Springtime Evening Outside

Last week we all spent the evening outside working with the horses.  Dancer is so pretty.  I just love her.  She is still tiny, though.  So even though a lot of people start their horses around here when they are 2, we will wait until she is 3 before we ride her.

The boys still work with her though.  People say you always ruin the first horse you start.  That makes sense, I guess.  The first time you do anything, it's not as good as later on.  But you have to start somewhere!  So we will start with Dancer... and try not to ruin her too badly!

Prairie Spy had a good ride on Nikita

And Golden Delicious spoiled Nikita and braided her hair and brushed her down.

And then she went for a short ride on Pepper.  

Random Trivia

When Nova Spy and I were down at the BYU bookstore, we bought some cowboy poetry magnets for the fridge.  Now we can be creative.  That night we each created a work of art, some of which are below:

Always gallop west if the sun in wandering

Dust that cow on a rough range

Try to rope the philosophy of a cowboy

We understand you must drink in freedom.

Ha!  Such talent...  We are all Henry Wadsworth Longfellows!

Mr. Bechtel, in his "smart glasses",  reading Western Horseman.  He can only wear these if he's wanting to do "official legal business" stuff, because if he wears them to the parts store, or to get the tires rotated, or to the butcher shop, the people working there experience cognitive dissonance, and cannot treat him normally.

Golden Delicious printed her novel out:  HUGE!

Happy Birthday Granny Smith 2013!

Granny Smith is now 11.

The years fly!

What a wonderful, delightful boy.  I love him lots!

He wanted, "chocolate cake with chocolate frosting".

good choice.

Happy Birthday GS.  I hope this is a fantastic year for you!

Quiet Homeschool Morning

I love mornings like this.

They can be rare, which is why I like them!

The house is clean,

we have new, interesting books from the library,

and everyone is happily reading.

Ooh, and the sun is shining.

That is an extra bonus.

I wish all mornings were like this.

Spring Break

We drove over to Boise during Spring Break.  The weather was wonderful and we had a great time.

On the way over we stopped at Craters of the Moon.  I had a nice visit with the ranger, who told me there were no grizzly bears in Idaho.  I asked her how long she had been in Idaho.  She said since Christmas.  So then I very gently told her that there were lots of grizzly bears in Idaho.  I am afraid of being eaten by one every time I go to the woods for goodness sake.  She seemed incredulous and slightly disbelieving.  I told her to come to Island Park.

Honestly, I wish she was right.

Then, we were driving through a small town north of Boise, and encountered this strange stuffed Wolf with the President's face mask statue.  Very bizarre.  We took a picture.

Then, finally, we came to the piece of ground that was for sale.  It was quite lovely.  We hiked over to the trees and the boys hopped the stream and headed up the hill.  Golden Delicious and I looked for an easier way.  We noticed that under the trees there was at least 8 inches of bird droppings. Everywhere!   Tons of Bird Droppings!  It looked like it was the winter home of every bird in America.  This freaked us out and we quickly escaped.  

We found an easier place to cross the creek and hiked up by the boys.  All was well until we realized we were all covered in ticks.  I have never seen so many ticks.  dozens of them!  It was horrid.  We took turns flicking them off each other.  I admit I would give a small scream and shudder whenever I found another one one me.  I took a picture of everyone on the dirt road, stripped down to their skivvies looking for ticks but out of kindness I did not include it.

We even found ticks once we got back to the hotel.

I found one in my freshly washed pajamas two weeks later.

I hate ticks.

and so we are not buying tick ranch.

Delicious Tidbits

Miss Golden Delicious has officially decided:  She is going to BYU.

She is also done with her senior project.  Hooray!

I huddled by the computer with her on the appointed date at the exact time of 3pm and snagged her a room at Helaman Halls.

Braeburn has written her a long letter detailing all the sublime joys of life at BYU.

She is ready to fly off to adventures.

Family Football

Ahh... the blissful evenings of of playing summer football are not far off.

This is more like early, early springtime football.

Looking good Golden Delicious!  Keep it away from your brothers!

I love it how Jack and Pete are always such ardent participants!