Animals in July

July was a busy, fun month! The weather was unusually pleasant, so we took a trip to the zoo one Saturday to see the animals!

Graham liked the birds...for about a minute. Then he would shake his stick to make them fly away. Poor birds.

This exhibit is hands-down one of our favorites. 

The kids love the polar bears and sea lions, too!

What cuties, if I do say so myself!

Not only did we get up close and personal with some zoo animals, the girls also got to go to Horse Camp!! This was their "Surprise Present" from Christmas, so they had waited a long time for it! Graham was jealous of their boots and had to wear his, too. Even for a nap :)

All dressed and ready to go!

Stiiiiill wearing the boots!

Poor G, since moving to a big boy bed, he has been having a hard time going to sleep. He wants someone to lay with him until he falls asleep. Which would be fine, except he wants to play instead of fall asleep. So, we had to resort to turning his doorknob around :(. After he fell asleep I found him like this...bless it...

The horse camp the girls attended was SO neat! They did trail riding in the mornings and even got to pick wild blackberries! Yum!

Kinley riding Cracker Jack

Kallen with Speck

On Thursday, they took a field trip to Somerville to see some show horses that did really neat tricks. At the end of the show, the owner went in her house, HOUSE, and brought out these baby deer! They had been run over by a combine and this lady and her daughter saved them and nursed them back to health. When they get older they will be turned out into the wild. It was sooo neat. The deer came when their names were called, drank from a baby bottle, let the kids pet them! Amazing.

After the horse and deer show (G spent the entire show trying to climb into the arena saying, "I wanna ride a horse..." FYI) they went to one of the teen worker's homes in the area. Home, cottage, mansion...it was amazing. Wish I had thought to take pictures. The pool alone belonged in a magazine. The kids had a great time swimming and got to see a dog do tricks in the pool! Their dog could dive under water and swim with its eyes open and retrieve a ball. Neat!

Graham passed out exhausted on the way home. Poor bub. What a fun day, though!

The next day was the last day, and the girls got to show off all they learned! They got to decorate their horses, too. So fun! 

They learned to ride, to control the horses, to trot..

They learned to ride side saddle!

They steered their horses into the middle and lined them all up close and then stood up on the horses! What!? Awesome!

They rode bareback...

Rode through an obstacle course...

Poor Kallen, her horse was not a happy horse. Kinley's original horse, Cracker Jack, was Speck's best friend, and had to be pulled from the show at the last minute for some reason. So Kinley got to ride Cricket. However, Kallen's poor horse was so affected by his friend not being there, that he was very slow to follow commands and kept trying to leave to go out to the pasture to see his buddy. Poor Kallen really stuck with it though and by the end she had won Speck back over! Go Kallen!

I was SO very proud of both girls. Kinley had been very nervous about trotting, so nervous in fact, that she was hesitant to return one morning because she knew she would have to trot again. However, she was brave and powered through, and that afternoon said, "Trotting is so fun! It's not scary at all!" So proud!

The entire show, Graham still kept on saying "I wanna ride a horse". So much so, that one of the sweet workers brought her own horse over for him to see. Did he jump at the chance to pet the beautiful horse?? NO. He ran. And hid. Until she left, then he said, "I wanna ride a horse." Ha. She brought her horse back over and asked him if he wanted to ride. This time he said yes. "With Momma." Huh? Um. Okay! He loved it and didn't want to get off! So fun!

After the show they had an award ceremony. The girls were very proud to receive their awards from Mrs. Debbie!

This was a week I don't think they will ever forget. They conquered fears, learned so much about caring for and riding horses, and made some new friends. Hope they can do it again next year!