The REST of New Years Weekend

See! I told you I am behind!

Anyway, remember this post? Well, this is the rest of the fun we had that day. Riley has been begging and begging to ride horses. Everytime we pass a horse, he asks. Which is about 5 days a week, as he passes two sets of horses every weekday going/coming home. He has been asking this for as long as I can remember, at least a year! So New Years weekend, he finally got his chance.

I was worried, that even though he has asked and talked about doing this, he would chicken out when it came time to actually get on the horse. I walked him out to visit with Montana ahead of time. He was a little apprehensive at first, but then warmed right up. He remembered feeding the horses pears in the fall, and desperately wanted to do so this day also.


Soon the horses were put in their stables in preparation to saddle up Montana. Riley and Montana were friends now.


Then a sweet little cowboy and cowgirl helped out in saddling Montana up


Then, it was time time to ride! Riley hopped right on with Jay, and off they went.


Jay taught Riley how to make Montana go left or right, and stop. Riley took his job very seriously!



Later, Jay put Montana in the ring, which meant the kids could ride him by themselves.




Travis' turn

He enjoyed making Montana trot!



Later, Riley thought it was hilarious to see Montana rolling about. Must have felt good getting that saddle off!


Uh oh!


The next day, we took a walk down the railroad tracks, where these 3 looked for treasures


These two were too sweet for words


And this guy couldn't decide what rock was his favorite!

The muddy bunch

This is how I was raised right here. Riding a 4wheeler, in the mud, on a beautiful day. And now, as an adult, while I am still known to get muddy occasionally, I take even more pleasure in watching all of this:

Before the real fun began, and you could still see what color our 4wheeler is...





I love this picture! Two little boys, on muddy 4wheelers, having a little conversation.
Travis in the Gray, Miller in the red.


Did I mention there was mud?


Girls like to get muddy too!


Riley and his gator hung in there with the big kids!




Look at that girl throw some mud! I smile when I see this picture, because you can tell she is grinning ear to ear behind that helmet.


The big guys entertained us in their own way...



Travis helps boost Riley in his almost dead gator up the hill. Because that is just what brothers do.


Maybe we should wash it...

It was a great day! More of this adventure another night.

Dec 18: Christmas cuties!

This looks violent, but it really was a sweet moment!

Dec 9 & 10: Run run Reindeer...

No post last night. Jay and I went out for the night! But I will make up for it with tonight's hopefully!

Today, 10 long weeks of training were put to the test for Travis. He ran his very first 5K race! He has been training, through his school, in a program called Stride. It teaches the boys all about building good character, and they train for a 5k in the process.

Today, was race day. We had to be there at 7am. Travis was VERY excited (as in bouncing off the walls, had lost his mind excited!). Riley...well, he was not nearly as excited to be up so early!

Travis ran with our friend (and my coworker) Marcus and his son Colvet (who is also 9). Every child had to have an adult running buddy, and Marcus volunteered to be Travis'!

Here the 3 of them are, posing one last time before going to the starting line:


There were 912 runners!


And they are off!


About a 1/2 hour later....


Insert me screaming and yelling Go Travis!!!!! here!


There he goes:


Travis looks at the clock as he gets to the finish line:


Colvet and Marcus are right behind him!


I love this! Colvet threw his hands up the air in celebration as he finished!


They did it!


Travis' fan club (plus Jay and I also of course!)



Trav's official time 30:46. He was 146 out of 912 runners, overall and 16 out of 57 in his age group! We are SO proud of him!


After we got home, Travis went out to his little garden and picked some carrots!


Oh, and this morning, Travis found Pistachio like this:

Other recent Pistachio antics:he turned our milk red, he emptied Travis' sock and underwear drawer and scatter them all over Travis' room, he sat on our Santa's lap, we found him dangling from our pot rack one morning, and he was found riding the train in our village.