Horsin' Around

Another family trip back to Iowa under our belts.  We took advantage of our last opportunity for Roxwell to fly free.  Bever Park, shopping, Grandma Kunkel’s, fishing, golf cart rides, horseback riding and packing a lamb in our suitcase.

The kids had wanted to ride horses for ages.  Layne was sure he knew how to do it all by himself, which ended up being the case.  My dad has a friend who is super gracious about setting us up with riding opportunities.  He lives on a huge, gorgeous, well kept farm.  A couple times we were able to take them out riding through the pastures sans kids. 

His friend, Doug, has a family full of riders who do rodeo events.  He borrowed a couple of girl scout camp horses that were used to inexperienced riders for the kids.  They were nice, quiet, small animals that gave the kids a great first experience.  I got to ride a perfectly broke horse that Doug’s son uses for roping.

We put Layne on with me first; it was tight in the saddle.  Layne wanted full control of the reigns and confused the heck out of the horse, but didn’t run us into any walls.  He wanted to go faster, of course, but after mere seconds at a gallop he changed his mind.  After this he got on his own horse while Doug walked him around with a lead.  Once Layne was tired of this he got off and lead the horse around on his own, tied it to the fence, then came back to walk him around some more.  When he got back on again, he went all on his own.

Brik was a bit more timid.  He rode with Jarom for a short while.  When the horse started walking faster than him on the lead, he dropped the rope and ran.  We got him to sit with Layne just long enough for a picture.  Brik really shined when it came to feeding the horses grass.  There was also a cat and newborn dogs that they brought out fof the kids to see, but with Brik’s reactions he has been having with cats and dogs, he could only look.

Roxwell was crazy about the animals, screaming and making animal sounds.  He didn’t want to sit on a horse, but he picked up real fast on feeding them grass.  He wanted to crawl under the fence to get closer.  He loved on the cat a little too much and was fascinated by the tiny heads of the dogs.

Nobody got kicked or bucked, so I’d say it was a day better than most.

In Hope of Better Days

All the parenting books say 6 is a hard age.  I would know, I have read them all.  I really can’t say ages 2-5 were that easy, but 6 was definitely hard!  Thank goodness for Nana’s who take care of kids while we cruise and Grandma’s who invite kids to stay with her at her cabin in the mountains and school…hallelujah for school.

To mark his 7^th birthday, here are 7 of Layne’s favorite things:

Favorite toy: Legos

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite color: Orange

Favorite friend:  Brandon

Favorite number: Infinity

Favorite book:  Dinosaur Roar

Favorite word: Toot

We had small birthday plans to have a special celebration.  Layne ended up being invited last minute to Grandma’s Cabin.  He loves the cabin and we love the break, so it was win, win.  Before he left, Katie made her all-fave Oreo Balls with the boys for Layne to hand out at school.  We talked to him briefly on his birthday, but he was much to busy to sit around and chat.

When he came home Monday night we asked him how he felt to be older and told him all the fun things we had planned for him at home; presents, sushi, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Toy Story 3 – 3D.  Of course it was not enough and he had a fit that he wanted a party with a billion friends and another cake because the cake and party with his cousins at the cabin didn’t count…Maybe technically his is still only 6 years and 366 days?

We still had a fun day with all that Mom had promised, but still waiting for the magic.

Shhh

We snuck out last night.

You know way back when you lived under your parent’s reign, feeling a little feisty and just HAD to get out?  Some how, the role is reversed now, but I still get those feelings.  Only now it is lying to the children instead of parents, doing something edifying instead of naughty, feeling satisfaction instead of guilt and speaking Spanish instead of Pig Latin.

We made plans to see the music production “The Lamb of God” at Gammage.  We invited Katie to join us and had cued her in on the sneakiness of the evening’s events.  It took some extra thought when plans were being made in the present of little ears.  Sometimes we had to spell out words that would cause questions or reference things in a round about way.  The conversation at dinner the dinner table was most interesting with Jarom’s fluent Spanish, Katie’s broken Spanish, My limited Spanish, the kid’s pretend Spanish and Roxwell’s jabbering.

It all went off without a hitch (except for the moment of panic when Jarom noticed our tickets were for Friday night instead of Saturday, but they still let us in).  The house was as we left it, kids fast asleep, the babysitter had a peaceful evening and there were no bad reports to apologize and stress over.