Just Another Manic Sunday

Miss Sexy herself.

Had you told me 4 1/2 years ago that someday I would plop Gem on the trailer, drive out to the park and ride for 18 miles alone, I would have laughed in your face. The mare who would alternate between stubbornly planting her feet and not moving an inch to bolting and careening out of control is now a trail machine. Oh the ride was not without issues, but honestly how could I possibly complain when I got to spend 5 hours on her back in the woods on a random Sunday?

LIFE IS GOOD :)

But it is also humorous, so here is my story of the longest 2 hour trail ride.....

After all the tire inflating and changing commotion I didn't pull into the trail head until 11:30 am. It was misty, moist and more than a little creepy to be the only one there. The hubby had left the barn to go home and feed W and was planning on coming down to hike a little later. I figured on 2.5 hours to do 15 miles.

Now I don't like to brag, but when you are good at something you are good and I am the best at getting lost. I swear I could get lost going in a straight line. Knowing this I stopped at the trail map and grabbed a paper copy to take with me as well.

Whoever planned the trails at Sumter must have either been diabolically evil or had a mean sense of humor because while there are 7 different color coded trails not a single one is a loop that can be started and finished at the trail head. Why not just make single color loops and add in some short cut trails? That's how I would have done it, but nope...this person decided that every single trail would be a point to point trail to nowhere.

I studied the map and in order to get the miles in that I wanted I decided on the following harebrained plan:

- Take the blue and yellow loop out of the trail head until it dead ended 5.75 miles later
- Then head onto the purple and yellow trail which would eventually just be the purple trail for 9 miles
- Hop on the .75 mile green trail
- Turn onto the 1.25 mile grey trail
- End up of the blue trail to go back to the trailer

Ha! Like that was ever going to happen smoothly, but I had my trusty map and a good horse so off I went with my head in the low hanging clouds. Of course I promptly got lost trying to even find the blue and yellow trail head, but one mile and one un amused mare later we finally found it and were off.

The blue and yellow loop was through the dense forest and the ground was a mix of fallen leaves and pine needles covering up slick red clay. The going was slow, but I just kept in mind the saying "don't hurry, but never tarry" and kept up a pace that the trail would safely allow. It was very well marked with little bright blue and yellow signs and I was in high spirits.



Up and down and around we went along the single track through the forest. Nobody else was around and the ground muffled her hoof steps leaving the only sound audible to be the all too frequent

"Yuck! Are you serious?! Get off me! SOB!"

occurring as we crashed through spider web after spider web after spider web. Seriously, 4 miles in I had already counted 30 now homeless spiders and just gave up keeping track. The fall in SC is beautiful but it is also a time for all spiders to come out and make massive webs, so beware!

I think the only real incident on the blue/yellow trail was a bridge of doom. We rounded a corner and saw this:

Me: Go Across Gem.
Gem: Snort, back up.
Me: I said go across, Gem.
Gem: Snort, back up, spin, go home.
Me: Argh. Fine. I'll walk you across you big baby.

Now, generally I dislike letting her win and rarely get off to maneuver an object, but the previous wooden bridge (which she crossed just fine) was very slick and she slipped a good bit. A brief risk/benefit analysis showed that winning this one just wasn't worth a broken pony. So off I got and on the other side I decided to just stay there and jog a bit. About a mile later I was back on and we were nearing the end of the first trail. Without getting lost! Ha!! Take that manic trail designer man.

Purple/yellow was up next and was a large 9 mile arc. I found it easily enough and happily it began as a nice wide and more importantly not mushy or slick access road. I checked the Garmin and made a mental note that around 15 miles it should turn into green.  It was so nice to have firmer land again that I asked her to canter. Which she did. Right past a sharp left turn. Sigh.

Now let me just cut in with a side note: purple is a very crappy color to put on trees to mark trail. It is dark, blends in easily and requires very good light to see. Please, don't ever pick purple to mark trail.

Ok...no big deal. We easily got back on track. The ground was a lot firmer and allowed for a good trot for most of it. Gem was doing well at this point and I was still hopeful that we could finish in about 2.5 hours since she wasn't sweaty or breathing hard in the slightest.

The trees began to die out and I could tell this area had been logged in the not so distant past. Most of the ground was covered in new forest wood and very tall weeds. Birds were more plentiful and with a wider trail the spiders were no longer a problem. The next few miles flew by.

