More Wagon Train

A huge THANK YOU to my friend Teri for taking gobs of pictures. While I was holding on to my mount (uh, and my squirmy almost-two-year-old), she was documenting the action! (And truth be known, she spent a fair amount of time holding Miri too, as that kid was passed - with much vocalization - from Mommy to GrammaBon to Teri to Mommy to Teri to Mommy to GrammaBon to....)


Me and my favorite equines: Da Boyz.


First day out - we were waaaaay behind the wagons, and didn't catch up until lunch time.


Sitting around the Sager camp. Mom and Dad were telling stories. See the squirmy almost-two-year-old?


This is Arby and his favorite butt-scratching tree. There's a video of this too, but until I can edit the audio, the things I say make it unfit for a family-oriented blog. :)

Lots of people dressed in period costume the whole trip. I wouldn't have wanted to wear a dress and ride for that long!

Cool shot of the back of one of the wagons -- a chuck-wagon!

Arby has a cute little face, when he holds it still.

Miri waves from atop Jake.

He's her new boyfriend, I think. She better get in line, as he's got quite a following. He's definitely a lovey-horse, and many of us girls (and a few boys) really like him.

Wagon Train

With the help of a veritable village, Mommy was able to ride on the 2011 Wagon Train, sponsored by the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon. It was quite a week! After months of prep, we loaded up too much stuff and headed over to the Ukiah area. The weather was really good (no rain!), and I was so fortunate to have support from my entire family!! First, my thank-yous:

To Mom & Dad, for making this possible by taking care of Miri and Aleaha.
To Kelly & Mike, for loaning their travel trailer, so we had real beds to sleep in and a place to corral Miri at night and naptimes.
To Jodi & Chris, for taking care of Aleaha for three nights, which was her princess-dream-come-true! (and relieved Mom & Dad a lot too)
To my friend Teri, for joining me on the trek and helping every minute with the horses AND the kids. I'm sure she needs a vacation from this vacation!
To my husband, because even though he couldn't be with us (race conflict -- AND HE WON, by the way!), he found another way to get his trailer to the racetrack, enabling us to take our pickup.

Now, a few pics. I didn't take my hands off the reins much with Arby, so I don't have any while riding. On day 4, when we were all good-n-tired, I could have attempted. But I was pooped! ;)


The view from lunch on Day 1.


The boys, after Day 1's ride. They were good boys, staying tied to the trailer each night.


The Irish Singers, our entertainment one night. That's Grandpa, second from the left.


Miri enjoys a cookie from Teri.


Day 2, taking a little break behind the wagons, as everyone was stopped.


Sleepy Jake.


Awake Jake.


Miri puttin' on the charm.


Smiley Aleaha.


The wagonmaster's wagon broke down right before the event, so she (yes, SHE :) ) needed to use her back-up vehicle, which is a stagecoach. I thought that was pretty cool.


I'm not posting a pic of every wagon, but thought a couple of representative pictures would be nice. The wagons and teams are so interesting.




This is Arby's cousin!! A lady came up and wanted to know what breed Arby was, and usually when that happens, it's because the person thinks he's Morgan. But no, he's a Quarter Horse, grandson of Doc Bar. And so it this! His name is Smoke (need to look up the rest of the name). They are full cousins. Pretty obvious family resemblance, eh? You can sure tell when they are in a crowd of other horses.


Gramma Bon smartly brought along a set of little dishes for Miri to play with. Here she is washing dishes - an activity that bought us all a bit of much needed respite.


Aleaha was really pooped after all that "wagon training", as she called it. Both girls have been catching up on their sleep for a couple of days now. Yeeeeeesssssss!

Random

Helping brush the marinade on the skewers.


Wearing sunhat at school. Had sunglasses on too, but those came off for the photo op.

More Birthday

She wanted cherry cheesecake in the shape of a horse. Good thing we have a pan for that!


With her absolute more favorite teacher in the world - Teacher Ashley. Ashley has been a teacher at the school since Aleaha started there at age 3.5 months. She totally rocks!


Awaiting the lighting of the candles - they do it up big at school! (Don't you love the expression on her classmate Ryder's face?)


Almost time to sing!

Birthday Girl Turns Five

It was five years ago that she landed on the planet. She was up early this morning to see what the day would bring. So, here we were at 6:30am, opening presents. "This is my lucky day!", she exclaimed.


Her favorite gift (so far) is a princess book that has stories PLUS a little disc player of Disney songs to accompany the story. As a parent, I had hoped it had a volume controller, but nooooooo.....so it will be driving us crazy for months, of course.

Any opportunity to use scissors is taken very seriously.

Lately

Took the girls to Woodburn to watch Daddy race. Moments after getting onto the freeway to head home, this was the view in the rear view mirror. Aleaha often tries to go without a nap, but if the day has been especially busy -- as those types of days can be -- then she (along with the whole family!) benefits from the rest.




We love to take weekend walks at "Ami-Park" (Willamette Park). If you ask Miri her favorite part, she says, "Unning!" (running).



Having fun in her play tent.


Enjoying a little fruit snack together, in the tent, of course.

Got these big buckets to help organize things, and they soon became great vehicles of fun in and of themselves!

Miri loves the mower! She burns off lots of energy pushing that thing as much as possible.

Miri has learned how to climb up the big slide ladder by herself (yikes). We have to watch her like a hawk, naturally. You'll hear her laughing, saying "My turn!!", and calling after her sister: "Yii-Yah!")

Lovin' that bright sunshine! (even if it's fleeting)

We found a bird nest on the ground near our fence. It was lined with -- guess what? -- our goat's hair!

Miri has been having a heckuva time with some teeth that are coming in, and the late afternoons and evenings are hard for her. She's already medicated, so Mommy tries to find other things to do to take her mind off her hurting mouth. Last night, that meant a trip on the 4-wheeler to the barn to feed the horses. She was great help, of course. If the pellet level in the bin is high enough, she can scoop it, and that's great entertainment. If it's not - she'll let ya know!!

This was Aleaha this morning, when I woke her up for school.