Sunday, May 31, 2009

What a "Honey"


"In the ring now is #28, Erin Drew riding Soleil". And after all the shenanigans of last night and the mighty spooking horse, the morning shines brightly on a new day, a new attitude, and a 3rd place in the individual trot poles class! Erin's coach was most excited because she didn't expect this horse to do anything noteworthy (I guess she wasn't as surprised Erin did OK because she forgot to congratulate her when she ran up to the horse all excited:). She was quite obedient and almost graceful looking. Horses have a barn name and a show name. We call her Honey but her "official" name is Soleil, most of them have even more ostentatious show names.

Everyone getting prettied up and braided. Look at this little fellow, he got the most applause today when he tried to go UNDER the railing around the ring (with rider on board)


Getting a stern talking to before the day begins

Warming up- at 7:30 am - love those green rolling hills...

After a job well done.


The end of a long day!!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

A Busy Saturday

The day began with an early boys' soccer game. It was a joy to watch, since I've missed the last 2 weeks. They lost :( but it's nice to sit on the sidelines this year and just watch my boy play rather than be right involved and coaching. Though now we have to sit back and not add our opinions to the coaching of the team. The coaches are doing a great job!

Then off to a wedding. I am feeling old now because this is the first of my girl friends to have her daughter get married. Isn't she stunning? I like how they are holding hands.

And this is the connection point between me and my friend, we met in the church nursery when the boys were both 2, and look at him now! What a handsome young man! There have been many a play date, many a birthday party, many a fort built in the basement, and in the earlier days, a lot of trading in babysitting. I think I got more free babysitting than Rachel did, but her daughter also watched our kids a few times too.

The 3 of us having a standing date every other Wed. for coffee, and sometimes more often when the needs arise, like wedding planning, or personal crises, which seem to happen their fair share. Mom of the bride is looking stunning in the middle.

Then off to the last 3/4 of Erin's soccer game. I love watching the amazing level of play these girls are getting to. And good job to the star of the game who scored the winning goal to make the game 2-1 with only 30 seconds left. It was stunning! She is so glad to be back to playing forward this year after playing defense all last year! It bettered her game even though she was hating it. Ah the trials that make us stronger.

After that we whipped down to the barn to have a quick ride on Honey. Erin has had quite the journey with trying to find a horse to ride the past few months. We were in process of leasing a nice boy for the summer, and then he scared Erin half to death, so that turned sour pretty fast. Now she's on this pretty mare who has mostly been ridden Western. Erin's coach bought her in hopes of turning her into a lesson horse, but she's still too headstrong to put little kids on her. She told Erin that she could take Honey in the horse show this weekend, so she's been trying to put as many rides as possible on her this week. She still needs a lot of work, but it'll be good experience to have her in the show tomorrow. Today she didn't like the wind and the things it was blowing around, so did a few big sideways jumps without warning. So poor Erin, is getting her share of horses with issues. Wish her luck (and safety) tomorrow. She's going to come out of all this being a great rider having lots of experience on all sorts of horses. Honey does look exactly like a Barbie horse. The perfect palamino. Her mane is so pretty blowing in the wind, that we aren't going to braid her. The 2 blondes will hopefully make a good pair tomorrow.
6 am at the barn... blech....off to bed for me.... at least it's more fun than getting up that early to go to work :)


Don't worry all my Saturdays are not this busy! I think I might have a melt down if they were. I also managed to get my vegetable seeds into my garden which now has soil! I am so happy! I'll update you on "this week in the garden" soon.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

2nd Annual Girls' Weekend

In honor of Tara's upcoming 40th birthday, we had our official celebrations this past weekend (only because Randi can't fly in August and be 8 months pregnant at the same time). I don't know what I do to deserve these wonderful women in my life, or the wonderful man who lets me go away for 5 days, and the wonderful ocean view we enjoyed all weekend in the amazing house we got to stay in!!! It's all gift!

We spent a lazy afternoon sitting on the deck, getting caught up, and making new memories. We looked over to the side and found a lazy lemon tree just growing lemons for us to pick-- only in California!

A little bit of shopping, some walking on the beaches, eating dinner out and YES I did go for a swim in the Pacific too! It was warmer once you got in than we thought it would be.


( you can't even tell she's pregnant at all!!! lovely little Mama)

We had a really neat visit to the old Catholic mission at San Juan de Capistrano. The old buildings, bell towers and gardens were amazing! Please Lord, don't send me to Mongolia where there is no vegetation, I think I might just die. The bougainvilleas were almost just too much for my plant loving soul!




We took a little stroll through a local farmers' market where we picked up some CA strawberries and some oranges to fresh squeeze juice for breakie the next morning

After a quick Starbuck's trip, we came out to see this parked right behind us. I asked nicely and the much too young man, to own a half million dollar Lamborghini let me touch it :) That photo opp. was for Jacob!


A good surfing shop shot, I'd like to pile into that VW van and drive up the coast. Surfing, not so sure....


Good night Huntington beach. Here's to 20 years of friendship and more great memories!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

See You in LA

We're off for a girls weekend! Yippee!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A Little Alberta Fun

Here's a few pics from our days...


Some bones....

A little abandoned church in Dorothy, Alberta (my mother's name)...

Jacob and my nephew in the hoodoos....

My silly niece....

This Week in the Garden

I know you're been dying for another post about my garden, it's been months and months of winter!!!! This ain't Texas. Just look at what I came home to! Have I told you I love living in the Okanagan? Quite a change from 1 month ago.

All the cherry blossoms falling to the ground like snow- yes we are done with snow but it's still pretty!











Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

To all the Moms I love- mine, my mother-in-law and the girlfriends who I share this life with as I watch them love and grow their own kids. Have a wonderful day!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Not Enough Time

I'm sitting in the living room of my probably newest friend. She married Kevin's best man, and we've been "facebook" friends since the fall, but now are just waiting for her to get home from work. We hit the road out to AB since Kevin has some time, but the time is just not enough to see everyone we want to see. He did say "we ARE going to Edmonton", and so here we sit.

Yesterday we celebrated Jacob's birthday at the Drew grandparents with DQ cake. We had a swimming party at the wave pool with the cousins, and he'll celebrate with his friends when we get home. He also had another cake at the other Gramma's house with all my family and 2 cousins from Europe that are here visiting for the week. Turning 11 must agree with my boy because he slept til almost 10:00 this morning! I like 11!! Jacob loved the fact that he got to play Wii all evening and the new Dance Revolution that GRAMMA bought! I like watching Kevin's attempts. We took the European cousins to the dinosaur musuem and mused a lot about evolution and what we disagree with. I had some good visiting on the drive and got to know these 2 girls that I have known only in name for my whole life. I gained some new perspectives on my extended family by asking a lot of questions that were fascinating.

I was in the NE and wishing I had time to pop in on you Sandi, but we were heading to the pool party--- next time :)

Can't wait for more girlfriend time in a few weeks when I have my annual (or so) girls' weekend!