Friday, July 31, 2009

Sam's Town in Las Vegas

So this place I chose happens to have a Wally World right across the street. I knew it was our kind of place!

This is Mystic Park, the rooms all surround it. There was a water and light show at certain times during the day.


Check out this face watching the water show. Cute huh?!

Swimming

Three little monkeys sitting in a........oh nevermind.
I have this same picture from two years ago at a hotel in Bishop when we went to Palomino Valley to pick up Ojos the mustang for the Extremem Mustang Makeover.






Bowling at Sam's Town

I have to warn you the next few pictures may be the cutest things you have ever seen!
Sage trying not to get her legs tangled and go with the ball!


Is this stance hilarious or what?! After the ball hit he would turn around and give us the thumbs up. I tried like heck to get a picture of it but seems he caught wind of it and decided to throw us a loop and threw the ball in the wrong lane as I was anxiously waiting with the camera. The little turd.

My girl, she was surprisingly good!

Oh, and this one...........it is why I don't put him out of the truck when he decides to throw an ginormous fit, screaming and crying, biting and kicking cause he was tired of being in his carseat somewhere just outside of Barstow and all the way to Boron. And he could not be reasoned with.

Oh and here is the tunnel picture from the Aquarium. And out in front of them was the touch pool.





Aquarium at the Reef-Mandalay Bay

This was our trip to the Aquarium at the Reef.
This was the "touch" pool. You could touch thestingrays with just your finger. This guy was a character! I sure wish I could have understood what he was thinking. His antics sure were funny, like he knew he was cool. He would make laps around the edge so everyone could touch him and just when he had everyone leaning in he would turn and head the other way, splashing anyone close! He was cracking me up!
We were getting ready to pick up the engine and head home when we wanted to check out more while we were here. So we pulled into Mandalay Bay. Just by chance we saw they had the Aquarium at the Reef so we checked it out. It wasn't too pricey and we thought what the heck.

Despite that face he really loved it! And my sweet girl is always game, no matter what it is.

This darn shark swam right over our heads! It was so cool. There were several tunnels you could walk through and they could swim all around you. We even saw two people scuba diving in there cleaning the glass. We tried to be cool and not oogle at them. You know, act like we were there to see the fish!

The sea turtle was a hit, although a bit elusive.





Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Jump roping

And you thought you were going to see some kids jump roping didn't you?!
Nope, just one bad patient and his acomplance.........
Okay , so the kids did jump too.

And then things turned into tying the little rascal up. Should have heard him screaming!
We are off to Las Vegas tomorrow to pick up a Hummer engine for my dad. We plan to stay at Sam's town and have some fun. They have a bowling alley, an ice cream parlor and a pool. I am going to try to relax, wish me luck!
Oh and Thank goodness Paul is back!





Sunday, July 26, 2009

Prissy wissy

Sorry the pictures are not that good but doesn't she make up for it? She is the cutest, sweetest, puppy wuppy ever! And she is sleeping on my bed right now!
Goodnight............


Saturday, July 25, 2009

Looking back.....

So here we are in the recovery. We knew this would be the hard part. How on earth do you stay idle and do nothing on a place like this? You go to the antique store and buy books to learn spanish. My husband is a freak! He has been reading for days now. He is driving me c-r-a-z-y!!! I guess there are worse things! So we are holding up reasonable well. It is not easy to chase him and the kids around making sure they are not doing things they shouldn't!
I am bored tonight, and loving it by the way. Being bored I mean. So I have been looking through old pictures and found this one. It was taken two days after Jeremy had dislocated his shoulder and probably a half hour before he did it again. The date was May 3rd and we were branding our calves. You can see him wearing the brace if you look real close. It is his left arm that has been the problem. Ewwwww, I just noticed the blood on his shirt. It is not his, just in case anyone was worried. The horse is Flash a gelding we raised. He is out of my TB mare that I rode in our wedding, and that I recently lost. He is by our QH stallion. He is Two Eyed Jack and Poco Pine bred. This was his first time in the branding pen and he did really well. I was supporting the horse while he held a calf (and hoping and praying he would handle the pressure). I loved Jeremy's smile in the picture.
It seems that all I have done lately is remind myself how it could be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse.............we will get through this.

