July 15, 2012

I'm not sure how I heard about it, but at some point before summer I learned about a horse ranch that offers sessions for kids for free in the summer. I tried to sign up online, but they didn't have a date that would work for us, so I put us on the waiting list. Last week we were notified of an opening, so we went over to Rio Rancho and spent the morning at a horse ranch. It is a great place where everything is paid for by donations and fundraisers and all the workers are volunteers. The kids loved it. They got to:
*Ride horses (the highlight of the day)
*Groom a horse
*Hold baby ducklings and chickens - Megan is fearless. She just goes from one to the next picking them up. Even when one of the chickens started flapping its wings like crazy Megan let it go and then a second later was picking it right back up.
*Scoop up horse poop
*Pet goats and ponies
*Write cards to organizations that have donated goods and services
*Play in the play area which consisted of an outdoor kitchen, a saloon playhouse (with a tiny little piano inside and cowboy dress up clothes), giant tire, play trucks, playground equipment, a corn box (like a sand box, but with corn), water pump rubber duckie races and more.

I think all of the kids at one point that morning thanked me for taking them there. Good fun....and free. Can't beat that.

July 1, 2012

Megan is the second little Mom around here....to Austin anyway. She just loves to hold and kiss and feed and help him in any and every way that she can.....sometimes this means a little too much help (which makes him a little nuts at times). The other day she informed me that I don't need to take care of Austin anymore because she can do it. She said she'll change his diaper and put him to bed and all I need to do is feed him. He had just been fussy and so she decided to change his diaper and was pretty pleased with herself that she did it completely on her own. She is quite comfortable holding him, even though he is getting bigger and bigger for her. It can be nerve wracking to watch her adjust him into the proper position (little Megan picking up and adjust a 9 month old baby), but she always has a good handle on him.

July 1, 2012

We had a fun family day on Saturday. We went up to Sandia Cave - short half mile hike up to the cave and then we went exploring inside. We tried to do some geocaching along the trail but we didn't have much luck. The kids loved it (except Megan who isn't so fond of close, dark spaces). She was the only one who started to have a minor breakdown inside of the cave (she did the same thing when we tried caving in southern Utah last year). We got her calm enough that she didn't completely lose it - she waited with Daddy for a few minutes while the other kids went a little further. She was pretty happy when we decided to turn around. We all came out with a yellow film all over our clothes and skin, so we stopped at the stream at the bottom of the trail and rinsed off.