Purple trail: dry and more open

Less trees= less spiders



The purple trail even had purple mushrooms

At about 8 miles out we popped out of the logging area and onto a power line path which lead to an access road. I had thought about cantering down the path, but it was super rutted and dove back into the denser woods pretty quickly. When we popped onto the road we waved to a friendly ranger driving by.

 

Power lines or some sort of access path

 

At some point we popped out on the road again and had to walk up a large hill quite a ways. The ranger passed us on this road as well. I wonder what he was doing out there? I felt bad for Gem, so I jumped off and walked her up the hill on foot.

 

 

 

And then 2 miles later we hit a wall.



 

Big time.

 

From mile 8 to mile 10 the woods were denser, the spider webs appeared in even greater numbers and the trail was so overgrown that the only way I knew where to go was by spying the next purple marker and heading towards it.

 

Where did the trail go?

Maybe between those trees?

Please tell me we don't have to go through that!

Mile 10 saw a break down.

 

We were crawling down the trail at a whopping 1.5 mph, we had been out for forever and I was mentally struggling with the thought of 6 more miles of spiders, horrible trails and a horse who just didn't want to be doing this anymore.

 

The spider webs were coming so close together that when I dodged one I would smack into the next with the side of my face. And the spiders on this side of the trail? HUGE.

 

Gem had her own breakdown at about the same time. She just stopped dead in her tracks. She flung her head from side to side to side to side and refused to move. I hopped off her and went around to see her face covered in webs with a big old spider walking up her nose. I hurriedly wiped the spider away and attempted to clean up as many of the webs as I could. Apparently I wasn't the only one getting covered and she was just as frustrated and annoyed by it as I was.

 

I decided it was time for her to get another break, so I just walked her down the trail.  My garmin pretty predictably drops mileage on twisting trails with a lot of tree coverage. I was at just over 11 miles per the watch and figuring in some dropped miles I knew I had to be within 2-3 miles of finishing the purple trail.

 

We walked along with me on foot and popped back out onto an access road. Only there were no signs of where to go.

 

I looked straight ahead and saw this:

 

No trail, no marker

The road ran to my left and right and I couldn't see any markers either way. The map wasn't detailed enough to show all the roads or where to go exactly. It was more of a suggestion. I chose left and walked up a bit.

 

 



 

After a half mile I still wasn't seeing anything on the trees except logging markers, so we turned around and walked down past our exit point and down on the road.

 

After another half a mile, I still didn't see any markers. Crap.

I walked back up again and then called in the troops.

The hubby was out hiking and I called him to see where he was. He happened to be back at the trail head and walked over to look at the map. He said that any road marked on the map had a right turn associated with it, so go right.

I went back to the right, but still saw nothing.

I had two options:

1) Travel the road until it ran into something and hopefully use the map to figure out how on earth to get back to the parking lot.

2) Turn around and go back the way we came

Turning around really wasn't an option right then. The thought of going back another 12 miles for 24 total miles when I hadn't eaten anything all day and I knew Gem had to be thirsty wasn't appealing. Plus those spiders. I couldn't handle any more spiders. At least the road was void of spiders.

So I called the hubby again and told him my plan. He jumped in the van and came looking for me. It is the reason he usually hikes while I ride. It is a safety net in case Gem and I get separated, hurt or lost. It sure came in handy Sunday.

I hand walked Gem for another mile or mile and a half and then told her she needed to toughen up and get going, so I hopped back on. She was still moving out just fine and felt refreshed being on an open, easily seen and spider free trail again. In fact we put in our best times on this road 14 miles into the ride :)

Around a bend and we saw the hubby!

Sweet rescue was at hand :)

I gulped down a pepsi and asked where on earth the access road went. All I had to do was follow it until it came to a T and then turn left and then make a left onto the park entrance. I then knew exactly what road I was on. It was the same road (although farther down) that I had travelled with S the last time when I tried out her Coolback pad. Yay!

Alternatively, the purple trail was off in the woods to my right and I could have jumped back on it. Apparently I needed to go right out of the woods (which I did) and then there was a cut back into the trail on the right side that I had walked right past. The hubby drove down while I went ahead and he took a picture of it. It was all overgrown.

I debated about hitting the trail again and finishing the path I had started, but honestly the thought of all those spiders and crappy trail versus this nice wide, clean road was not very appealing. Gem and I took off down the road and put in an 8 minute mile for the last 3 miles :)

All in all we did 16 miles per the Garmin, but probably at least 18 (maybe even closer to 20) in real life knowing how much it tends to drop in areas like that. It took us 4 hours and 52 minutes. With no food or water for either of us.

