Blossom Lake

Last weekend, my Mom, my nephew, a friend of ours and myself took Mom's horses up to Blossom lake.  I have never hiked into a lake before on horseback, and I think that's my new favorite way to go.  It was sooo fun!

 It was so pretty and relaxing up there.  I would love to go back up and stay for a couple of nights.

 We're hoping to hit another lake maybe in the next week or so. 

 This little creek, is one that we crossed when we got up towards the lake.  My horse crossed a rock and then decided that she wanted to jump the rest of the way.  It took be by surprise and when she jumped my sunglasses went flying off and into the water.  Mom was behind me on her horse, so I had to wait until after they crossed to look for my glasses.  Thankfully they didn't go floating down the creek or get stepped on or broken.  They were all clean and in one piece.  :)

 Next time I'll have to bring my wide angle lens.  I brought one, thinking it would be wide enough, but I could only get sections of the lake in my camera instead of one big shot!  :(

 This was the horse that I rode up.  Her name is Tequila.  Sometimes, she can be a little moody.  But thankfully we got along just fine.

I took this picture as we were headed back out towards the road.  We felt so bad for some of the hikers that were walking up.  We went up early and were coming out about the time that it was starting to get pretty warm out.  But as we were coming out there was a bunch of people walking in.  They were so hot and tired, they were all asking if they were almost to the top yet.  Unfortunately they were maybe half way.  Some weren't even half way yet.  It's about a 3 1/2 - 4 mile hike.  I don't think I'll be going on foot until I get a bit more in shape.  But on horseback, it was perfect!

Busy Busy!!!

We have been having a great summer so far.  I can't believe how fast it has went.  It is so hard to believe that it is almost August.  I'm not ready for summer to end!  The kids and I have been keeping pretty busy, busier than I think we've ever been in a summer.  Both Gracie and Jesse went to basketball camps.  All 3 kids had 4 weeks of swimming lessons, Gracie is in band camp right now and then will be heading off to church camp before too long.  Also, we've been going to the swimming pool almost every day, to cool off and burn off some energy.  It just feels like we're constantly on the go, but we're having fun and I'm just loving the hot weather. 

I just ordered Pete Wilson's new book called 'Empty Promises'.  I have been reading so many novels lately.  I usually sit in bed and read for a couple hours every night.  But I thought it would be good for me to read something other than a novel every once in a while.  One of my favorite books that I read not that long ago, was 'What Women Fear' by Angie Smith.  I thought it was such an easy read that it was just as fun to read as a novel, but at the same time, it was so insightful!  I also think it would be fun to get a couple of different biographies to read.  I always thought it would be fun to read one on Marilyn Monroe, and one on Jackie Kennedy. 

We have went up to my in-laws lake house the last 2 weekends and just relaxed.  It's about a 2 hour drive from here.  It is always so pretty up there.  This last weekend when we went, the kids swam pretty much the whole time.  We took the boat out Sunday morning and by lunch time we were all hopping in the water. 

Here are a couple pictures of the kids in the water... 

I love that they are holding hands.  No matter how much my kids can fight, I know that they do love each other! 

Gracie was just relaxing away.

Hawaii

Dan and I went to Maui, Hawaii in May to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. It was so fun!  I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, so now that's one thing that I can cross off my bucket list. Actually I was able to cross off a few things off my list!

 I never get my picture taken since I'm usually the one taking the pictures, but Dan took a few of me this trip... so here I am!  ;)  We borrowed my mom's camera so that way I wouldn't have to haul around my big camera.  The quality of the pictures aren't as good... but it was fun just having a point and shoot to throw in my bag.

 We would get up really early every morning, stop and grab a coffee, cresant and walk this beach while the sun rose.  It was sooo relaxing! 

 This was the boat that we took for our "Champagne Cruise."  It's a sunset cruise, so I thought it would be so romantic especially when they tell you there will be drinks and appetizers.  Well, we got on the cruise and I don't remember them ever mentioning champagne in our list of choices for beverages.  They had a couple hard drinks and some beer.  The appetizers were chips and salsa and later some bbq sandwich.  Haha!  It was fun, and sailing was another thing on my bucket list, but not as romantic as I thought it would be.  Ha!

 Here is part of our hotel, and the pool that we hung out at when we weren't on the beach.  There were other pools on the resort, but this one seemed the quietest, so it was our favorite.

As much fun as we had, we missed the kids the whole week that we were gone.  Next time, I think we are going to have to take them with us.  Won't be as quiet and relaxing, but then I won't have to miss them the whole time!  :)

Outback

The kids and I went for a walk outback today.  We went with May and Haas since they are in town for the weekend. 

This is as close as I've had to a family picture in a couple years, we were just missing Dan.  ;)  Guess we'll have to keep working on it.

As we were headed back home, one of Mom's calves needed bottle fed, so we went out to watch.  She wasn't very hungry.  But Gracie got to try and hold the bottle for a bit.  It's been a while, since they've got to bottle feed a calf.   Isn't she sweet!  :)

M&M

It's calving season right now, and Emma cow finally had her baby last night.  We went over to Mom's house this morning, and Emma named her baby calf M&M. 

Winter walk

I decided to take the dogs for a walk today.  We just went out back behind our house.  Here are my brave and loyal companions.  Haha!  I think they would knock me down and run for home if we ran into trouble.  ;)

 We walked down by the creek, and Lucy just went and jumped in the water.  I was pretty surprised as we haven't taken Lucy swimming before, but she was loving it.  I was also surprised because it's winter and freezing out. 

Roxy hates the water, as you can see in the picture above, she's just standing and watching Lucy swim.  This picture below of Roxy just cracks me up.  They are both just so different.  Poor Roxy, heaven forbid she even get her feet wet.

As we were headed back home from our walk, the dogs ran into someone who didn't want to play.

Poor thing... I told the girls to leave it alone, and to come on.  Well Lucy just couldn't leave it behind, so she scooped it up in her mouth and swallowed it whole.  Ewww!!!  I'm sure she thought she had solved the problem.  Maybe they actually are brave and loyal companions who thought they were saving me from this little mole.  ;)

2nd hand find

A month or so ago my Mom, Emma and I went out of town and went and visited my sister.  She took us to a few different places that I hadn't been to before.  I was originally just looking for some photography props at antique shops, but I happened upon this dresser instead.  I've been needing to get a dresser for the girls for quite some time now.  The only thing is, now I have to take the time and fix it up a bit.

I'm actually excited to see how it will turn out.  I want to pick out a paint color and get some nobs and handles for it.  I've never done anything like this before, so hopefully I won't ruin it.  Haha.

 This is a picture that I took of the girls bed spread.  There are a bunch of fun colors, so I was thinking I could use one of them.  Either the teal, or maybe the guacamole green.  I could otherwise just repaint it white...  anyone have any ideas or suggestions???  :)