Cotton

Cotton was a new horse this year at horse camp. She had quite a personality. She could be a bit unpredictable and stubborn at times. There were days when she would decide she didn't really want to participate and she would just stop walking or trotting. She would just walk over to the fence out of the way of the other horses and just stand there. On one of the first days of camp she decided that she was too hot and climbed into the water trough. It wouldn't have been too bad really except she had a rider on her and it scared the poor little girl to death. Thank goodness Sis. Bingham is fast on her feet. She grabbed Katie off of Cotton before we really knew what was going on. All the kids loved her despite her stubborness and she never wanted for riders.



Splashing water on herself. Sis. Bingham got her away from the water before she could climb in again.


Rolling around after getting her saddle off. The kids really loved when she would do this.


Trying to get a nice picture of Cotton and Taylor. Two peas in a pod, I'd say!


Finally! No faces from either one of them.

FIRE ANTS!

Fire ants....they are TERRIBLE here in Texas. They always seem to be right where you are standing and they HURT like heck! Not fun at all. Well several weeks ago Dave and Sadie were looking under the deck and Dave didn't realize he had laid in an ant hill and the ants were NOT happy about it. They soon let him know of their anger at ruining their home....


This was the day after he was attacked. Doesn't look too bad here, but actually it started looking worse before it got better.

I looked out the window and what did I see.....

A few Saturadays ago I was upstairs cleaning the game room and I looked out the window and saw Hunter helping Dave mow the grass. SO cute! Thanks Amber for taking the pics!

Hunter blows out seven candles in June

Okay this post is even later than the 4th of July post. I'm REALLY behind in blogging thanks in part to our old computer having such issues!!

Hunter's BFF Gavin was SO nice to loan us his blowup water slide for Hunter's party. Gavin ended up going down to the barn (grandparents house and Hunter's most favorite place to go) so he wasn't able to make the birthday bash. It was SUPER hot so this was the perfect way to cool everyone down and keep the natives from getting restless. The kids had such a good time and Hunter LOVED his presents.


Hunter, Christian, Taylor and William.


Hunter was the first one down the slide.


Check out how his pants won't stay up. We could NOT get him to change them.


The kids couldn't get up the slide fast enough!


Jake looked like a Penguin with his black hair, white skin and black and white swim suit.


Hunter and Christian riding Jake down the slide.


Taylor didn't have much luck staying on Jake's back.


Starscream!


Hunter would NOT take these shorts off even though they are completely off his butt.

I know this post is a bit late, but since I'm using this as more of journal and will eventually have it put into a book, I'm trying to include as much as possible.

For the fourth we were invited to go to our friends house to shoot off fireworks. Dave and the boys went and bought some fun stuff. Sparklers of course and some that shot up high with lots of colors. We had a nice evening watching all the different fireworks. We had a few sparklers left and the kids did them in the backyard.


Fun with sparklers!




Dave took Taylor to the carnival at the city park where they had someone doing cool face painting. Hunter was at the barn with his BFF Gavin or he would have had an equally cool face painting.

Ft. Worth Stockyards

While Jake and Amber were in Nauvoo with the church youth, we took Taylor and Hunter to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth. Dave had heard about them and wanted to check them out. Apparently this is where you would bring your cattle or other live stock to sell back in the day. We actually went there kind of late and missed the cattle drive thru the street. It was a fun place with lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, a VERY cool candy store, an old train that you could ride, a mechanical bull and a maze that was featured on The Amazing Race. Dave and Taylor did the maze and it seemed like they were in there forever! We ate at this really cute restaurant, which I can't remember the name. Hunter ate an entire double buffalo burger! We couldn't believe it. We walked around a bit and they kids got rootbeer floats. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.



Taylor measuring her arm span to that of a Longhorn Cow.


Cowboy Hunter


Cowgirl Taylor


A VERY tiny stagecoach.


I thought this was a funny name for a bar...


Taylor posing on one of the saddle chairs and Hunter throwing out some gang signs for the Indian behind him.


A dedication to Leta Smothermon, she must have been SOME lady......


.....to have this alley named after her.

When one's gets unruly....

Jake went out several days to help with horse camp since the Bingham boys were away at Philmont.(don't think that's spelled right) Sis. Bingham is also Jake's Sunday School teacher and she has a unique way of handling him when he becomes unruly in her class. Well that also carried over to horse camp. Jake was doing a lot of flirting and not enough helping so Sis. Bingham decided to remind him who was the boss....

Ride like the wind.....

Each summer at the Broken Bow Ranch, Sis. Bingham does horse camp. Last year Taylor and Hunter attended and LOVED it. They really enjoyed getting to know the different horses and learning how to ride. They both took to it easily and quickly. Of course they wanted to go back again this year and so since Jenni and I had arraigned to take pictures at horse camp this summer it was convenient for them to go. The Bingham boys were gone to Scout camp the first week, Jake went out a few days to help. Actually, I think he went mostly to flirt with the girls and because he knew Sis. Bingham would let him ride. I especially love that when Jake gets unruly she just turns him upside down! We LOVE Sis. Bingham!! Taylor ended up helping out the next week because all the youth from church went to Nauvoo. She couldn't actually put the saddles on, but she would hose down the arena and get the saddles,blankets and bridles out. It was a lot of fun being out there and it's ALWAYS an adventure! Especially finding the cow bones all over and watching the crazy ranch dogs.


Getting the arena watered down so there isn't so much dust.


Helping White Thing back out to the pasture


White Thing can be kind of persnickety at times, but Taylor doesn't get ruffled and can really handle her quite well.


Kelsey is new this year and Taylor really liked lunging on her. Kelsey would skip and hop and Taylor thought that was fun.


Hunter leading Cricket in.


Riding White Thing. Hunter wasn't too ruffled by her either.


Hunter on Cricket.


I thought this picture was funny because Hunter's feet don't reach the stir-ups.


One of the MANY cow bones that the crazy ranch dogs carry around.

Taylor's soccer coach wanted to put together a team for the adult soccer league and asked Dave if he wanted to play. He has not played before. He has only coached the kids teams so he thought he'd give it a try. He also recruited BFF Gavin's dad, Christopher or as we like to call him Big Boy Lloyd, to play since he LOVES soccer. Dave is having a lot of fun playing and is pretty aggressive out there. I'm just glad I'm on the sidelines. I really wouldn't want to get hit by him.





Not so sure I would want to be that lady...running into Dave can send you flying!



Hunter and BFF Gavin...not too much into watching the game


This is what the kids are usually doing...


The kids like to do the tunnel after the game. As you can see they are not quite big enough, but the dads are really good about playing along.


They just couldn't hold the tunnel up anymore and it collapsed before Dave could make it thru.


After one of the games, Gavin's dad pulled Hunter and Gavin in the chariot he pulls behind his bike. Note the tears on Gavin's face...but he knows to turn the cheese on when he sees the camera! (FYI not too long after this shot, Gavin's dad took a sharp turn and dumped them both out. All's well no one was hurt!)