Fun at the Ranch

For those of you who don't know, Mike's family lives in Northern Idaho on 54 acres of beautiful land. It is about 30 minutes north of Coeur d'Alene and about an hour and a half south of the Canadian border. It is just gorgeous up there. His Mom and Dad, Aunt and Uncle and Grandma all live on the Ranch (in separate houses of course). They have 6 horses, multiple 4 wheelers and lots of trails to ride or walk through.

Amy and I were lucky enough to go up to the ranch while Amy was off track. We were there for 2 weeks and had so much fun. Here are some pictures of the things we did. Thank you Gary and Cindy, Vicki and Vanny, and O'ma for taking care of us and making us feel at home.

Amy got a pair of Wrangler jeans, John Deer boots, a belt with changable buckle and a cute cowgirl shirt. She said "I am a real cowgirl now".

All saddled up and ready for a ride. I had her pose for some pictures before she put her riding helmet on.

Aunt Vicki, Amy and Grandma out for a ride.

Riding on one of the trails.

Amy just loves her cousin Lexi. She is feeding her some of her yogurt.

Lexi and Amy

O'ma and Amy making a quilt for Amy's dolls. It turned out so cute and they had a great time making it together.

Lexi turned 1 just before she got to the ranch so we had a celebration while we were there. Here she is going for the candle. We all thought she was going for the frosting.

"Ooooh pretty fire".

Cousin Seth loved the cake...now that is concentration.

The barn cat had 5 kittens about a month or so before we got there. Amy named them all and they were pretty tame. She loved playing with them and taking care of them.

Out for another ride on her horse Sunny.

Thank you Sunny...I love you.

Playing in the kiddie pool with Seth
They have a boat so we took it for a ride around Lake Cocolalla which is only about a 10 minute drive from the ranch.

Amy helped Grandpa reload.
Amy just loves gymnastics. Her Uncle Vanny has done gymnastics his whole life, so she spent a lot of time learning tricks with him. She learned to do a hand to hand (handstand on his hands). I was really impressed.

Tada
Goodbye Sunny...until next time.

Here is a couple video clips. One of a little gymnastic routine and another of her riding her horse.

The Zoo...and more

I has been a few weeks since I posted my last update and I also realized that I forgot to post Easter pictures. So this post has multiple parts to it.

THE ZOO

For Amy's Kindergarten field trip they went to Hogle Zoo. She was so excited to take the bus for the first time. I met them there and helped out with the class. The picture below has the new goslings in it.

When we first go there, the parents were given their kids they were supposed to take around the zoo. I had Amy and two girls that she plays with all the time. Here they are when we first go there. From left to right...Paige, Kaylee, and Amy.

Paige and Amy looking at the porcupines.

The girls thought it was hilarious to pretend they were kissing the gorillas. There are multipe pictures like this. The school didn't allow much time to wander the zoo before the bus had to head back to the school so I signed Amy out and we spent the rest of the day there...just the two of us. It was great.

I didn't realize how many pictures I got of the elephants. I guess I really like them and didn't realize it. I won't bore you with all of them but here is a cute one of Amy with them in the background.

They have so many statues around the zoo. Of course she likes to pose for pictures on all of them.

Look at that huge turtle! Isn't it so cute.

What a fun day we had. Hopefully we will be back sometime this summer when more of the exhibits are open again. Some were still closed for winter.

EASTER PICTURES

I can't believe I didn't post any of these.

Amy on Easter morning going through her basket full of goodies. New earrings!

The day before Easter we went to Grandma and Papa's for an Easter egg hunt.

All the grandkids getting ready to go for the eggs. Timmy (my brothers son) was the only one missing in this picture. He must be behind one of them.

She loves crafts and art so decorating Easter eggs were so much fun for her.

MY FRIEND LORI

My friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am running (or walking) in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on May 9th to show my support for her. A group of friends have been putting together little support gifts for her while she has been in and out of the hospital and going to chemo. One thing we wanted to give her was a blanket to take with her to her chemo treatments because we heard that you get cold during them. I found some really cool fleece fabic at walmart and made her one of those tie blankets. Here is a picture of it.

