Perfect Day

I think my stir crazy has been satisfied for a while.

We were invited to a lunch-time BBQ,

in the middle of nowhere.

Divide is sort of the middle of nowhere.

The school currently has 4 kids.

Its a good half-hour to 45 minutes of highway

from any "where" else.

We went to a ranch that was a few miles outside Divide.

And then several miles back on the ranch,

beyond real roads

(bless our little van, she's a trooper)

to a tiny little no-running-water cabin

with a great BBQ area and wilderness all around.

There was a whole mountain of boulders to climb:

And good company to enjoy conversation with,

seated on good, old logs:

And lovely ridges to climb,

granting us lovely views of the rain that never quite got to us:

And tiny flowers everywhere,

high up in the mountains,

where the world is just beginning to realize its spring:

And from there,

we went directly to a dinner-time BBQ

for a friends' 5th birthday.

She's a doll.

Her parents are awesome.

Oh, and did I mention that they have dozens of horses

and a few really good-natured ponies?

Well, they do.

And after dinner and cake and presents,

and a particularly resilient piñata,

the kids got to feed a few of the horses,

and brush out the ponies, 

and then they all got to go for a ride.

Keilana is getting quite comfortable

on the back of a horse or pony,

and more confident all the time.

Her balance is pretty good.

She mounts and dismounts from the ponies

pretty smoothly all on her own.

It makes her crazily happy.

Keira went for her first ride,

and yelled happily to her big sister,

"Hey! Look Kylie!"

Confident and delighted.

And Dylan, well,

he's a natural.

That was clear the first time

we sat him on a mini-horse 

when he was two.

By the time he was 4,

he'd been bucked off a pony a couple of times

and was unphased.

He confidently told Heather,

"I only know how to ride bareback".

Then he was pretty sure

he could do the jumps that were set up in the arena.

This kid.

He veers wildly between cautious-to-the-point of wimpy

and absurdly over-confident.

This little lady loved petting and brushing the horses,

chatting with them and loving on them,

but she's got zero interest in riding them.

She's not a risk taker.

She totally HATED swings

until about a year ago.

For all her social boldness,

she's physically cautious. 

But that's OK.

She's got time.

We came home,

got everybody bathed and off to bed,

and I made banana bread,

and watched Arrested Development. 

Not bad

for a Saturday in May.