The hubby drove back and waited for us at the trailer and Einstein got to meet Gem who wasn't very amused.

She looked and felt great at the end. No back soreness, no leg swelling and not really all that tired. I was soo happy with her and how brave she was through the entire day. She really was a super star and I really believe that she will be ready for her 50 in October.





Product Review: Trailer Jack

Continuing yesterdays product review story....

We filled up the trailer tires and then happily hooked the truck up and pulled the trailer up the hill to get Gem.

As I was opening the back I walked past the right side of the trailer and thought that the tire looked like it had already lost a bunch of air. I mentioned it to the hubby and he thought maybe it was just because we were on a small uphill grade, but then upon closer inspection he agreed that it really was already down. Crap.

We had already planned on changing that tire out before we headed to TN in October, so now was as good a time as any. We have a full spare in the trailer. Thankfully my friend T had recommended a trailer jack back in the spring and we actually went ahead and got one. It had been living in the trailer unused until Sunday when we finally pulled it out.

The instructions on the side say to be on level ground which is just common sense when changing any tire. We of course ignored that and just changed it where we were which was on a slight grade going uphill which would put more weight on the tire we were changing. I'm sure that is the exact opposite of what you should do.

Anyway....

All you do is place the thing in front of the good tire as pictured below. If it was the front tire that needed changed we would have placed it behind the back tire. I was worried at first that it would just shift as we tried to drive up the ramp, so I made the hubby drive and I watched :)

I needn't have worried though. The trailer just went right on up the little ramp and once the tire hit the well I called out for the hubby to stop.

Since we were on the hill it did roll back a smidge, but was steady and stable so we left it. By doing this, the back tire that needed changed was now in the air and ready to the removed. One side note: make sure you loosen all the lug nuts a bit prior to pulling up on the jack.

Having removed all the lug nuts you can now easy pop the tire off and replace with the new one.

It is even better when you have a little helper to sweep out the tack area while you work on the tire :)

Once you are done all you need to do is back up off the ramp and you are all set!

We inspected the tire afterward and saw a small nail in it which is what we expected to find. With such a slow, but steady leak there had to be something in there.

And that was all there was to it!

PROS:
See the above story :) Seriously, it is that simple

CONS:
Other than the fact that it is just one more thing taking up space in my small tack area, I really don't have any cons.

If you drive a trailer, I highly suggest that you invest in one to have on hand. You just never know.

Product Review: Tire Inflator

I promise that I will put up my Sunday story, but first I want to rave about two little items I added to my arsenal this summer and got to use this past weekend.

Item 1:

Have you ever tried getting air at a gas station for your trailer tires? I don't know if it is just this area or my lack of trailer maneuvering skills, but it is next to impossible. Either the station doesn't offer it or has it crammed into the back corner where I couldn't possibly fit with the truck and 2 horse. I know every station between the barn and the trails I frequent and have eye balled them all looking for easy access.

Why?

Because the back right tire on the trailer has slowly been leaking its life blood over the summer. I last filled it up prior to Biltmore in July and the pressure gauge read 10 psi when it should read 30. Ooops. Since then I noticed it slowly getting lower and lower and have tried on numerous occasions to swing by a gas station to fill it, but just can't get in. We do own a large air compressor at the house, but getting the trailer to the house isn't ever really going to happen and it is just too heavy for me to get to the barn.

Enter this:

I spied this while spending an eternity at Sears waiting for my van to get new tires before our trip up north last month. There were several different versions ranging from $20-100 and we grabbed the $20 version.

On the right hand side you see the power cord which goes into the plug in your car (you know - where the cigarette lighter used to be). I can't remember off hand how long the cord is, but it is plenty long to fill the tires on your own car. The center is the actual machine with a regular pressure gauge. The fancier ones had digital read outs, but they also needed power to work the gauge which this one doesn't. Then on the left is the air hose that attaches to the tire. It came with a normal attachment for vehicle tires as well as ones for bike tires and balls.

It is very simple to work: just plug into the car, turn on car, plug into tire, turn on machine and watch as it fills your tire back up. Working with the trailer, the cords are not long enough to hook the truck up, but I planned for that and just pulled the truck up beside the trailer. It filled all 4 tires without a problem and without draining the truck battery.

