Maplewood Trail Riding Date!!

This weekend Travis and I enjoyed our first "date night" in about 6 months (and not sure the last date night really counts, since we were with family)... it's our first date night alone since I was pregnant. I mean, I'm pretty sure we must have had a date night when I was pregnant. I can't remember one. The last night date night I really remember was when we drank a whole bottle of wine at an upscale eatery and then hit the town, and that was definitely BEFORE I was pregnant. Anyway, the point is, this was a long time coming! Travis' parents took the girls on Friday. Then after work I ran home and we dressed upand then hit the Fargo street fair with NO kids in tow!! After that we went to a burger joint called Sickie's Garage (they sub a veggie burger)... SO good! They make all kinds of crazy burgers. I had a "jalapeno popper" burger with jalapenos, a sweet chili sauce and a cream cheese spread. YUM! And sweet potato fries and micro brew... food heaven. Travis had a "tater tot hot dish" burger and a "Philly cheesesteak" burger. We were there pretty late, and then hit a local bar in Glyndon for fun on the way home. Kind of an anticlimactic end since the bar only had a handful of sad-looking locals, but Travis and I whooped it up with darts and an arcade hunting game.

Soooo... getting up the next morning at 6:30am to load up the horses for our planned trail ride was a little bit rough, but we grabbed some coffee and energy drinks and headed out!

 In between some crazy weather (heat index of 103 Sunday and crazy wind on Friday) we had the most beautiful riding day. Saturday was mostly sunny and in the high 70's with a light breeze.

 Starting out on a beautiful, wooded trail.

 

 Maplewood is full of pretty lakes and ponds.

 

 

 There were lots of open, rolling hills and very steep wooded hills. We had to go over and around some trees and walk through water... lots of fun trail terrain! The horses were amazing.

 

 Deer!

 

 

 Travis snapped lots of scenery :)

 

 

 

 

 So pretty and peaceful!

 I found a really nice hiker who took a pic of us on Sunny and Bella :) We only saw a few hikers, and some row boats on the lakes, and one group with horses.

 

 

 After a brief rest with grazing and a picnic the horses were super feisty and we did some hand galloping on some of the more open trails! Hence the very sweaty horse. So fun. I mean, I was singing and yelling yee-haw a lot. That's how fun it was! ;)

At the end of our ride! The trail head had FILLED with horse trailers by the time we left around 2, so I'm glad we got there at 9am and had the place to ourselves for so long! We can't wait to go to Maplewood again. What a treat!

Fair and family trail riding

 

We had SOOOO much fun at the Clay County fair this year! I felt a little guilty about not taking the kids to the big Red River Valley Fair in Fargo (that was happening at the same time!), but I quickly got over the guilt when I realized what a perfect fit our little county fair is for our young family. :) My one big mistake? Not predicting that my 20-month old would want to go on all the rides with her big sis! I bought Sophia an unlimited ride bracelet in advance, but hadn't expected Kaia to need one! Next year I will know better.

 Travis and Sophia climbed up a big CNH tractor (the company Travis works for) for a pic.

 Kaia didn't want to be left out!

 Sophia and Kaia on a little train ride. This was on Friday night, and the fair was pretty quiet. The ride guys were nice enough to let Kaia on for free. :) (Otherwise it was 3 bucks a ride!).

 On the carousel... again, they let Kaia on for free!

 Sophia on the froggy drop ride. The first ride she was terrified, and then went on it over and over! It became her favorite!

 

 We bumped into fellow 4-Hers, Callie and Lily.

 Travis riding with Sophia and Kaia (!) on the big ferris wheel. He said it was scary having Kaia up high on the wheel, just because his brain kept dreaming up horrible scenarios, but she was actually a very good girl. And again they let her on for free!

 

 Sophia in the Fun House. She and Lily spent well over 1/2 an hour running through that house over and over!

 Sophia and Lily on the train ride.

 Towards the end of the evening we headed into the grandstand to catch the tractor pull, which I LOVE! This farmer was so intent on winning that he pulled right into the outhouse, and the outhouse got stuck on the weights on the front of his tractor! It was sooo funny. Another tractor ran into the fence. Maybe they should have given them some more space??

 Saturday morning! We were at the fair at 9:30am for Sophia's Cloverbud event; barrels.

 Our friend Ayden is a Cloverbud too! In the Moorhead 4H club.

 

 

 Sorry... picture overload of Sophia running barrels. She had a blast! She is really into trick riding though, and you can see her pulling up her legs in the pics... she was trying to do tricks. We have to work on focusing on the task at hand! Right after she finished her run she stood on the saddle, which they generally frown on at 4H sanctioned events. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 After the Cloverbud demonstration there were a few hours to kill before the rest of the fair opened up... Sophia, Ayden and Kaia alternated between cheering for Ayden's big sis, Azahna, and playing with rocks and dirt. :)

 

 

 

 Azahna competing in the junior division of pole weaving. She is such a wonderful, wonderful girl and an amazing young horsewoman. She placed first in all of her events, except for one in which she got 2nd.

 

After lunch we headed out to the rest of the fair with Ayden and his dad. First we checked out the animal barns...

 

 Then tried out a tractor driving exhibit. Ayden is a huge fan of tractors; and this exhibit was a big hit!

 

 Sophia and Ayden :) He is the sweetest boy, and very empathetic but also independent, like Sophia. They get along REALLY well. They seem to "get" each other!

 We met up with our other horsey friend, Hayden, later, and all the kids had a blast racing around all the rides!

 Azahna, Hayden, Ayden, and Sophia.

 

 

 When it was time to chill out for a bit we headed over to the tractors and just let the kids run around while us adults vegged out for a bit.

 

 I LOVE this pic of Hayden, Ayden and Sophia... you can really see the personality that each kid brings to the group! Especially that Hayden! :)

 

 

 Hayden and Sophia :)

 Another pic of the three friends that I just love... can't you just imagine them headed to a party when they're 16?? :)

 

 

 

 There was a music group next to the tractors, and Sophia and Kaia also did some dancing.

 

 

 

 Aaaaand then more rides.

 I love, love, love this pic of Hayden and Sophia trying to close their balloon gate. Hayden and Sophia like each other, but they tend to have "disagreements." The rest of the time, though, they are just a very precocious, unstoppable duo!

 

 

 Pics from Sunday morning. We had a slow start after our 9 hours at the fair the previous day!

 

 We decided on a whim to try a long family trail ride. It went BEAUTIFULLY.

 

 Around mile 2.5 we stopped at the gate to the prairie chicken blinds and tied the horses up for a picnic lunch.

 

 

 My beautiful Margie :)

Bella carried most of our supplies. I just had one little bag on Margie with toys and snacks for Kaia.

 Sorry these are out of order; I used both my camera and phone! I can't even describe what this ride felt like. We were walking and trotting and Sophia was handling her horse like a pro and Kaia was almost angelic. When Kaia fell asleep at mile 3 I occasionally just closed my eyes too and felt the rocking of the horse and Kaia's soft little body puddled in my arms and the sun and the breeze... total heaven :)