Helicopter

The kids got to see the helicopter that Pappy rode in from the Pueblo hospital to St. Anthony's in Denver.

Dad's accident

The two pictures below were taken by one of Dad's neighbors at the crash site.

This is the car afterwards.

Nathaniel's First Soccer Game

Nathaniel started soccer and today is his first game.  His team is called the Gorillas.

Titus and Wyatt are on the same team with Nathaniel.

Upward sports is a Christian organization that allows kids to learn team sports in a relaxed atmosphere geared towards teaching skills, character and sportsmanship.

Nathaniel is the teams' second best player and scored a goal during the game.

He was excited and so wound up that he was constantly dancing, jumping and running.  Sometimes all at the same time.  We always knew that team sports would be his strength and clearly we were not wrong in that assumption.

Today the Gorillas played against the Rinos.  Scores are not kept for this young age but the Rinos most definitely won.

Watching a game played by 5 year olds is VERY entertaining.

The cool kids stand like this, didn't you know?

Wyatt and Nathaniel.

Next week is another game!

Labor Day Weekend 2012

For the holiday weekend we went to visit Matt's dad Terry a couple of hours north of us.  The small town where he lives hosts a rodeo every year on this weekend.  We enjoyed it last year and were looking forward to seeing again.

There was a competition between the local ranches as to who could catch, saddle and ride a cow.

Of course there was bronc busting,

steer wresling,

and calf tying....

...but the best part was.... 

...the...

...MUTTON BUSTING!

Besides the rodeo we spent a lot  (I do really mean a LOT!) of time on the new go cart that Terry bought for Ella.  Somehow, it became more of toy for us adults than for the kiddos.  It could hit top speeds of 30 miles an hour.

Matt and Tim.

Tim and I.

Titus and Matt.  

This is one of the few times that the "S" kids rode with him, Matt wasn't the slowest or gentlest driver.

Below is the proof of that.

That is Matt and Ella walking back.  See, they left on the go cart.  Matt got it stuck after hopping a bump that was hidden under tall grass.  Some part of the cart got bent and they had to tow it home.

There was a story behind this picture, but I can' remember what!  Sorry!

Any visit to Terry's has to include riding the jeep.  While we are in a drought we somehow found a mud puddle and coated the jeep with it.  Chad is cleaning it off.

Terry and Chad did some shooting.  This is Terry's shotgun that Chad is using.

On Sunday we took the kids to the lake to play.  It was hot, probably over a hundred degrees and Sandy and I hated almost every moment of sitting on the beach sweating buckets.

Why didn't we just get in the water?  Because it was nasty and gross!  How on earth we ever swam in creeks, rivers and lakes is beyond me.  We even swam in this same lake many years ago (funny story, ask me sometime) but we just couldn't bring ourselves to touch it.  Maybe it's worse because the lake is down, I don't know.

We had a good weekend and a great time with friends.

Olympic Show jumping

At last it was time for us girls to go to the Olympics!  Maggy, Katie, Nora and I left the house at little after 9 in the morning for a 45 minutes drive to Stowmarket where we caught a train to London.  I was stressed to be not only the only adult responsible for 3 young girls in London during a major international event but to catch all the right trains and be on time.

Thanks to Josh T we made it without me making any mistakes!  He drew up directions, train numbers, platform numbers and even drew me a map!  He is a friend of the Barnes and was a real blessing in guiding us to the Games without me having a nervous breakdown.

I don't know how long it took us to get there but it must have been 3 hours.  All of that was train changes, train stops and 30 minutes of walking to get to Greenwich Park where the Show Jumping event was held.

Here the girls are outside the gates of security to get into the park.  The security was much like airport security with scanners and x-ray machines.  We couldn't take in water or liquids and had to dump a bunch of water that Maria gave us to get us through the day.

We got there an hour early.

Time enough for pictures.

We took a long walk to the bathroom and found this guy on the way back.

After finding our seats I discovered that our seats were not together.  The girls would have been sitting in a whole other section than I would.  Clearly that was not acceptable.  I could have sat a row or two behind them, but a whole other section was just not going to happen.  An attendant sent us to the ticket resolution office to complain.  I knew that if it didn't work out we might not have a place to sit.  I wasn't stressed, I knew it would work out.  The girls were beside themselves as we stood in line to talk to someone about the tickets.  The competion was starting and they weren't in their seats.  They had to watch it on the big screen and they were upset with me and not grasping the situation.  It all worked out and we got new seats in the 8th row!

See how close we were!

I don't remember this riders name but I love the expression on his/her face.  Click on the picture to see it larger.

Timmy, this is for you!  They have John Deeres at the Olympics!

Again.  SEE HOW CLOSE WE ARE!

Team USA

The American Team.

Mclain Ward riding Antares over the water jump.

Breezie Madden riding Via Volo.

Did I mention how close we were to the arena?

Reed Kessler riding Cylana.  Reed just barley qualified in age for the Olympics.  Her 18th birthday was just weeks for the Games.  The girls and I have been following her on the lead up to the Olympics on facebook.  At one time I even asked if the girls could met her and she (or whoever writes her FB for her) said it might be possible.  We never heard more about it, but that is perfectly fine, it was worth a try.

Reed had 12 faults unfortunately when most people only had 4 or 8.

Rick Fellers riding Flexible.

I think this horse is so beautiful!

All in all team USA didn't do so well, in the end they placed 6th.

The Saudis

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had a strong team.

One of their competitors was a prince, I don't know if this was they guy or not.  I took lots of pictures and I can't keep their team members straight.

We were sitting near some of the Saudi cheering section.  Notice the skyline behind them.

This guy was the ring leader, he was a riot to watch!  He tried his best to get everyone to cheer for their riders and horses.

In the end their team took Bronze.