Random Summer Moments

What have we been up to? I have to look at my pictures to remember! Summer is going too fast, as always. Its been kind of a rainy summer, quite cool and windy too. But we don't seem to have slowed down much, we try to ignore the weather and just go and have fun anyway. Here are some pictures from summer so far, just random shots of moments in time that I didn't want to forget.

Penelope and Mukluk at the SEA horse show. I like how Mukluk's french braids turned out.

Dandelion among the clover. A weed among weeds..lol.

Chena on Mid Summer Night's Dream, in English classes.

Chena and Duvall in Western classes at the SEA Show in Soldotna.

Duvall's pretty mane, ready to go for the horse show.

Friends who came to stay for a week! Such fun we had with these wonderful guys. We don't get to see them often enough, so getting to have them here was AWESOME.



Chena and Charlotte leaving in the float plane, on the way to the cabin overnight.

One of our hay crew, during haying week. I got to drive the truck and trailer, while the crew slung bales on the back. We got over 300 bales, and it feels so great to have our hay for the winter! Its always an adventure, and this year we are done so early. Its awesome.




We spotted these guys near the side of the road, on Turnagain Arm. Its cliffs on one side of the road, and water on the other.

Midnight (that's right!) at the float pond.

Penelope out "mudding" on the flats, at a beach near us. A favorite spot to go!

Mt McKinley, from the plane as we flew to Fairbanks. It was so very clear that day. Spectacular sight.

Drive in dog wash. Poor Pluto.

Wow, her hair is getting so long! She let me put some of my favorite Pansies in it.

The girls, getting ready to head out to the hangar, for a "sleepover" at home. :)

Seldovia boat harbor. The seagull posed just for me, I think.

A flowering onion. So pretty! I love taking pictures of unusual flowers.

Me and the girls on the Fourth of July, in Seldovia.

I love that place!

Fourth of July Picnic..on the Third of July!

We had our annual BIG family picnic at our house again this year. This is our 14th year hosting it at our place! We love having family here, and I love that someday all of these children will be grown up, and they will have fond memories of "Aunt Geri's house" and the fun we had here each Fourth of July.

We held it on the third this year, because the fourth was on a Sunday, and we would not have had as much time, after church and annual parade.

We had our son home! Lex was on leave from S Korea, and got to see the whole family while he was home. It was really neat timing, that he could get in on the picnic..he loves it.

We had games for all ages, going all day, and prizes for each game! Lots of other activities too, including group photo (I hired a photographer to come on location), miniature horse trick show, volleyball tournaments, "Guess the Watermelon Weight" contest, and much more. We had a great turnout! And the weather was not super sunny, but pleasant..and no rain..so we'll take it. :)

I took a ton of photos, but here are a few favorites..of some of my favorite people in the world..FAMILY!!!!!!

This was part of our big scavenger hunt, the whole team had to make a pyramid and have their photo taken, to cross it off of their list. I do the scavenger hunt each year, and its a favorite with the kids. They are all eager for their 8th bday, because then they are old enough to "hunt".
Balloons waiting for the waterballoon tossing contest, and the FIGHT that follows!

My beautiful daughter and her handfuls of FUN. :)

The winning balloon for the teenagers...his trick was to warm it up in his pocket (shhhhh!)

A cutie on every step. :)

She did what she was told, holding her tiny hands just "so" and waiting. But when the balloon burst on her T-shirt, she had a few sniffles. Next year she will understand the whole thing a bit better. :)

Sisters waiting their turn. Sooooo sweet.

Penelope won the watermelon contest this year! She guessed the weight right ON!

Winner and still CHAMPION! This cousin of mine has never been defeated in the pie eating contest. This year he was challenged three times! And he kept winning! That's THREE pies! Ugh. But he loves it. (even beat his grandpa this year!)

The crowd is always fun to watch during the contests!

Classic. Little Oceanna and her first pie. She didn't win, she was too dainty..but oh so fun to watch her sweet approach.

Babies in a sack! Getting them ready to someday hop over the finish line on their own. Future champs!

The little guys race for the finish line!

Winner! She was SOOOOO proud of her wading pool she got as her prize. She carried it around with her throughout the day.

Mukluk makes some new friends.

