February Riding Lessons

Another month full of horse lessons :)  My daughter is just in love with horses and is the happiest on Wednesday and Fridays when she gets to ride.

She is doing so great at learning and retaining everything.  We are so very proud of her!

Her Friday class is awesome because she is learning all the pre and post horse riding duties like grooming and tacking and putting away saddles :)

Valentines Day

We were really excited for Valentines this year!  C's school has a new Happy Healthy club that is all about creating healthier choices at school.  This works well with us since C isn't too into candy or chocolate.  We did crayon boxes with a note saying 'Hope Your Valentines Day is Full of Colorful Fun' She was so excited to pass them out!

Not quite sure how this 1 year old baby turned into my 7 year old baby!  Here she is in my sisters classroom Valentines Day party back in 2012.  

After a full day of volunteering, hanging out with Lia and riding lessons...we went to my grandparents to give my grandpa his 91st birthday gift.  It was a few days early, but honestly, he didn't realize it was his birthday so we figured that we should celebrate whenever was convenient for us.  

The last year my Grandpa has taken up an interest in puzzles.  Its funny since he never did puzzles prior to his diagnosis, but he has since completed more than we can count.  

For his 91st birthday I wanted to so something special and had the fabulous (if I do say so myself) idea of photographing his cars and turning them into puzzles.  Grandpa rarely goes into his shop anymore, so I figured this might be a good way mirror his old self with his new self.  

He was surprised.  And confused.  And then surprised again :)

The videos above and below were taken less than one minute apart...you can see that he pulls out the same puzzle to admire and says 'well, thats a great one, huh?' Three times.  Alzheimer's is just heartbreaking.  He got pretty emotional at times too...it was an awesome gift for an awesome guy.  Part of his disease shows with his need to hide things that he deems valuable (which spans everything from the remotes to money)...he said twice that he was going to go hide the puzzles, so that means that he really liked them :)

I decided to add text to each puzzle so that he couldn't forget who gifted them to him.  Plus, I added his birthday so he'd keep current on that as well.  

It was a really special afternoon for our family.

Afterwards we headed to dinner with the crew (minus my grandparents).   Someone was excited to see her daddy!

Plus after an afternoon of 'one clue every hour' C was excited for her Valentines present :)

She was very excited about her spirit and lucky horse set and jacket.  It was a lovely love day with so many of the loves of my life.

Pheasant Hunting with Shasta and Twist

We took a weekend away in February to go hunting with Damons parents and spend time at our favorite hotel.  How cute is my girl?

C and I collected a ton of shot gun shells with Grandma helping us.

It was super windy and equally beautiful spending a few hours out in nature.

My shoulders get a workout during hunting afternoons!

Attitude?  What attitude? :) 

These pictures mean so much to me and Damon - love him sharing the outdoors with his dad and his daughter.  Plus the doggies Shasta and Twist!

I think it is really important for kids to learn about the circle of life and the outdoors.  C isn't afraid to touch the dead birds and can matter of factly talk to friends who come over for playdates about the mounts on the wall...about how we eat the food we hunt, etc.  Very proud of her outdoor spirit and I hope that she keeps it up.

Back at the hotel we were ready for some indoor swimming :)

Weekends away also call for car naps, dinners at BJs (C's favorite restaurant), card games and family snuggles.  

They are my favorite and I am so thankful that we are able to take these mini-trips on an almost monthly basis.

January Riding Lessons

Our lives have been taken over by horses, talking about horses, reading books about horses and making horse noises at random times throughout the day.  My girl has found her first true love.

She has a private lesson every Wednesday and then has a 90 minute class with one other rider on Fridays...spending well over two hours a week at the barn and arena.  And its still not enough for her!

Her confidence has sky-rocketed and her happiness has increased.  

I get nervous about her safety, but I love her trainer and instructor.  They are wonderful and kind.

Here are some videos of her leading Sweet Pea...she has already improved so much since then its amazing.

This wasn't an extra curricular that we were planning on and its taken some adjustment with our family in terms of time and financial prioritization.  We want her to appreciate the opportunity to be so heavily involved and have asked her to make some choices, such as a big spring break trip or the semester class.  Its surprising how dedicated she is to learning! 

Her confidence makes it all worth it.  It will be really interesting to see where she takes her love for horses in the future :)

January Randoms

My cute grandparents out for an afternoon stroll:

Getting new couches meant a huge box to play in for our girl:

She drew a house inside and it was awesome!

Global school playdate at Cs school - I got to play with my mentee first and it was so different spending time with her in front of her peers.

We also worked on her Valentines (which I didn't know if I should do since I wasn't sure if her mom would be opposed...but her mom ended up not getting her any, so I was glad that we already took care of it!)

Here is my cute happy first grader playing legos while I organized her classroom library:

The first graders dressed like they were 100 years old on the 100th day of school  C wasn't too sure about it, but rocked an awesome shirt from James/Krystina (thank you!) and Damon popped out the lenses on my glasses for her.  C is always stand-off-ish during new situations and doesn't want to participate...and then she sees how fun it is and wishes that she participated afterwards.  Hoping we outgrow that soon!

Her and one of her best friends/tablemates/Kindergarten buddy being responsible and carrying the lunch buckets.

Living her best life getting a pedicure and manicure while I got my nails done.  It is so very fun to hear her chat away with the woman while I was across the room.  She is quite the character!

Park playdates with her classmate after gymnastics:

We forgot our book of stamps in the Costco cart (!) and were so happy they were still there when we went back for them:

After school playdate with a classmate:

More box playing (we had it up for over a week and she cried when we took it down!):

I swear, I am so envious of this girls life...she has it so very good :)