PROS:
Super compact: easy to store in the truck or trailer.
Light weight
It works! It was a little slow and noisy, but all 4 trailer tires were filled and ready to go in short order.
It didn't drain my truck battery even filling 4 tires (one of which was extremely low)

CONS:
Can't hook truck and trailer up and have it reach. This may seem silly, but think about being stranded along the road or at a gas station and having to unload the horses, unhook the trailer, and then fill them up.
Noisy

All in all it was a great purchase to have and it worked super well. Much faster than I expected being so small and using the car battery. I like having it on hand in case I show up and the trailer has a flat. I can see using it at the barn, at a ride camp while Gem is in her paddock, or even at a trail head while Gem is tied to the trailer (once she gets used to the noise). The only situation where I don't think it is usable would be once in transit.

I highly recommend getting one to have on hand. It really was so simple to use and I wished I had it earlier this summer.

Blog Hop: Why The Heck Did You Start?

I was going to write about my Sunday blunders, but you will all have to wait until tomorrow for that because Mel over at Boots and Saddles has come up with a great blog hop. And I love blog hops :)

Her question is:

WHY THE HECK DID YOU START?

 

 

At first I thought this would be a simple question with a simple answer, but as I sit here trying to write this post I am realizing that it is oh so complex.

 

I started riding a million years ago on my aunt's farm tooling around on the back of a pony in the pasture. I then graduated to sharing the saddle with my uncle as I encouraged him to go faster and faster on his mare. Eventually I got old and tall enough to get my own ride and then the entire world opened up for me. We covered so many hundreds of miles on horseback in so many wonderful places. It truly was a great time of my life.

 

But why did it all begin? I think just because it was available, I was a young girl (like 3 years old) and in love with any animal on the planet that I could get near. And my parents allowed it. The more important question for me is - why did I continue?

 

Riding has always been my Zen, my stress relief, the only time in my life when my brain shuts down and focuses on the moment I am in instead of all the other things going on. My brain goes quiet, my soul feels free and I am extraordinarily happy. It is kinda like heroin :) And I am still that 3 year old girl who loves any animal I come across. Just the thought of having Gemmie in my life is amazing.

 

Taking it one step farther - why did I start endurance?

 

Gem and I were spending our time fiddling around in the arena basically attempting anything we could to avoid massive, insanity inducing boredom as we went round and round and round. My aunt and uncle had instilled in me a deep love of the trails and once I grew a set I convinced the hubby to head on out on the trails with me. Gem was much better out on trails than in the arena and I was in love with trotting and cantering down the trail finding out what was around the next bend.

 

I knew endurance existed from previous research on what to do with an Arab. I like having goals, having something in the distance to work for, or I tend to just become lazy about it all. I mentioned it to an attending in residency who happened to have a friend who was kicking butt on the LD circuit up in the arctic north and we hooked up for dinner. She made it all seem so attainable and doable that I quickly found myself signing up for our first LD, then found myself there, then found myself completing with the worlds largest grin (and sorest body) ever. 

 

 So why did I start? Because I could, it was available, and I had a horse who I thought would be able to finish without killing me.

 

It is basically the whole story of my life. Why do I do anything? Because it is available and I can :)



On The Lookout....Again....

Ugh.

I am seriously at my wits end with boarding and now I am on the hunt yet again :( Why can't someone out there just donate some land to me so the Dynamic Duo can just be out my back door finally? Some day. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Come on business!!! Grow!!!

Anyway....

Gem has now been a resident at 7 different barns in 4.5 years (Pete at 6) and we are once again having to relocate. Sigh. I don't even know where to being again. I did a pretty exhaustive search back in the spring when we landed where we currently are and I doubt anything new has popped up. But I will spend the time this weekend to once again put together a list and see what is out there.

7 barns in 4.5 years sounds bad, but I swear I am an easy boarder. I try super hard to always leave the barn looking the way it did when I arrived (my goal is to make it impossible to tell I was even there unless someone saw me), follow any rules I know of, and I don't ask for special favors. The Dynamic Duo are easy keepers themselves, don't pick fights and don't test fencing. We don't have a million supplements or a difficult schedule. So why the moves? Here is a semi quick run down of our boarding history (feel free to skim :)

Barn # 1 Beagle Run in Ohio: Ohio boarding was insanely expensive, far away from where we lived and not so great in general. I chose the closest I could afford with the best care I could find. I then quickly realized it was not such a great place and that Gem and I needed some training help. We stayed here maybe 3 months.

