BIG Day!

Can you tell from this picture why today, Oct. 2nd, is a big day in our house?? Well, the following pictures will tell the tale. I think they are great pictures. Not because the light was good...it was the worst time of day for that kind of picture. Not because the composition of the photos will blow you away. No, folks, these are great pictures because they capture a day Morgan and I will not forget.....The day that all 5 of us are horseback - together!! This has been a long time coming! We knew we HAD to have a picture of it, so we set the camera on the trailer and Morgan handled it from there. It was a little tricky. He was on a colt that isn't too broke, so he couldn't run to it after he clicked the button and hop on in time. That's why he's standing. :) I told him I wanted the picture of him trying to get on - it could have been exciting. :)

Morgan can usually take one of the older kids with him to work or I can take one kid at a time on a ride for fun, but ALL of us going to do a small chore together?? It's amazing how fast this day got here, really. They were all babies a minute ago...


Here's what we had to do. Sadie and I had to double up. Not because she can't ride by herself...just because we were out of kid horses and she's the best size to ride in front of me!

Shane had to ride a horse that he hasn't ridden before. Morgan wanted to warm him up first. I asked how he was going to do that on Shane's saddle and he promptly showed me there was nothing to it - just ride like a jockey!!

Here they are....Ivey's hat is an old one of mine and it really needs Daddy to re-shape it. Daddy said she looks like a riverboat gambler...but all I see is a cute girl in a hat that pulls her ears down and makes me smile. Sadie opted for a cap the first go around so her hat wouldn't hit me in the chin. Thank you, Sadie. :)
Daddy ran the camera for a minute to document the day. Here's his "crew". Actually, I understand that this whole little chore would have been easier for Morgan had he gone by himself. We totally slowed him down, but he seemed to be willing for the trade off of having us with him. He even bought us all soda pops when we were finished.

Here's Ivey. Or Stinky Pink. Or Pink Winker. Or Sue. She answers to a lot of names. And she can make Wheeler go wherever she want to now, which she thinks is pretty cool.
Then there's Shane. I kept looking at him and marvelling at how BIG he is getting!
And Sadie. She and Ivey switched for awhile when we were riding, so today was her first official "solo" ride. I had to pry her off. I think she would still be out there if I would have let her have her way about it. :)
Thought my Dad might like one of his girl with her kids. I'm sure it seems like yesterday to him that I was their size and he and Mom were going to the effort to get us out there riding. The stage where the kids are old enough to go but not big enough to saddle and unsaddle. Means a lot more work for Daddy. And it isn't easy to always have kid horses around, but somehow Dad and Mom always did. I'm just now appreciating all of that like I should, Dad. :)
Here's where the pictures get entertaining. Shane grabbed the camera. Once he got it in his hands, he acted like we were paying him to take pictures. He said "I want you two in front of the trailer holding hands." He said it with so much authority that we did it immediately! :) Hence the cheesy romantic picture by the trailer. :)

While Morgan and I were loading horses, Ivey grabbed the camera - so here's Shane as Ivey sees him.
Shane's photography. He was having a ball snapping everything in sight!

I have to add this picture of Shane and Socks because really, this horse is what made today possible. Up until now we have had one horse that is a solid kids' horse. But Morgan has been riding Socks for a year now and even though he is only 3, he is super gentle. We decided to give him a try as a horse for Shane and he did so great!

One more of Shane, for Dad. These are the chinks Dad made for me when I was about 2 years older than Shane. They're a bit big on him, but they work. I doubt Dad even thought I kept these. As we've moved over the years I have gotten rid of a lot of things, but these have always kept their place at the bottom of my cedar chest....until my kids could wear them. Not to get all sappy, but I still remember watching Dad cut these out, on his knees on the yellow linoleum floor in our basement where his leather room was. He made Melody and I chinks at the same time. Hers were like mine only with red and gray. We loved them and wore them until we absolutely couldn't fit anymore.And really, that wasn't very long ago. Doesn't seem like it anyway. :)

*As a side note, the leggings I'm wearing in these pictures are ones Morgan made for me when we were dating. I wore them a lot our first two years of marriage, but they've had a lot of time hanging on a rack the past 8 years. :) So, the only two pair of leggings I've owned and used were made by my two favorite men in the world.

This is why I call my blog "Much Ado About Nothing". If you really knew how SMALL of a chore it was that we went on with Morgan, you would laugh. We just rode through some freshly weaned heifers and checked two water tanks. Woo-hoo. Big deal. So, it really goes in the "nothing" category as far as work accomplished. But in our world, it was a big day. So it makes the blog. :)

Small chore. Big Day. Thanks for letting me go on and on about it. Sorry. :) Have a great day!