Silver Spurs Horseshow (Day 1)

A few weeks back, we took Meghan & Silver to show in their first out-of-town horse show.  It was quite the experience.  We brought my neice, Samantha, along for moral support (and extra manual labor!) for Meg and turned the weekend into a sort of mini vacation.  The show was being held at the Idaho Horse Park in Nampa, ID. 

We hauled up three horses and a WHOLE-LOT of tack.

Thanks to the advice Meghan received from the owner of the stables where she works, we rented an extra stall to use for tack.  That was the BEST move we did all weekend!

This is the last time it ever looked this neat.

The horses did great for the long, hot 2+ hour drive but, were pretty glad to get out and stretch their legs a bit.

The stalls were roomy, but Silver still wasn't really sure what to think about his weekend home.  He did fine though.

We came up a day early, so that Meg & Silver could get a feel for the arena and spend some time working up a sweat.

Is that a good cousin or what?  She followed Meg around, cheering her on and lending all kinds of moral support all weekend.  Those two are practically joined at the hip.

We had heard a lot about their fancy horse washing system.  It's set up much like a do-it-yourself car wash.  Meghan thought it was pretty handy and she was able to wash him in much less time than at home.

She had LOTS of helping hands.

Apparently, Silver is NOT impressed!

Brushing him out after his shower took quite a bit of work.

The kids learned from Day 1, that there would be a lot of time spent waiting.

Family Fire

One of my kids' (and my husband's) favorite things is FIRE.  So, what could be better than a fire pit, right in their backyard? 

OK, so ours isn't really in our backyard, it's in a spot between my cottage and our shop, where Jeff and Jerry park their vehicles. 

And ours isn't one of the cute pits that you can buy at Home Depot, it's made of rocks that Jeff and the kids hunted up, hauled and placed one by one in a perfect circle.  

And, while I'm telling all our secrets, our furniture isn't a cute iron patio set from Wal-Mart, either.  It's a hodge podge of camping chairs, pallets, railroad ties and more rocks. 

Having said all that, lighting the fire and roasting s'mores is something our family LOVES to do.

I don't always go out for the Fire Festivities"--sometimes, I let it be a Daddy and kids thing--but when I DO go out, I get cracked up at what great fun it is.

Yeah, it's pretty Red-Neck.

But, it's also finger-lickin' tasty!

We're pretty laid back.

I think the gas can adds a bit of atmosphere, don't you?  But, it's not really about the atmosphere, is it? It's about family, and memories.

  And melty, ooey-gooey marshmallows dripping down over thick chocoalte.