Day Nine - Tuesday

With our time together winding down, we mostly concentrated on doing some things that the kids hadn't gotten a chance to do. They wanted to ride a real horse!

So after a lunch of corn dogs and lemonade wine, (not really - they just loved drinking out of wine glasses!) we got little Jake out.

Jake is a 3 year old Quarab who is a sweet-natured, little guy and he likes kids and it's good for him to get kids up on his back so when his real training starts, it won't be a big deal. It's win-win-win to put kids on him.
They got a bit impatient with me because I can't just walk in and grab a horse and saddle it up. It does require a bit more preparation than that and we had a few chores to take care of first.

They all went out to say good bye to the other horses...

...and helped me toss them some hay.

Olive gave Neenah some last good-bye scratches, which Neen loved. You can tell from Neen's upper lip sticking out that Olive found the best ichy spot of all. This little horse really likes kids, but maybe that's because she's a kid herself.

When we were finally ready to go get Jake, we headed for the gate and Nona and Olive beat me there. But instead of stopping at the gate, Nona, who was right next to Olive, dropped down and crawled under the gate. Pop! She was on the other side! Just like that!

I saw it, but wasn't close so I yelled at Olive to grab her as she was going under, but Olive didn't get what I suddenly was going berserk over, and Nona was just too quick anyways.

I got to the gate just as she found herself standing toe to toe with Annie, the mini-donkey. And next to Jake. Thank goodness it was them and not one of the others, although, horses tend to be careful with kids no matter how much bigger the horse is. Still, things happen, we know all too well. (I have a story about Rich's grandson I'll have to tell you on another blog.)

Anyways, that happened in the few seconds and Jake was just reaching over to take a taste of Nona’s hair when I grabbed her. Horses love nibbling on kid’s hair for some reason!

Getting ready to ride. Fin is really a natural and not afraid. He should be taking riding lessons!
Fin and Olive were taking each other's picture. They did a pretty good job!
Olive likes to ride too, but she is a little frightened about sitting on such a tall horse. The donkeys are way less scary.

Little Rider on his way out of the gate after one last ride.

At the end of the day, the kids and I went to Walmart and got the movie, Nim's Island to watch in the morning while waiting for mom and dad to come. We got a couple things for each of them, but the best thing I could have gotten them, (If I had only known 9 days ago!) was a toy cell phone!

A $3 toy and they had the greatest fun with them. Fin had been asking for an old cell phone to play with, but I didn't have any, so when he spotted them in the store, I could not say no.

The littlest sister was still up for awhile after we got home, but she soon crashed and Olive and Fin and I sat together in my recliner, eating ice-cream sandwiches and watching the last half of Ferris Bueller's Day off. They liked that movie a lot. And I had to answer lots of questions.

When it was finally bed time. Those two kids were out in about 30 seconds. We'd had a really good day and an evening full of giggles and hugs.

When I told them their mom and dad were coming tomorrow to get them. They whined! "Do we have to leave so soon."

"I'm sorry kids, you do. Your mom and dad miss you so much and I'll miss you when you go, but Granny is pooped!"

"Okay,

Good Night Granny!"