Family Fun Weekend at Rydyn High - July Long Weekend

July long weekend this year brought people and campers and tents and fun by the boatload to our little corner of Alberta. From the VanderMeer's to the Graham's, some Carlson's, Storey's and Henson's thrown in as well as a few others.

Our weekend consisted of some fireworks, a parade, some water fights, some horseback rides and a whole lot of food and fun. Thanks so much to all who came and made it a blast!

One of my best birthday's ever!

Hoping to spend a little "we" time with my hubby, I planned a weekend getaway for the two of us. What a great time we had!

Josh and I hit mom and dad's for a lovely birthday dinner, then dropped the kids off and headed to the mountains. We stayed at the Sierra West Guest Ranch, home of Randy & Ginny Donahue (Ginny did our wedding photos). We stayed in the most lovely, fixed up old cabin called "The Homesteader". It had all the amenities of home and privacy to go with it.

Day 1, we went for an 8 hour ride up around the Daisy Creek area. Jagger and Bella were great. It was entertaining watching Bella try to go around every puddle, but eventually after the downpour we got, she gave up and went through. The scenery was beautiful and the company was great!

We ate our dinners at Pure Country in Frank. Terrific food and atmosphere. So much fun, so much I could say, but I'll leave it at, one of the best birthdays ever.

Wowee Maui!

I am so glad that we make traveling a priority. So many memories made. We just got back from Maui, Hawaii. What an absolutely amazing place! We traveled with another couple, Richard and Vangi and they were so fun to hang with. Josh and Richard were very much like two peas in a pod. They spent a lot of time face down, ass up in the surf snorkeling while we caught the rays on the beach.

Josh and I at Moose McGillyCuddy's in Kihei. As you can see, Josh was performing a bit :)

This is a picture of the sunset from our deck of our condo. Absolutely beautiful.

Vangi and I at the monster banyan tree in Lahaina after our Sunset Dinner Cruise. Not very often you get the chance to get all dressed up, so we must have pictures to prove it!

The four of us at Aroma D'Italiano.

We did so many things and saw almost all of the island. There are so many great spots to see and so much to do. Tons of snorkeling! We swam with Green Sea Turtles, saw a shark, saw whales in the distance playing, saw an incredible amount of different fish and coral.

Some of our trips included the Road to Hana - which was awesome, Haleakala Crater at sunrise which was okay, but not as spectacular as we were expecting, the Maui Ocean Centre, which was very cool.

The whole trip was fabulous. Can't say enough good things about it, but won't bore you with the details! Can't wait for our next trip.

Proud Mama & Papa

Well, we had a very interesting and busy Easter weekend! No colouring eggs for us! We arrived in Olds on Good Friday at noon. We signed Rylee in and the first two things he learned was not to shake hands with his gloves on and where to keep his gloves when he isn't riding - behind his belt buckle. Pretty funny. Rylee didn't believe Bruce at first, but eventually he tucked them in there!

The first afternoon they taught them how to get off the barrels properly and then wham, bam, load up the heifer "steers". For those of you who know Rylee (all 56lbs of him), when I saw those heifers, I just about choked. Josh was helping in the arena, so I texted him that I thought I might throw up. He text me back and told me to "Cowgirl Up Mommy", so that's what I did. Rylee's first ride was a bit of a train wreck. The "steer" had been leaning on his leg in the chute and she was a bit of a wild-child, so she dumped him in 2 seconds, however, he did manage to do a front flip and land on his hands and knees to dismount! Steer 2 went a whole lot easier and he did a great job. That night we went out for A&W, then Rylee and Josh swam for a bit before bed. A little Reiki treatment on the boy and off to La-La land.

Jordynn got to spend most of the weekend with Nana and Aunty in Eckville which was really nice for her because just sitting in the arena probably wouldn't have been exciting enough for her. Mom took her to an easter egg hunt in Eckville on Saturday and she won a boogie board, so she was super excited.