Barn # 2 Promise Land in Ohio: This was insanely expensive, but she was put in full training. Of course no training actually occurred, the trainer never even rode her, but I got a lesson a week and Gem got time to relax, eat and enjoy life a bit. We acquired Pete while here, put him in training for even more wasted money and then got out 3 months later when we moved to Wisconsin.

Barn #3 Kings Ranch in Wisconsin: We managed to rent the house on a boarding facility which saved my sanity through my first year of residency. The barn managers became our best friends and life was good. But then landlord gambled all the rent away and the bank foreclosed forcing us to move a year later.

Barn #4 Willow Springs in Wisconsin: A truly lovely facility, in a great location for us, and with very knowledgeable and nice owners. We stayed there happily for the last 2 years we were in Wisconsin and would have stayed longer had we not moved.

Barn #5 Crabby Acres in South Carolina: We chose this place based on really nothing except location and price. We ran out of vacation time and money to be able to fly down and find a house and barn so both were chosen sight unseen. It is a nice place as long as you agree with the BO, but we didn't mesh well personality wise and Gem was getting the crap beat out of her, so we left a short 3 months after arriving.

Barn #6 FS Farms in South Carolina: One of my favorite places with super great BOs, friendly boarders, some trails, a large arena and plenty of grass. We were pretty happy here, but then we moved an hour away and it was just too far to keep them there. We were very sad to leave.

Barn #7 New Life in South Carolina: Our current location which is serving us pretty well. There are some issues here and there (like the 35 minute drive or showing up to find the gate to our pasture unlocked and wide open...that made my heart race and my temper flare a bit), but all in all the horses are doing well and I am managing to find ways to make it all work out.

So if things are going ok....why stress out and move?

Well...when we looked at the place the BO mentioned that she may be moving to FL, but not to worry because one of the boarders would be managing it in her absence. To me that came across as she would still own it and make the decisions, but someone else would be doing the actual day to day work. We were fine with that.

As time has gone on, it came to light that she only leases the property and so if/when she moves she would give up the lease and this other person would be taking over completely. But she was vague about if she really was moving or when and so we just kept on keeping on.

Well, yesterday she announced that she bought property in FL and will be leaving at the end of October. The new lady will take over then.

This isn't the end of the world except for the fact that I do not trust this other lady one bit. She is the one who left my gate open. She doesn't pay attention to details. She is very limited in her horse knowledge, but has been in the horse world for forever and thinks she knows it all. To me she is dangerous and I do not trust my horses in her care.

So we have until the end of October to find a new place. I called my favorite on the list (out of price range, but hoped I could bargain with doing chores or letting them use Gem for something) but they are full and have a long wait list to boot. Darn.

Let the fun begin :(

The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider Incident

For those who are also friends with me on facebook - you got the short version last night. Here is the full story:

Yesterday morning I didn't have any patients on the schedule, so I played hooky and headed to the barn to try to get some daylight miles on Gem. With fall coming on fast, my evenings are getting harder and harder to get rides done before night hits. Anyway...just as I got there my receptionist texted me that we now had a 10:30 am patient. I looked at my watch and knew I wouldn't have time to get the mare, tack, ride, untack, cool, get home and take a shower and make it to work. Darn. But having patients is a good thing, so that was much more important.

With an hour to kill, I tackled a big item on my to do list: cleaning out the trailer. It was getting pretty gross in there (and on the outside) and needed a good scrubbing. I grabbed the hose and got a lot of the muck out, but wanted it better. I wasn't prepared for this task, so the only thing I had to hand was Gemmie's shampoo. I squeezed some out onto the floor, grabbed the broom and went to town. It worked surprisingly well :) It looked much cleaner and even smelled good!

It is September, but it is also the South so I knew leaving the trailer all closed up would only create a sauna that would mold my tack in an instant. I left the back wide open and vowed to return that night to close it all up and hopefully ride as well.

Its a good thing too or else I would have snuggled up on the couch at 7 pm rather than drive back to the barn, but I needed to go and so I pulled back into the barn drive shortly after 7:30pm. Unfortunately, it is now fall and the sun is beginning to work against me. I had limited time to ride before it was dark. We headed to the hay field and managed 3 laps around before it was too dark to be safe and called it a night.

On the way out I parked the car in the drive and got out to shut the gate across the driveway. No big deal. As I walked through the narrow opening I managed to ruin the home a friendly spider and get covered in a sticky web. Its gross, but being a solo trail rider it is something I have definitely come to terms with. I catch more webs than I like to think about out on the trail.