More cows

Here is the new calf I featured awhile back. He is doing well as you can see. I just love it when they lay in their mommas shade.

I loved this picture because of the rearview mirror you can see the cows behind us. I didn't even realize I had gotten the mirror in the shot but it worked kindof cool. This is a water hole they like to hang out at, it is much cooler on days like today. Our house is just over the hill above the willow trees.



Friday, July 24, 2009

Do you miss us yet Paul?!

Paul has been away this week for school and we have missed him! This is what he puts up with around here! He "watched" the kids for us while we finished something up outside. Sage was even spraying water in his hair and giving him some sort of funny do. I think my make-up was next!

Damn pigs.........

Can you see them? Dirt rottin punks, heading right for our place. I didn' really think much of it yesterday when we saw this bunch. Then today after wrestling with the darn water again, we discover a broken pipe and what we are pretty sure is a pig trail. Rottin punks!!! Anyhow, I had to climb really far down the hill into the scary depths of the creekbed to fix it. Did I say it was straight down? And no I didn't have the hands to take pictures of it! Did I mention I have never fixed a pipe before in my life. Thankfully it was not a big deal. What was a big deal was, was all the water that was wasted out of our already declining well. Any of you that have water out of your tap pretty much all of the time should thank your lucky stars! I am considering myself lucky to have gotten a shower tonight!

Nags.........

As Jeremy was getting the sand for the sandbox I drove the ranger and took pictures. I just love my ponies...............this is Poco on the right and her momma Cat on the left.

The mare with the white socks in Min, Flash in the center and then Cat and Poco in the back.

Cute little Itchy. Everybody loves her. She is going to be a real nice horse, real mellow and easy going. She is about a year and a half now. Back in the background you can see the trailer where Paul stays when he is here.



Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Sandbox

So today started out with the normal chores. The same chores I am grateful for Jeremy or Paul usually doing.....but Jeremy is obviously recovering from his surgery and Paul is in school all this week so it is all me, weeeeee!

While I was wrestling with the water Jeremy was trying to find ways to keep the kids occupied. He decided he wanted to make a sandbox for them to play in since Steele keeps digging holes right in the front yard. Not fun when you come home after dark and trip in them! I tried to tell him the cats are just going to crap in it. He called me an idea crusher. Butthead..........

Meanwhile, I made him swear he would not overdo it while I went to start the pump to fill the water tank. This is the rope I have to climb down to get down into the creek where the pump and well is. The guys have cut stairs into the wall but it is still about five feet down.

This is the creekbed where the well is. You can sortof see the path through the willows that you have to hike to get there. I always make sure I am wearing boots to go down in there. Jeremy was standing right on a snake one day when he went to start the pump. That scares the hell out of me. Especially since there really isn't much working/running room down there!


Sorry about the smudge in this picture. I had sunscreen on the lens............anyhow, this is where Jeremy would tie horses when he would ride them down in there to start the pump. That way the horses are exposed to lots of different stuff while they were here in training. Climbing down into a tight space, sometimes through water, being patient and hearing the noise of the pump. Kind of like killing a bunch of birds with one stone...........or something like that.


This is what I found when I got back. So I ask Sage, cause I know she will give him up, "did Daddy unload the bucket of the tractor with the shovel by himself?"
"YES! he did!" she says..............
UGH!!!
If any of you has the spare time, please call and yell at him so it is not just me!!!!!


Swimmers head

I can't believe I failed to mention that my girl is swimming like a fish lately. We have spent alot of time in Katie Christman's pool since it is so darn hot and Jeremy is not working and can go with us. My dad was a wonderful swimmer in his day and has come with us a few times. A couple of times ago he bought the kids goggles that cover their noses too so they can learn to go underwater without snorking water up their nose. With grandpa helping her she has learned to hold her breath and go underwater and now even picks stuff up off the bottom. She gave herself this mark yesterday when she kept taking the goggles on and off all day. Poor kid, people are gonna think I beat her!

