Foundations Class

Prairie Spy took his mare, Nikita.  Nova Spy borrowed a horse named Vaquero that looks quite a bit like his real horse, Pepper.  We didn't get Pepper's paperwork in time to bring him.  And it's a good thing we didn't.  The poor suburban had a hard enough time pulling Nikita up Parley's Summit.

Mr. Bechtel borrowed a horse also.  She was an tiny, ancient 26 year old mare that wanted to sleep.  At lunch Mr. Bechtel told us he thought it would be easier to just pick her up and take her where he wanted her to go.  The second day they got in a rhythm and did much better.

Here Ricky (center) is talking about how to hold the McCarty.  The girl on the left is named Nicole.  She is nice and gave me some herbal salve she made herself.  

Here they are practicing switching hands with the McCarty's.  I wish I had pictures of more of the people.  There was a girl named Sally, who changed her name to Ashley half way through the clinic, and a lady named Colette who got Levi in trouble for asking him questions, and lots of girl friends of Mona, the host.  At night when the clinic was over they would pour themselves glasses of white wine and go for a little ride on their horses while sipping.  

Ricky Quinn Clinic

Oh Boy.  Good Thing we have school and work and no money or we would spend our life traveling around to horse clinics.  We just got back from Heber City, Utah going to the Ricky Quinn clinic. 

 We stayed with Mr. Bechtel's brother and had a wonderful time.  Each evening we would come home tired and would relax in their little apartment casita, and then mosey out to the fire pit on the patio to sing songs and eat delectable treats.  The Spy Twins and Granny Smith ran around shooting airsoft guns with the cousins, and Golden Delicious soaked in the beautiful sunsets and magic of a new place. 

Ricky is a protege of Buck.  The only picture I have of him is of his saddle -which is bad, but we are obsessed with saddles at our house right now.  The day was divided into 3 parts:  colt starting, foundation ground work, and Horsemanship 1.  Since the boys had never ridden in a clinic before they signed up for the foundations class.  I was going to do the class too, but my back rebelled, so Mr. Bechtel took my spot.  He did much better than I would have.

The evening before we were trying to find the ladies house in the dark to drop off Nikita, the horse.  I was so confused because we were driving through subdivisions.  Where was "the ranch"?  Mona, the host, said the clinic was at her ranch, "Fired up Ranch".  Luckily, we found her boyfriend/husband Tim on the side of the road putting out a sign and we followed him the rest of the way up the hill to "the ranch", which turned out to be 5 acres.  What??  

Granny Smith and I explored the subdivision and various gates on the front of the estates.  It was fun.  He also froze in the morning and baked in the afternoon.  This is a morning photo!  We also met some great people and learned a ton.  More on that to follow....

Mr. Bechtel's Brother Gets Married!

Mr. Bechtel helped me download pictures from my phone from earlier this summer, so here is an important event!  Mr. Bechtel's brother, J, got married to a beautiful girl in the Salt Lake Temple in August.  They met in Dallas where J is working.

The kids stayed at home for a multi regional conference with Elder Bednar so I had to try and take pics of N's hair for Golden Delicious to see.  It was lovely.

Here are some of Mr. Bechtel's siblings and his parents.

They had a beautiful reception at Morinda Gardens after.  I didn't take any pictures because it got too dark.  But it was lots of fun.

Which University for Golden Delicious??

Ever since Golden Delicious got an impressive ACT score, our PO Box has been filled with letters for her.  It seems that all the schools want her to come there.  Each week she gets at least a half dozen letters.  She thinks she wants to go to BYU, but of course, they are the one school who doesn't need to offer amazing scholarships.... of course.  It will be interesting to see what happens as the year goes on and she makes a decision - I can pretty easily say though, that it won't be any place in this current batch!

Appleseed Shoot

Several years ago I read an article in Backwoods Home Magazine about the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, and their project, Project Appleseed, which is intended to create a nation of rifleman like at the time of the Revolutionary War.  Ever since then I've been interested.  I saw they were offering a class in Blackfoot, so we signed up.

It is a two day class, but since the second day was Sunday, we only went to the first day.  The great part is that women and children are free!  So Mr. Bechtel was the only one who had to pay.

Everything was very organized.  We sat behind the instruction line, and then walked up to the 22's on the firing line.  We did all kinds of drills based on the standard shots that soldiers used to do in the Revolutionary War.  

It was hard!  I thought I was a pretty decent shot.  (I was using a borrowed gun with a scope) but then Mr. Bechtel and I switched guns because he couldn't see and I wanted to try open sites, and my shots were terrible after that!  After we shot our patterns the teachers would help us analyze what we were doing wrong.  (not shooting at the bottom of your breath for instance.... I did that several times..)

Granny Smith did his own thing the whole time.  We were too busy trying to figure out slings, and ear protection and putting 10 rounds in one magazine and 5 in the other, etc. etc.  to be much help.  He did just as well as we did.

At the end of the day there was a test and Nova Spy had the honor of shooting the highest score for everyone there.  Awesome!

I know if I could go two days in a row I would get better.  I learned their system just well enough to change how I shoot, but not enough to get good at it.  We are definitely going next year.  We all want to shoot "Rifleman" and get our patch.  Would you like to join us??

X-Country at Rigby Lake

Miss Golden Delicious is running x- country again this year.  Last week we went to her meet at Rigby Lake.  It was beautiful and lovely, and we dipped our toes in the water and enjoyed the sunshine while she ran and ran and ran.

Mr. Bechtel is a good coach.  I know nothing about running, so I just say supportive things, feel like I'm watching Chariots of Fire - (by crying at any beautiful or agonizing moments), and cheer.  GD can depend on her Dad to help her though.  "Relax a little bit, Nan, you're doing great.  Lean forward and reel them in.  Just reel them in one by one.  Atta girl."

The boys spent the whole time playing in the water.  They talked GD into coming in when her race was done.  She swam out to the slide and stayed in the water for a long time.  She said it was great - the best thing she could have done after a long run to keep from getting sore - just like putting ice on her entire body!

London Olympics 2012

We didn't actually attend the Olympics, but we feel like we did since we have official "gear".  Grandma and Grandpa went to England this summer to visit friends and see some new country.  They brought us back sweatshirts that we love.  

Thank you!  

(next time we're stowing away in their luggage...)