Hillary's new love of horses

After the pony rides at the wool festival a couple weeks ago - Hillary started asking to ride a horse everytime she saw one. There were a couple opportunities on our trip and she was too too excited.

This was at the first stop we made in Arizona. I should have known we were in big trouble then.

This is Hillary on a horse with Rick at sunflower rock.
This is when she finally talked Victor into saddling up Checkers.

They rode off and were gone quite a while.

Finally back.

Hillary convinceing Victor she wasn't ready to be done.

He let her ride Checkers back to the corrall after he took the saddle off.

She is now convinced that we are going to buy her a horse for her 5th birthday. Anyone know where I can buy a horse for $25 that doesn't eat or get sick? You'd make a little girl really happy.

Other pictures from our Trip to Arizona

Connor atop a hill.

Lots of lizards. Connor caught a few - luckily we didn't bring any home with us. But it wasn't becasue he didn't try to convince us to let him.

The hill outside of Moab. Connor did it before - but this was Hillary's first time.

And Pat's done - after only about 10 seconds. He thought Hillary would need help - but she left him in the dust.

Hillary higher than Connor. She actually only went up that far because rolling down was way more interesting than making it to the top. Her clothes were so full of sand we ended up stripping her down all the way to get it out. It hurt me just to think about where that sand was.

Connor having fun.

Memorial Day trip to Arizona

Pat's dad is buried on the reservation in Arizona. He's been gone about 8 years now. Up until a couple years ago Pat thought that his Dad's other family had put a marker on his grave. When he found out they hadn't - he decided he wanted to. So that's what we did for memorial day this year. We drove down to Arizona and placed a headstone on his grave. I tried to chronicle the process in pictures for him.

Hauling cement to create the base for the headstone.

Mixing cement.

This is the headstone in the wet cement. It reminded me of a cassarole all coverd with foil. That was to protect it from getting cement on it.

We went out on Sunday to clean the cemetery. This picture shows about half of it. It's not very big.

Pat and his sister Priscilla cleaning their Dad's grave.

I just liked this picture.

This is Victor - Pat's cousin. That is his brothers grave they are working on. He helped Pat build the box and set the headstone. He was also really great with Connor and Hillary the whole time we were there. Thanks Victor - we appreciate you more than you know.

Pat and Paul.

View #1 from the cemetery.

View #2 from the cemetery. Pretty scenery - but in the middle of the rez.

Setting the headstone on Monday morning.

You can't see her -but Pat's cousin Mona is saying some words. Pat was grateful for that as he was too emotional to say much. But he really figured everything he needed to say was on the headstone already.

They sprinkle water on the graves. I was told they were giving them a drink. Tradition I think.

Close-up of the headstone.
Final picture of the grave. Pat was happy with it and that's all that matters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TASMAN!

Today is my nephew Tasman's birthday. He is the cutest little guy ever. I heard he got a bike for his birthday - And I can't wait to get pictures of him on it(Hint Hint Hint).

This is him mailing himself to his Grandma's house.

Some things we love about Tasman

• He loves tractors. And I mean LOVES them. With an undying passion.
  
• He also loves trains.
  
• He is the voice on the answering machine at their house. We love to call just to listen to him talk. Sometimes we'll call several times in a row so we can all hear it. Hillary will then do impressions of Tasman for hours. It's too too cute.




• Tasman loves salamanders, snakes, lizards, toads and such.

• He is the best big brother ever.
  

This is one of the CUTE videos his mom just sent me. I may start doing a "Tasman of the week video". Anyway- it's Tasman explaining how he helps his sister not to fall while she's sitting. Watch and enjoy.

We hope you have a great day Tasman. We love and miss you TONS! Happy Birthday.

What's coming this week...

I'd planned an extremely busy blogging week and then blogger was down ALL morning. So the blog frenzy will just have to start tomorrow.

Topics cued up for this week are:

Tasman's Birthday

Trip to Arizona

The first 5K of the summer

Hillary and her love of horses

Miscellaneous pictures off my phone

So stay tuned - it will be fun.

Feeding the ducks

Last week before our trip we went over to feed the ducks all our extra bread that would go bad while we were gone.

We took Seth with us.
Strange smile.

Baby geese.

Baby geese following mommy.
A not so flattering shot.

Cute Hillary.

We had fun - although these ducks are way too spoiled. We had to practically force them to eat our bread.

Happy Birthday Wendie

It's my sister Wendie's birthday today. But I don't think she reads my blog - sad for her. I don't see her any more often than I see my other siblings - sad for me. And apparently she's like me and always behind the camera and never in front of it. I have tons of pictures of her husband and son - and I can't find one of her. And she doesn't have facebook I can steal one off of. So you'll just have to take my word that she exists.

Anyway - Happy Birthday Wendie - have a great day.