Checkin cows

Mikey over at the Horseshoeing Housewife had some beautiful sunset pictures. I think we have some pretty neat sunsets too but I can never capture them with the piece of junk camera I have, sigh..........here is the best I could get the other night when we were checking the cows.

Here come the girls! They saw we had hay in the back.

I like this cow, the brindle. She had the cutest heifer calf this year, it is right next to her.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The new pup and Priss of course!

We picked this pup us from some friends on the way home yesterday. I had wanted to get a pup for Steele awhile back. Then I wound up finding Priss and fell in love with her and she became my dog. And we thought that Steele is probably still too young for a dog of his own.

So somewhere in the process of looking for a pup and deciding he didn't need one yet we found this one. Paul has been helping us out so much and he decided he would like to have her. His dog Zip is getting up in age and he likes puppies to play with so it was decided. We picked her up yesterday. Paul will not be back out for a week since he is in school all this week so we are pup sitting. I sure hope Paul likes her.


Steele's haircut

My poor kid, I have just not been on my game lately. I sure don't want to complain but we have had a tough last couple of months and it isn't over yet. We saw the doctor yesterday for Jeremy's check-up appt. after the surgery. I swear the health care system sucks. The doctor was so darn overloaded with appts. we waited 45 minutes to even be seen by him which I guess wasn't too bad. The kids were being good. So I guess we expected too much to have him spend too much time with us. I wonder if doctors realize how venerable you are to them and then they usher you in and out like cattle. We treat our cows better than that!
So before we left I wanted the boys to have their hair cut. They were starting to look fuzzy. I had done Jeremy's already and was hurrying to get Steele done, of course he is complaining and not wanting to hold still. So I was so focused on just getting it done in a hurry. I usually just use the clippers with a guard on them so I don't get it too short and it is fool proof that way.
NOT!!! You have to make sure you didn't use the clippers last on a cat that had an abcess and take the guard off. UGH! Of course I started on the front and just buzzed the crap out of it. And then screamed in horror at what I had just done and knowing there really in no way I could fix it. I had flashbacks of the time Sage gave herself a mullet just about a year ago now.
In the picture above Jeremy was just trying to even it up so there isn't an obvious line.
The funniest part was in the doctors office when I gave Steele my compact mirror to keep him occupied while we were waiting to see the doctor. You should have seen his face when he saw what I had done to his hair! It was hilarious!!! Oh man I wish I had pictures of that!
Anyway, the news from the doctor was that he does not want him to start physical therapy yet. He says he thinks Jeremy is plenty motivated to rehab it and he thinks he will push too hard just yet. So we are scheduled to see him again in a month. No use of the arm still. They took an x-ray but never said what that was for. They weren't too good about answering questions, he has a big ego. I just hope he is a good surgeon and the surgery is successful in the end.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The new toy

This is what two little rascals look like after the whole afternoon in the pool.
Cute, huh?!
Saturday we left the house at 5am to head north to Carmel Valley to pick up this toy that my dad bought on ebay. We didn't get home until about 9pm and were all so tired. The kids did well but today was a different story! They had tons on pent up energy to burn off. The polaris will live at our ranch. We are having so much fun with it already!


Friday, July 17, 2009

My girl

My girl has been begging to ride for days now and it has just been so dang hot.........so when she heard us talk about gathering the cattle so we could sell some steers she wasn't going to let up.

I am so happy she wants to ride! And so happy to have such a wonderful horse for her!


Kate


Thursday, July 16, 2009

My life in pictures

Okay so maybe I am whining but this is not glamorous..........

Eat your heart out Pioneer Woman!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Checking the cattle

Darn it, my pictures are out of order since this picture was the last one I took last night as we were checking the cow and moving some around. This is how we roll when the boss has a bum arm and can't be on a horse. I drive the truck and Kate saves the day! She usually does anyway.

We are planning to gather in awhile today to sell a couple of steers so we drove to find out where they are hanging so we don't have to cook ourselves riding all day looking for them. We like to throw hay to them whenever we find new calves.

We had two! This one.........
and this one. A bull and a heifer.