Beach Trip Day Six Pt. 2 - Long Beach

Friday afternoon was spent in Long Beach.  We had reservations to ride horses so we went there first.





Once we were saddled up (this time I was on Brassy, Cadi was on Sarah, and Ryan and Rori rode Mandingo again), our group headed out through the dunes to the beach.



The ride was going rather smoothly until Sami's horse, Sophie, started picking on another horse who then kicked at Sophie, causing Sophie to buck, which resulted in Sami falling off onto her back!  It was a little scary, but Sami was okay.  Sophie is a trouble-maker.  Last year when I rode her, she kept kicking Ryan's horse.  I felt bad for Sami.  But she got back on and didn't have anymore problems on the way back.  She was sore for a day or two though. :(





Besides Sami's incident, we had a nice ride.  I do think we might need to take a couple years off before riding again though.  Rori's getting too big to share with Ryan, but isn't quite big enough to handle a horse herself.  But by the time she's six, she should be able to do it.  Especially if I get her riding lessons first.  We'll see. :) 

After riding the horses, we got ice cream at Scoopers (of course!) and then Ryan and Matthew raced go-carts.  They had a blast! 



No one really felt like shopping in Long Beach, so we went back to the house to enjoy the rest of the day on the beach... we knew this was going to be a gorgeous sunset!!!

Horseback Riding on the Beach

When we went to the beach with my aunt, uncle, and cousins last year, we had an awesome time riding horses on the beach, so when we went with our friends last week, we decided to go again.  Rori sits double with Ryan and loves it!  Cadi is great on the horses; very natural and in control.  I have a lot of fun and try to take as many pictures as I can... which is kind of hard when you're on a large, moving object. ;)

One of the guides was great and took a few pictures for me, so I even have pictures that include ME in the group!  Yay, proof I was there and participated, too! lol

We got there a few minutes early, so we just hung out, waiting for our turn, visiting with a couple of the horses...



Then we finally got to saddle up!



And when we were all situated, we headed out through the dunes to the beach!







The ride is for about an hour, which is just about right.  You kind of want it to be longer, but if it were, we'd all be REALLY SORE! lol  As it is, look at the picture below of Rori, walking funny after getting off the horse. lol



I think we get to go riding again when we go to the beach next month, too... Yeah, we're a tad spoiled.  But it is just such a fun experience!  We love it!

Ride 'Em Cowboy and Cowgirls!

Yesterday we had SO MUCH FUN at Cadi's birthday party!  Ryan used the camera to take ALOT of pictures!  I think we ended up with over 200!

Some of them are black/white versions of the originals, or a cropped version of a larger pic... but still...  The only downside is that for the first little bit, Ryan had accidentally set the camera to switch out a shade of brown or green (we can't tell which) with a shade of purple!  So, there is a purple hue to many of the pics.  But changing them to b/w fixed that, lol.

We met at our house at noon.  Unfortunately, one of the girls never made it here... but honestly, she was kind of an "extra"... the four kids Cadi REALLY wanted were all with us.  :)   When we decided we couldn't wait anymore for the last girl, we divided into cars and headed out to Royal Ridges. 

We got there just in time and they were ready for us, but the two moms who had helped to drive had forgotten their permission slips, so we had to wait for them to fetch us a couple and have them filled out.  This was perfectly fine though, because the kids were able to enjoy some horses that came over to say "hi" while we waited.  Here are some pics of them... I'll share the b/w versions because I really liked how they turned out...









This one does still have some discoloration, but I thought it still looked good in color. This is the big sister of the boy who came, she's one of the Beehives in our YW and will be turning 14 soon. (She's excited because that means she'll be a Mia Maid and that means she can go to dances - and in her house it also means she can start wearing make up! lol)


 Here's a pic of Cadi being silly. :)  It's also probably the best pic of her new cowgirl boots that we gave her for her birthday...



After waiting patiently, we were finally ready to go ride some horses! Acadia was reunited with Chanse and she couldn't have been happier! (Some of these still have some discoloration, but they were still good in color... others were taken after we discovered and fixed the problem...)













Her friends had fun too!

Here is H. riding Doc:



G. riding Scooter:



C. riding Mocha:



And R. riding Peaches:



The session was great.  They each started out with a helper holding a lead on their horse.  Eventually they were all able to have the leads taken off their horse, but most of them still had their helper walking right beside them.  Acadia was the most experienced rider, but that's just because of all her lessons last summer.  They all did great!  They learned how to walk, stop, and steer... and even got to do some trotting!

But after an hour of riding, it was time to say good-bye.  We moved over to a room where we could have our cake (and eat it too) and open presents.  Here's a picture of the cake Cadi had chosen...





Acadia got some fun gifts! She enjoyed all of them, many were horses, lol. But this was her very favorite - she's been wanting one for over a year and this birthday seemed like the appropriate time to give her one...



