Can You Tell I Remembered My Camera?

We went up to Idaho for Labor Day weekend. It was a short trip, but well worth it. We actually started the trip with family pictures. They turned out very cute, but I don't have any yet. Fear not, I will get some up here eventually. Even though this new baby will not be in the pictures, I think it was definitely time for the Idaho clan to take some family shots. Their last family picture was before any of the boys married and that was over ten years ago. Granted, that means that this baby will probably be about ten by the time we take another, but that is okay.

The highlight of the trip was probably visiting Amber's horses. She works at a ranch and trains and shows horses so she was kind enough to invite the girls to feed and ride the horses. This is truly exciting for the girls. The most horse riding they have done is probably at Thanksgiving Point or the Fair where they lead you around in a circle. Actually, this was much the same, but FREE. Ivory even asked on the way out if we had brought the money to ride the horses. Not this time around.

I am really not sure how it all works. Some horses are in the barn and others are outside. I don't think Amber is in charge of all of them, and we only rode the ones that were indoors to begin with, but here is the view as we drove up. (Tyler informs me these are neighbor's horses).



If that doesn't get you excited to ride a horse, I don't know what would? Then we did much feeding of the horses with many faces like this one.



The girls were very brave to stick their hands out, but you can always tell they were 25% worried that the horse might take a finger along with the carrot.

The horses were beautiful and we walked around petting as many as we could reach; along with a chicken that Amber was nice enough to hold for the girls.



Then it was time to ride.



Amber brought out two horses and let the girls ride each in turn.



They had a lot of fun, except that Robyn did want to go faster. Even the Raging Stallion tamed the Stallion (although we won't tell him that it was a mare).



Here is Ivory and Tyler giving some love as they passed in the arena.



This is Tess. She is a remarkable horse. She is only two and has been ridden perhaps 45 times, yet she is so docile. She rolled around in the dirt, then curled up and let us take this picture.



Apparently she is also deaf, but she obeys commands well by watching and feeling body language.
There were even a few colts around, although naturally we didn't ride them, but baby horses are so cute.



Also, I think I really like silhouette pictures, so here are a couple I couldn't resist throwing in here.



Finally, you may have noticed the absence of Daisy. It was her nap time when we went to see the horses, but not to be outdone, she rode some beasts of her own on the trip.



This last picture is just to explain why you will see my children's names on their foreheads for a few days.



As I mentioned before, Grandpa likes to label them for church so everyone knows who they are. I actually think it works. No one has to ask them their names, they are welcomed right from the start. Just maybe we shouldn't use permanent marker.