Maranatha loved the airplane swing. She's such a happy little girlie!

Look how happy that little "driver" is! (and the passenger hangs on for dear life)

My handsome Daddy and my sweet Chena.

Spontaneous show of affection. I caught this cutie in the act of smooching on her little cousin. She's so sweet!

He's all BOY. I think I'm loving this more than if I had captured a smile. :)

Flying high! I love her cute shoes.

Friends, and this year's lawn decorators...good job girls!

Brothers, pals, and wrestling partners. I was so surprised when they smiled and posed for me suddenly..(in the middle of a smack down!)

End of the day. Worn out from all the fun!

Hi Ho Horse Camp...Awaaaay!

I decided I had better try to catch up a bit, my blog is waaay behind our adventures. :) I promised to post some pictures from horse camp!

Me and my girls (and boys!)

We had such a great time. Chena went to horse camp first, to the Advanced Camp, and took our Arab, Duvall. I stayed there, with a friend in an RV. It was neat to see Chena work with Duvall, and to see their teamwork advance throughout the week. They did lots of English equitation, work "on the flat" and some jumping. They even did a cross country jumping course! They also did vaulting sessions, and helped train some beginner vaulters on the vaulting barrel. At the end of the camp, they had a horse show. That Saturday, we took our other horse, Mid Summer Night's Dream, "Summer" to the camp, so that Penelope could show him, and also have him ready for her Junior Camp to start the next day. We took our mini, Mukluk, along too. He was going to do a little trick show for the campers, so he got to come to camp this year too. :)

Its about an hour and a half from our house, to the camp, so we decided to keep our other horse down there too. That also gave me an opportunity to ride him in the evenings, after the campers were done. That's my idea of fun!

The horse show went great, and Chena and Penelope had a good time. Penelope showed Mukluk in Halter Geldings, and got a blue ribbon. She did really well in all her Western classes with Summer too. Chena showed Duvall in both English and Western and placed well also. They mostly enjoyed more hanging out with all of their horse friends, both old ones and new ones!

Penelope and Poppa

After the show, Penelope and I got our horses settled in, and then went to a friend's cabin to spend the night, so we didn't have to run all the way back home, or leave our horses unattended. We stayed about a mile away, so we could check on the horses and be back in the morning. It was a VERY cozy cabin, and we slept great!

Sunday started Penelope's camp, and she could hardly WAIT for everyone to show up. Because we were there so early, we had time to play around, and I took a few pictures of her and Mukluk at camp. She was so excited when the other horse trailers started pulling in. Its always a very fun day, that first day, because everyone gets to meet everyone's horses, and everyone pitches in to help the campers get their horses in their stalls, find their assigned quarters, etc. Nothing better than lots of kids and lots of horses, to me!

Penelope had a wonderful week at camp as well. I especially loved it too, because my mom comes every year to stay with me, and brings her RV. We watch Penelope ride, help at the camp, visit, play cards, go for walks on the beach, and just have GIRLY fun! We park the RV so that we can see the arena from the windows, and we can sit and have our coffee in the morning while Penelope starts her classes. Penelope did all kinds of activities at camp, like trail rides, crafts, gymkhanna events, ground handling classes, ribbon races, horse "soccer", and much more.

Penelope did lots and lots of riding, and she and Summer worked well together. She is ready to move into the Advanced Camp next year. In addition, she had the care and upkeep of her horse and his stall. They really make the campers work hard, and always put their horse first. They have to feed their horses before they can eat themselves. They have to bed down their horses before they can put themselves to bed. Its a wonderful camp for teaching them responsible horse ownership!

Mukluk did a trick show for the campers, and that was a LOT of fun too. It was neat having him there this year, because I could go to his stall anytime and get to see him. The campers loved having him there too.

Penelope's horse show was great too! I was impressed with how calmly she did each of her classes, and memorized her patterns for each class. Summer even got spooked at one point, and bucked a bit..and she stayed on admirably. :)

I already posted about how horse camp ENDED for me this year, with a severe concussion, and a few weeks of recovery, so I won't go into that again. Suffice to say that I'm glad it happened, if it had to happen, after both girls' camps were over for the summer. We sure had FUN! Can't wait for next year!