Pumpkin event

We started the summer with a horse show and we ended the summer with a horse show.

Miss Bri ready for her dressage test. 

 My favorite part of the dressage test is the bow to the judges at the beginning.  It's so cute!  She did very well, despite her horse almost bolting out of the arena.

 Her teacher always makes them run the course so they know where they are going.

 Show jumping.  She had a good start.

 Then her horse decided she had better things to do and left the arena.   She was pretty disappointed.

 For the cross country event they like to have a little fun and did a costume change.

 Black pony sure looks cute in pink!

 The girls from the Stable Place.

 Ready for cross country.

 And she's off..

 She had a clean ride on the cross country course. 

She is becoming quite a good rider.  We are very proud of her.

Mannie/Peddie

We met our cousin and our aunts and got back to school manicures and pedicures.

It was such a fun afternoon with the girls!

Zoo

Summer is almost over, I'm very sad.  I don't want to give my kids for the school year.  So the past few days have been very busy and we try to make the most out of what is left of summer.  We went on one more cousins adventure to the zoo.

 A next full of little birds.

 Watching the sea lion and polar bear.

 He would come right up to the window.

We have had so much fun this summer with our cousins.  I'm glad my kids get to grow up with them.

Garden

 When we first moved into our house 13 years ago (Wow I can't believe it's been that long!) we had a garden in the back yard.  It was more than I could manage and after a few years I gave up.  The girls have been bugging me for the past few years to do a garden and we have this patch by our front door that we can't ever figure out what to do with, and we decided it would be fun to try a garden there.

We decided to try some raised garden beds.



We got a little bit of a late start, but so far we are getting some great results.  Lots of tomatoes, Zucchini coming out our ears and even some carrots and peppers.



Our garden is a bit overgrown, but we have learned a lot, and look forward to lots more fresh veggies this summer.

What a trip!

 Last week we took our annual trip to Yellowstone.  It is our favorite spot to vacation and somehow we end up there every year.

The best part of this year's trip is that we took my family along.

We didn't realize that we had a setting on the camera messed up so our pictures didn't turn out as great as I would have liked. 

 It's hard to get a picture of this all these kids together.

 We even had fun stopping for lunch.

 My brother, sister and me.  Somewhere there is a picture in the spot as kids.

 They are both missing their front teeth.

 The whole gang in front of the Yellowstone sign, even though you can't see it.

 A black bear just off the side of the road.  She had two cubs with her, but I couldn't get a good picture.

 I made matching pajama pants for all the kids and we tie-dyed tshirts one day.

 Our favorite spot.

 Grandma and her kids.

 A grizzly bear and her cubs.

 In the Yellowstone river, by Fishing bridge.

 On the trails around Old Faithful.

The big moment.

I'm so glad that I get to raise my kids with so many of their cousins around.  I really have a great family and I'm so glad we get along so well.