It was a great party for a great girl! Like I mentioned before, there are over 200 pics on our photobucket account... plus there are some video clips of the kids riding. So check it out if you have the time!

Busy Day - Lots of Pictures!

We were so busy having fun that I didn't take time to write in my journal until Monday, August 29, 2005. So this is written a few days after it took place.

Thursday night we stayed up watching LOTR - Yeah Baby! Then I went to bed (at about 2:30 am) while the boys stayed up (til 6:30 am!!!) playing X-Box. (Heather- And you thought it was bad when he and Steve got together!) But, to be fair, they both got up with Cadi and I for breakfast and fully participated the entire day. *smile*

Acadia helped Landon get up. "Open your eyes..."





First I made us breakfast burritos. Yum. Then we hiked Bear's Hump. (Comparable to Bubble Rock's hike in Acadia - for those of you familiar with that.) It was gorgeous!



We sat on top for awhile and just looked over Waterton. It was so beautiful. Landon pointed out a few things, we talked awhile, then headed down.







It was Super Windy!!!







Landon has been up there at night and says it is amazing. If it weren't for the mountain lions and the fact that we were a small group, we may have tried to go up later to see the view after dark. But we (read I) are wimps and never did it. Oh, but I wished we could!!!

On the way back down, Acadia found a friend.



Although we enjoyed staying at Landon's apartment, we also wanted to do some camping. So that afternoon we went to Crandall Campground and got ourselves a campsite. At first we weren't sure how the site we got would work out - but it turned out to be perfect. First of all, we set it up pretty nice. And most importantly, it didn't have any other sites right next to it - which ended up being a very good thing since Ryan, Landon, and I pretty much were the last ones up in the entire campground every night.

Then the moment Acadia had been waiting for all summer - Landon took us horseback riding. Oh. My. Goodness. Was that an awesome time! We rode for 2 hours. It was fun, beautiful and just - Great! Acadia did really well. The rest of us laughed - ALOT! LOL

Acadia rode Rodeo, I rode Duchess, Ryan rode Joe and Landon rode Tex. I have no idea what the guide's name was - or her horse. Ask Landon, hehehe. (We love you, Landon! *wink*)

Ryan had the camera the whole time, so there aren't really many pictures of him - except for a couple "self shots". But there are lots of pictures of our butts!



For the first while, Ryan was behind Landon... Joe really liked to ride up close to Tex... And I mean, really close...





We crossed a creek (twice - once each way) and that was fun.Okay, now this picture just makes me laugh! And I hope Landon doesn't kill me for posting it - but trust me, if he doesn't for this one, he will for some of the ones I'm gonna put up in later posts! (I love you Landon!) In case you can't tell, he is being a cowboy. I was infront of him and had the chance to turn around and see this from the front - it's really too bad I didn't have the camera then!







Most of the time we were in open fields, but sometimes we were in trees and brush.

















Here are the rare pictures of Ryan while riding. Unfortunately you don't see his horse at all. Trust me, he is on one. lol





While we rode back to the stables, the sun set behind the mountains. It was really very pretty but unfortunately the pictures didn't really show that. This is what you get instead.



Ryan took some nice pictures of the view while we were out, here are a few.







When we got back, most of the horses were put in the stables right away. But the guide's horse was left out and Acadia couldn't resist going over to say hi. The horse was very sweet with her. She nuzzled Cadi and any time Acadia started to leave, the horse would stamp it's feet until she came back. It was very cute.



All but Cadi were a little sore afterwards, but it was SO WORTH IT! Thank you Landon!!!It's really too bad I don't have any pictures (or any other way) to capture those times. But I do have a ton more pictures of the horse back riding - and even a few more from the "hike" up Bear's Hump. To see all the pictures from the Canada Trip check out that link and browse through all the sub-albums.

After we finished with the horseback riding, we went to the pool and hot tub. There were a bunch of deer grazing right outside of the Rec Center.



The pool and spa felt so nice. Ahhh. It was fun too. The only problem was that someone had to stay with Cadi the whole time. First Ryan was swimming with her while Landon and I were in the hot tub, then I took my turn while Ryan and Landon played water volleyball. At one point Cadi slipped and fell on her rear end and that wasn't much fun.

Our first night at camp was fun - well, every night has been fun! lol We stayed up SO LATE! - Again, we have every night. I LOVE our campfire time! We talk, laugh, joke, etc. And we've talked about all sorts of things. Some serious stuff, some silly.

Ryan, Landon, and I have a really good friendship and I don't know that we have ever had the chance for it to develop like this before. I am so glad that we have come here and that we are in this setting. It really makes for wonderful experiences. And we are making tons of memories on this trip!

I do not remember the last time I have laughed so much! I have laughed till I cried, laughed till I couldn't breath, and laughed till it hurt. And then I've laughed some more. Ryan and Landon crack me up - especially when they feed off of each other!