Spring has sprung! We lost all of our snow over the course of a few days. We have been desperately stealing every outdoor moment we can! It's like hitting an oasis after wandering for 6 months in a desert! We can't get enough of this warm weather! :) The above pic was a recent sunset view from the backyard.
Our first spring-like days were very windy and still pretty chilly, but after the coldest winter in 30 years it felt great!
Sophia doggedly stretching the use of her winter toys. Winter was so miserable she hardly got to use her sled and shovel this year, didn't go snowboarding or ice skating, and we literally did not have a single day of good, wet snowman snow. We made one 6-inch snowman on the patio table using snow dipped in water. Pathetic.
Kaia refuses to keep her mittens and boots on. We have lots of socks that shall never come clean!
Did I mention the wind??
Kaia is crazy confident around horses.
In fact, Kaia loves riding double-saddle and insists on holding the reins. When someone pulls her off the horse a tantrum always ensues. She also loves her rocking horse, horsey rides on mama, and pretending to ride anything large enough to jump on. I see Sophia doing horse shows, and Kaia doing rodeos. :)
Doesn't Kaia look so grown up?! She loves mucking stalls!
Sophia grooming Margie. Sophia is very natural with the horses, and she can usually catch any horse twice as fast as me or Travis. Um, not sure why she had safety glasses on. :)
I AM A DORKED-OUT BIRDER!!! I have been in 7th heaven. All of our birds are back! Since we live on the edge of lake-country we have been lucky enough to recently witness HUGE migrations of geese, ducks, swans, cranes, and pelicans. Love it, love it! The above is our very handsome backyard pheasant.
Travis and Kaia roaming near the pasture. Doesn't Kaia look grown up??!!
The horses sunbathing. They are being kept in a 1-acre middle pasture while the other pastures grow in. It's gross.
Ok, sorry about the unicorn puzzle... Sophia wouldn't put it away unless I immortalized it on the blog.
He looks cute and innocent right? WRONG! The juncos have taken over our yard, and pushed all of our other birds off of the feeders. We have FLOCKS of juncos. Not sure what to do about them.
Sometimes having 4 real horses isn't as good as riding around on mom. ;)
Rearing! The girls love it when I act like a bronc!
Another puzzle. This is a big thing right now. The awesome part of it is of course that Sophia loves them and does them completely independently. Quiet time!
Sophia and Travis inspecting the end of our property. I have never been back there. Apparently there's an old little shed. We also have a stack of metal thingys in the woods and no idea what they are for.
By the way, you can see all of our "blizzard" snow in the above pic. We were forecast to get 14 inches, and maybe got a total of 3. They even preemptively cancelled school! Whoops!
We had free tickets to the circus, so we went last Saturday morning. It was ok... not the best. The girls liked it. :)
I prefer the human acts. I just feel sorry for the animals. The motorcycle on a high cable was fun!
Kaia and Sophia were enthralled. Kaia was laughing at a lot of it... she loved all the lights and noise!
And LOTS of horsey time!
This year marks a big turn-around for Sophia. She has now been riding for 2 years (since she was 3), but I would say this spring is the first time she has approached riding with great confidence. She and Pepper are doing great together, and are ready for the 4-H show season... which starts ramping up next month!
I took this pic Sunday morning. I love weekend mornings when just the girls get up early in the morning. Sophia and Kaia are wonderful at playing quietly for long periods of time with things like books and puzzles, which I am totally grateful for.
Our babies :) Tomatoes and peppers!
Kaia does puzzles independently now too... they just aren't quite as complicated as her big sister's. :)
Our deer friends are back!
A sunrise last week. Sometimes there will be this amazing row of fog across the prairie that gradually just rolls away. It's really fun to live in the country this time of the year! Life is feeling pretty great lately. Still very busy, but very good :)
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