Rylee got on 5 steers on Saturday. He did awesome. He made a great little friend, Waycee, who was pretty much a tie for same size. The Johansen's were very careful that Rylee & Waycee rode mild steers so that they didn't lose confidence. Saturday night was much the same as Friday only Mom, Terry and Jordynn came down and we went for dinner at BP's in Olds, then back to the hotel. Early bedtime.

Sunday morning we woke up to chocolate easter eggs hidden all over our hotel rooms and throughout the hotel. We had some breakfast and then off to the arena. Tony & Kim and a friend of ours, Nicole all came to watch Rylee on his final day. His teacher, Marla tried to make it before the finals, but didn't get there in time.

Sunday at the arena started badly. The first kid out ended up getting his spur caught in the rope and they couldn't get him off. They finally had to cut the rope off to get him off. He ended up getting air-lifted to Calgary. Turned out he only had a pulled groin, thank goodness. Amazingly all the kids cowboyed-up and got on. The kids rode one steer in the morning. After lunch we had the buckle round. Rylee was 3rd up in the Junior/Newbie round. He scored a 63 pt ride for technique and dismount! Turns out that was the best ride for that group and he won a giant buckle for it. He and we are SO proud! What a great moment.

Kudos to all the Johansen's - especially Don - what an amazing man! What a great weekend for Rylee and for us!

As for Josh, he didn't fare so well. He was in the arena helping out and got stomped and run over a couple times. Turns out he broke his ankle. Hope he can get some kind of temporary fix before our trip to Hawaii!

It's Baby Time

It's baby time at Rydyn High! Sassy had her foal this morning. After a bit of an issue with Rylee's mare trying to steal the baby, we sorted out and Sassy and her little man are doing fine. We have to decide what we are going to call him now. Can't wait for the rest to come. They are so cute!

8 years old already?

So, it's Sunday afternoon and we have had a very busy weekend. Mom and Dad came up on Friday night and we had a lovely barbecue dinner. Some dummies stayed up til 1am visiting though which wasn't so smart considering how busy Saturday was going to be.

Saturday started with 4H for Rylee. Great news - he passed his Level 1 Horsemanship! Way to go buddy! We are so proud. It was great that Nana and Papa were there to see his awesome riding.

After that it was home for lunch, then mom and I and the kids hit the hot tub for an hour while Josh and Dad loaded bales and did chores. Then it was off to town for Jordynn's 8th birthday party.

We had Jordynn's party at the swimming pool in Lacombe. She had three school friends and Shaelynn, Ashley, Kolby and Kael as well. After swimming we had pizza and cake. Yum.

After wrapping up the kid party we all moseyed out to the farm and finished Jordynn's gift opening. She got lots of nice clothes and a few other neat things as well. Greg & Cheryl came out and we had a good visit and some more hot tubbing. Another dummy late night of 2:30am. Not picturing going back to work very well rested on Monday morning.

Now it's Sunday afternoon and I have accomplished absolutely nothing today. Terry is going to take the kids to a hockey game, so I feel a nap coming on...ps

Busy weekend

Friday night we went out to Yuk Yuks in Lacombe with a bunch of friends - what a great time. So many laughs! My cheeks hurt by the time it was over! We are lucky to have such great friends.

Yesterday I spent the day in Lacombe taking my Level 1 Reiki course. What an absolutely amazing time. We were lucky enough to have 3 masters there to teach us, two of whom I have received treatments from in the past. So much to learn. So many amazing ladies with touching stories. I soaked it all up like a sponge. I can't wait to participate in the Reiki group and to move on to the Level 2. I also am looking forward to using it on my horses and seeing how they like it.

Today is a day for playing catch up. Josh is working in the garage on some shelves for the tack room and I am supposed to be working on Farm books for income tax, and yet, here I am blogging away.

I have to say, I don't think there is anything more lovely than sitting in a hot tub in the evening with the lights off staring at the millions of stars. What a great way to end a day!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well! I really must accomplish something now!