Hip Recovery

Well, 2 days later and still no bruise to show of! haha. It is still pretty painful, but I am not going to let it stop me from going on one more summer ride with the barn buddies tomorrow. Hopefully nothing overly eventful will happen and the hip will be the only pain I have! :)

Invisible PAIN!

Notice I said invisible and not imaginary. I fell off of a horse today (not my own!) and landed dead on my hip. The pain was intense (I'd like 3 more of those please!) and compared to childbirth I'd rather have another 2 or 3 kids. As the day wore on, I would secretly run to the bathroom to pull down my pants to see the bruise that just has to be there. Alas, there is none. Just my pain that hurts so bad that I feel it must be imaginary!!!

A Tale of Two Kitties

How ironic that little Grafx is the star of two blogs in a row. Grafx is banned to the bathroom when we go to work because he's still too little to get himself out of trouble. Upon returning home yesterday to let him out. We found this mess in the bathroom.

Evidently he was making his own entertainment. Ican our first kitty is still not very sure about Grafx and doesn't let him get very close. I was shocked to see the two of them taking a catnap on the couch. I think Grafx was planning a quick get away just in case with one leg off!!!

A Change in Grafx

Grafx is getting so big!!! He's a biter, though, and he especially loves to bite feet. He will play with our dog Jac forever!!!! Just this morning, Chris woke up to have Grafx sitting on his face!!!! Quite the turn on a lap kitty!

Bareback or Bust

Yesterday a group of us went out to bid farewell to Megan. We drove to Easton, WA and rode along the John Wayne Trail. At first, it looked as if one of us would have to stay home because one of the saddles was missing the cinch. I decided since it was the last ride with Megan, I was going to try and do anything I can so that we could all ride, soooooooo I rode Zena bareback for the whole ride. All in all, I was told it was a little over 7 miles. The ride was great, unfortunately, since I was bareback, I have no pictures, but Chris managed to take some on the drive back, the cloud cover was amazing!!!

karaoke all night long!

The last time I went to a karaoke bar, I was 3 years younger and I actually sang at the bar. This time, we went to the karaoke bar (which had about 12 people in it) and we watched all the other really bad singers. Don't get me wrong, there were one or two good singers, but for the most part, it was 2-3 hours of really bad music. The sad thing was, is that you could tell most of them were regulars and probably went home and practiced the music.

Loss of Innocence

Usually I'm not one for holding on to the past, but even I got a little weepy when my little man got his hair chopped off today. I was a big fan of his curls, even though most people thought he was a little girl. To reiterate my point, shots of Aidan

before:and after:

I will always miss the curls on my little boy.

Conrad Meadows

Chris and I celebrated our 12th anniversary by going to the mountains as a threesome! Go figure that one. We took Megan with us for our very first kid free weekend with nothing except the horses and the mountains. We went almost 4 hours to a place called Conrad Meadows. It was very beautiful, but also very dusty. One neat aspect about the trip was that there was a herd of cattle that also roamed the mountain side and was within walking distance of our camp.

Along with the cattle, was some pretty phenomenal looking scenery, including this tree that decided it didn't need to grow up, it would rather grow out.

The ground was a mixture of sand and very dusty dirt that made it hard to breathe in spots, especially if you were bringing up the rear.

Our first day we did a 15 mile round trip up the mountain. What made the ride really nice was the fact that there was a lake at the very top called Surprise Lake. The lake, which is fed by snow runoff, was so cold and the neatest shade of aqua.

At the top, we all took a small rest and Chris took this wonderful picture of Megan and I.

On the way back down the mountain, Chris got a chance to work some more cows with Ginger....

Megan had a chance to run down the hill with Arizona.....

And then Chris took a turn running through the meadows.

On Day 2, we decided to just do a light ride, and did only 10 miles! This time we went to a place called Cert Lake. See if you can find Chris in this photo!

Upon reaching the lake, we had to eat our lunch in a hurry. Unlike the lake at Surprise, this one was a weird shade of yellowish green, and had lots of bugs everywhere. The backdrop was pretty spectacular though.

On the way down the mountain we paused to give our horses a little breather. I think Megan needed one too!

Megan and I ended the ride by galloping across the meadows. I can't believe my hat didn't fly off!

4th of July Fun

So, we had a fun 4th. We went to see Transformers, which totally rocked. I don't think I've seen so many techno nerds in one place since high school. Then, we went to the horse stall to have a bbq. Was quite a bit of fun. I was the grille goddess and Chris turned out to be quite the little barrel racer. He finished in 25 seconds flat! Go Chris!

Ride at Crystal Mountain

Megan and I went horseback riding at Crystal Mountain Today. We were at the Sand Flats Camp to be exact. The land there was not exactly even, and we even had to do a 180 on 410 to try and turn back into the camp because we missed the turnoff the first time. Here's a pic of the truck and trailer on the slope we ended up having to park on.

At least in the beginning, the trails were pretty wide. We ended up going out with about a group of 8 at the start. 4 of them which were mules. They were pretty neat to ride with and they had really fast walking gaits. Here's Megan cheesing it on the trail with Arizona.

The view was really spectacular. You could see the crest and ridge of the mountain at every turn. Some of the slopes were pretty steep on the side.

Here's a pic of Bill and his mule Zelda taking in the sights.

Another mule named Gus. He's such a sweetie, although his owner said the name was short for 'disgusting'.

We finally reached our destination - Bouillion Basin. In the middle of the basin was a little spring (really little, probably only 6 feet wide) with fresh spring water. The trail guide said the spring is checked every year for Giardia and even offered us his cup to drink out of.

Megan and I took the smallest of sips, and I was a little repulsed as there were frogs and bugs pretty darn visible in the water. The neatest thing was that the sand would bubble from the underwater spring that was there.

Zena had quite the fun at the basin, although she looked for me constantly (I think she wanted a snack!) Here she is in one of her "Are you coming to get me" poses. Overall the ride was fun, the back country horsemen were a hoot to hang out with, but the ride was definitely not for the beginner. I hope to go on it again sometime in the future.