a pet store)

Babies! Hudson (15 mo) and Kaia

Gabby, Laura and Lindsey

Me with my birthday girl!!!

My pumpkin-cheesecake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were a hit :)

Aww... she is getting so big! And Ava too!

Cousins!

Travis and Dennis cleaning up... it's like photographing Big Foot! Haha

Kaia with her grandpa Ralph :)

Ralph with Ava and Kaia; the 2 littlest granddaughters

"Kaia" opening presents

Babies!

They are always poking each other's faces!

Ava :)

Ava and Sophia sitting on Jaylin

The next day Ralph and Carmen took the girls for half a day so Travis and I could celebrate our anniversary with a long trail ride!

My mom will recognize this pond from the prairie chicken site :)

My view of Sunny, who I have just fallen in love with :) Such a beautiful and wonderful horse!

We rode straight east across the prairie, and eventually came to this big hill that we just had to climb, since hills are such a novelty!

The view from the top of the hill

Travis made us trek across a field to this stump because he thought it was old farmhouse ruins :) A big stump in the prairie does look very out of place!