This is Lori right when I brought her the blanket. We love you Lori. If you would like to support me in the race, every dollar helps. Thank you.

Here is the link. http://race.komenslc.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1000&px=1060646

I COULDN'T RESIST

So the last picture is just funny. Amy loves to dress up our dog Sally...poor thing. She found her old ballet recital outfit and a build a bear hat and put it on her. I was laughing so hard...ENJOY!

That's it. I should be all caught up...I hope.

Thanks but you don't have to lead me

Amy went to a birthday party this weekend and they had a pony there for the kids to ride. Well, if you know Amy...she LOVES horses. All the kids took turns riding while someone lead the pony around the yard. When it was Amy turn, she got on and said "Thanks but you don't have to lead me. I know how to ride. I have big horse in Idaho that I ride all by myself." I was cracking up. She does have a horse at grandmas house in Idaho but I didn't know she would be so confident. Everyone at the party was laughing. She did great though. She wrapped the lead rope around the saddle horn, took the reins and lead the pony around like a champ. Grandma and Aunt Vicki would be so proud.

After her turn, she took it upon herself to lead the pony while the other kids got to ride. Here she is leading around her friend Kira. Amy spent pretty much the whole party with the pony. She only took a break when I made her go eat lunch and when they opened presents.

2 Wheels

Last year we bought Amy a big girl bike (it still had training wheels but it had room to grow). She rode around on it a little and loved it but it was a little too tall for her. So she didn't get a lot of practice and she didn't want to try it without the training wheels. Now that the weather is getting better we decided to pull the bike out and get her riding. Yesterday she rode it around for a couple hours with the training wheels still on and today she decided she wanted to try without them. So, I took them off and took her to the path we have behind our house. I held on for a little bit but the first time I let go she did amazing. I couldn't believe it. She was obviously ready and I didn't even realize it.

Sorry about the shaky camera. I was trying to watch her through the camera and walk at the same time and then I was worried about her falling so I wasn't paying attention to keeping it still.

She wanted to go down the hill so here is the first time down. She did it many times after this.

Ear Piercing

Amy has been asking to get her ears pierced for a while now. I have been putting it off because I knew it would make her look so much older and I am having a hard enough time accepting her growing up so fast. I finally decided that it was time. She was so excited.

They sat her in the chair and gave her a teddy bear to hold. I tried to prepare her. She knew it would hurt but just for a second.
Ready...Set...

first one done...and tears

So for the other ear she sat on my lap. She did so good on the second ear and didn't even cry.

This picture cracks me up. She looks traumatized for life....and then like 5 seconds later we got the picture below. All better!

She was so excited to show off her earrings at school the next day. She loves looking at them in the mirror.

Amy's 6th Birthday

Amy had quite a fun birthday weekend. On Friday night she had a friend spend the night. They played with barbies and then dressed up in all Amy's costumes and gave us a fashion show. Then I blew up an air mattress and put it in Amy's room. They ate popcorn and watched movies and all we heard was the giggling in the other room. They had such a fun time.

Goofy girls!
On Saturday we had a birthday party at the bowling alley. I forgot how noisy bowling alleys are and then add 13 five and six year olds and it is crazy. Amy had such a fun time though.

Here is Amy with a few of her friends. Amy is up. She has way better form than I do. For those of you who have seen me bowl...you know exactly what I am talking about.

Here is Amy with her Hannah Montana birthday cake.

I didn't ask the bowling alley if I could light the candles. I didn't want them to say no. I looked up and saw all the smoke alarm sprinklers. You know how in movies they are so sensitive and are set off so easy. I kept picturing them going off just as I was lighting the candles. Thankfully everything went smoothly.

Blowing out the candles.

Opening presents

I was so exhausted after the party. All three of us went home and took a nap. It was worth it though. I think Amy had a fun time.