Horseback Riding

The girls are taking horseback riding lessons. They are having lots of fun and finding that riding is much harder than it looks. The lessons involve not only learning how to ride, but also how to take care of a horse. They have learned how to groom, feed, bathe and tack (put saddle etc on). The beginning of each lesson involves them grooming and tacking their own horse. They are currently learning how to trot. They need to ride in the saddle a certain way and use their legs to let the horse know they want to trot. They both are working hard and doing well.

The farm is located just outside Harrisonburg. The scenery is just beautiful. Here is the ring where the lessons take place. The are many cats, dogs and other horses that the boys love to watch and pet during the lessons. One of the farm cats just had kittens. The tiny litte fur balls completely captivated Aaron during the last lesson.






Lauren and Hannah each grooming their horse. They have a different horse each week, though they each have their favorite that they hope to ride.

Getting the horses going.

Here are some vidoes that Ken took at the last lesson.

A walk in the mountains

The kids and I decided to take a picnic lunch up to the Shenandoah National Park, about 20 minutes from our house. There is a really nice visitors center, and some Ranger classes at a place called the Big Meadows. It is a very large meadow near the top of a mountain. It is full of wildlife and plant life as well as remnants of the people who used to call this place home before it was made a part of the National Parks. We went on a short hike and took a ranger class on "Photography in the Park"

Just some pictures of the views.






Like I've mentioned before, the deer are wild but used to people. Hannah got this shot of a deer in a small field just outside the visitors center.




Here is the Big Meadow. As you can see, there are lots of deer hanging out. Aaron became quite captivated by them.

And started running towards them. Just like Aaron, full of uninhibited curiousity and complete joyful abandon. Unfortuanately, the pictures don't have sound, so you can't hear the delightful shrieks of excitement and laughter, but you can imagine.

A watchful mom???

And now we know why. Eagle eye Lauren spotted this new fawn in the tall grass just off the walking path. It was an amazing and precious sight.

We learned from the Ranger that mommy dears give birth in the tall grasses and then wander off, so as not to attract predators to the new baby. The fawns are born without a scent so they can't be detected by other animals, so the mom won't stay close for long in order to protect the fawn. But as we saw, she is still watching closely.

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

Hard to believe that one year ago I was calling Ken on the phone at 1am (me in NC and he in VA) saying " think you need to come home". His response "are you sure?"

My dear friend, Leslie, took me to the hospital a few hours later. Ken arrived in time to welcome his newest son. Of course, lots happend in between

Here we are shortly after his arrival.

Already a year later, hard to imagine. It's been a busy year.

Caleb wakes up happy and ready to go each morning. His hair is hilarious and always looks crazy in the morning.

Here's a look at how he spent his First Birthday!

My first gift was this ride on zebra. I really liked it, it bounces, goes around and plays music. My brother Aaron also really liked it.

I had a puppy party. I just love dogs, both the real and the stuffed. I was very excited about this big puppy balloon. Well the balloons in general were really fun.

I wasn't sure about all this gift unwrapping, but once I figured it out, it was really fun. Who can resist paper. I really liked the bows, pretty tasty. Though everyone else wanted me to get what was under the bows and paper.

I love gadgets ~ phones, remotes, keys, tools. My sisters gave me some gadgets of my own. I also got some other fun things to play with. My brother liked helping me check everything out.

I discovered that cake is really yummy and very messy. But chocolate .....yummmm!

What a fun and exciting day. I'm tired. So the day is done and now I'm One!

Catching Up

Just to catch you up. We've been working on finishing school, enjoying the beautiful weather (well except for the absurdly hot week), trying to do the finishing touches on "moving in", basically organizing better and doing some decorating. We're also heading into our months of birthdays. Thought I'd share some of our spring with you all.



This is our house, on a cloudy day. We finally have a paved driveway and some "grass".

We have a wild hedge that borders are yard, between the trees and the grass. Lots of wild life and wild plants and flowers. The entire back of the lot is full of these wild roses, they are beautiful and fragrant, can even mask the aroma from the neighboring cows ! The are as tall as I am and home to lots of birds, chipmunks, gophers, bunnies, some turtles and at least one black snake. Or that's what we've seen so far.

The roses are even growing up the trees on the side of our yard.

We also have some wild blackberry bushes growing in the hedge.

Here is a close up of the blooms, pre berries.



The gophers here are gigantic. They are the size of a large house cat. We have two who live in our backyard, and they are quite funny to watch. When startled they try to run, but can really only muster a very fast waddle. They are quite playful. If you look closely you can see a cow peering through the fence, from the farm behind us.

Do you see anything??? If you said "rabbit ears" , you're right.

Our friendly cows. We've enjoyed seeing many new calves and watching them grow. We've also learned that cows really bellow, not "moo" and they can be quite loud.



We have a Piliated Woodpecker living in an old tree in the far corner of our lot. I captured a picture of him while he was snacking. They are very large and have a bright red crown on their head and they are very loud when pecking. We had one in our old yard and were thrilled to find one here as well.

Not to leave out our night time discoveries. We saw this Lunar Moth, though the other side is a beautiful emerald green, it was pretty cool to see the underside so up close.

We live situated between the Appalachian Mountains and the Alleghany Mountains, and that apparently can make for some interesting weather. We have gotten quite a lot of rain, and the storms roll in quickly and then leave the same way. It makes for some very pretty skies. I like seeing the clouds rolling lower than the mountain top. The pictures don't really show the deepness of the purplely blue sky. These were taken from our front yard. The mountain, is Massenutten, which is the closest to us, about a 15 minutes drive. There is a nice resort, indoor Water Park, trail riding for horses, golfing, and of course skiing.

The storm passes and then the sun shines brightly, making for a wonderful blue sky. This is from our back deck.

Just some more views from our yard, so you get an idea of what it's like. Until you come and visit and get to see for yourself : ). These are our backyard, taken from our upper deck. You can see the dairy farm and the mountains to one side and then the forest to the other.

Mother's Day

Of course we have like 8 takes, this one is the best of us, but has the big flash reflection. The others have no flash but at least someone is not looking, not smiling, not happy.... But a shot of me and my gang of four.