Day 2, June 17th, 2009

We were all up bright and early (too early), and first thing on the agenda was a trip to the barn to see the horses and wish Little Joe a happy 9th birthday. He got extra carrots for that. I had promised the kids they could ride early when it was cooler and they held me to it. It still felt too hot to me but they would not be discouraged. The horses were less than enthusiastic, but they are both good, easy going horses and cooperated well enough.

Both kids did very well with the horses and didn't complain about me making them ride bareback. They wanted to go outside the round pen but I don't trust the horses or them well enough yet for that.

The gnats were bad this morning so most of us opted to wear out bug nets. Wally braved it without one at first but finally realized the wisdom of it. Can you see the smug look on Alli's face?

Next, I took the kids, Xena and Nigel to the creek below our house so we could all cool off. This blur below that looks rather like a wild boar is the puppy, enjoying the water to the fullest.

Look at those big ears! She is looking for Nigel, her playmate. Annie wasn't feeling well enough to make the trip to the creek.

We looked for tadpoles and there were thousands there last week but the heavy rains washed them all away. Wally opted to collect snails instead. These will go into the terrium we are setting up for frogs. He caught two last night but they got away (wink, wink). No doubt they will be back tonight, catching bugs by the back door.