I got back into the car, put it in drive with my foot on the brake and turned to my right to text the hubby that I was coming back home. That's when it all went to crap.

There was a 3-4" black, long legged spider chilling out on my right shoulder facing my face. I freaked out!

Completely forgetting that the car was in drive, I opened the drivers side door and leaped out flailing my arms as the spider decided that walking up my arm to my head was the best option for his survival.

As I turned around in panic stricken circles, I saw the van start to roll off down the driveway and get nearer and nearer the road. In the dark.

Crap.

I ran towards the van, figuring that having my van get totaled due to a spider wouldn't go over well with the hubby, and jumped into the still open drivers side door to slam the car back into park.

Phew. Crisis averted.

But now I had no clue what happened to the spider. Was it still on me? Did it fall into the van? Was it on the ground?

Crap.

I tried to look on the ground, but it was too dark and my cell phone was too dim to be useful.

I patted myself down but wasn't convinced he wasn't still present. So...I jumped into the back of the van and hoped nobody would try to enter the barn drive while I proceeded to strip in the van to turn my clothes inside out making sure there was no super big spider still present. Sorry hubby!

Satisfied that the spider wasn't on me anymore and not seeing it in the van, I got back into the drivers side and went home.

If only I had a heart rate monitor on for al of that!

I am positive Gemmie was watching my from her pasture thinking that finally I had gone competley insane.

Famly Portraits (Non Horse Related Post)

The one exam room in my office has pictures of Hero and Bones (I need to add Einstein at some point) framed and on a shelf. The other has pictures of Gem and I and the hubby on Pete from our LD back in the Arctic North. From time to time a patient will ask if I have any children and then scolds me for not having pictures up. I have thousands of pictures of W, but none of the three of us and none that are actually printed. Its a by product of digital film: lots of pictures stuck in digital format and never printed.

 

When we went up north to visit the in laws over Labor Day weekend, the hubby's sister planned a picture session with everyone as a surprise to their parents (which lasted about an hour afterwards before they popped up on Facebook :) and I was excited for the chance to get some nice pictures. We met the photographer at a local park and it was the perfect setting. She was great to work with, took some amazing photographs and understood that a 2 year old isn't always on board with the whole look this way and smile thing.

 

Since she is an amateur photographer, just doing this for fun, she let us have the digital copies as well. I had been eyeing up a Groupon for Canvas on Demand for two 16x20" canvas prints for only $50 and so I picked my two favorites for the office and ordered them yesterday. They take 2-3 weeks to arrive and I can't wait to see them!

 

Here are some of my favorites from the shoot. I didn't include any of the entire family since I am not sure they would want their picture online, but here are the ones of the three of us.

 

We started out on a little bike/walk path and took group shots. W was not in the mood at all and only would let hubby hold him.

Better, but W still lack interest

At least the hubby has a good smile

 

 

She suggested that hubby throw W in the air and catch while I look on, but those look like we are tossing an unwilling child who is terrified up in the air while I grab the hubby from behind trying to stop him.

 

The best of the 3 or 4 shots taken of this

 

Finally W took interest in a nearby tree with low hanging leaves and we got some great shots of that.



Add caption

I'm going to order one of these for at home



 

 



This is one I got on canvas for the office.

Next we moved down to the river and grabbed some group shots standing on the rocky bank. The river was perfect with trees on the banks and the reflection of the just turning yellow leaves shining on the surface. Unfortunately, W loves water and being sooo close yet not being allowed in made him even less willing to participate.

 

 

The group then moved on up the bank and to a picturesque bridge where we took some pictures of all of us which I think are the best of the bunch. She grabbed a quick shot of W climbing up the side as well.

 

She then had us break off into our individual families and his brother's group wandered off to change into other clothes. We headed back down to the river. I suggested we kick off our shoes and just go into the water to make W happy. His outfit was new for the pictures, but the shorts were too large and I knew he wouldn't wear them ever again so I didn't care if they got ruined.

The way down was rocky and I worried about W cutting his feet, so hubby carried him. I jumped on up for a lift as well.

Wish my eyes were open, but at least W and I have the same facial expression!

Then we made it into the water and got some great pics.

 

Going to frame this one at home

And this one too

Wait...make that three for at home :)

Made this one into a canvas for at work

Wyatt actually smiling at the camera :)

 

It was a great afternoon spent outside with everyone and I love all the pictures of the group, us and his brothers family. I'm excited to have such good quality pictures and can't wait to see the canvas ones in a few weeks.