Grace had a wonderful time as usual hanging out with my Aunt Linda and cousins Abby and Kay. Grace adores Abby and really looks up to her! I am so lucky to have such a great roll model for Grace! She spent the week staying at my Aunt Linda's house passing the time by typing up letters and stories on her typewriter! After Abby got done with her babysitting job they would head to the barn for riding lessons. Abby was Grace's coach and taught her all she knew! The following weekend they headed over to West Salem for the much anticipated horse show. Grace was in 5 events both Sat. and Sun. She added on English style riding and bareback this year. English proved to be a bit challenging for her seeing as posting (movement up and down with the horse with their lead leg) was quite a learning curve. However, she did take 3rd place on both Saturday and Sunday for her age group which was excellent! There was a bit more of a competition this year compared to last year according to my Aunt and Cousin and Grace lived up to the challenge! She managed to place in just about every event!
Showmanship: Saturday 3rd, Sunday 8th
Hunter Under Saddle: Sat. and Sun. 3rd
Bareback Horsemanship: Sat. 4th judge A 5th judge B Sunday 4th
Western Horsemanship: Sunday 8th
Western Pleasure: Saturday 1st judge A 2nd judge B, Sunday 3rd
It was SO much fun to come and watch her and see how comfortable and confident she was with Missy! Grace had met a friend named Chloe that was the same age and competing in the same events. The two of them were attached at the bridle when it was time to head over for an event! They also got the chance to take a little time to ride around and just enjoy the moment. My Aunt Linda, Chloe's Dad and I watched from behind as they rode off together. Watching this my Aunt said, "right there, that's what its all about!". Hearing that gave me a big lump in my throat. Seeing the pride, confidence and happiness in my little Gracie's face was priceless! What a wonderful experience!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Grace's Birthday
Grace is 9?? One more till the double digits?? YIKES! Grace had a laid back birthday this year and was put to work too! The night of her bday G & G Walsh came for dinner where Grace requested walking tacos, yum! She was spoiled by Grandma and Mom with clothes from Justice and ice cream cake from Coldstone!
At the end of month Grandma Marilee came and helped redecorate her bedroom!! It was a big project with painting her bed and walls! The finished project was pretty cool and Grace loves it! Thanks Grandma for all the hard work, it would have never gotten accomplished w/o you!
At the end of month Grandma Marilee came and helped redecorate her bedroom!! It was a big project with painting her bed and walls! The finished project was pretty cool and Grace loves it! Thanks Grandma for all the hard work, it would have never gotten accomplished w/o you!
Tennessee Trip
Yes, I know this is late but I just can't seem to find the time to keep up with this blog thing. Too much time on Facebook I guess, ha! Anyway, our trip to Tennessee was wonderful!! The trip down and back couldn't have gone more smoothly! We stopped on the way in Nashville and stayed the night at a campground just off the interstate. It was an interesting campground, more of a parking lot for RV's so we were a little out of place! It was an experience and good enough for a short overnight stop. That evening we got in early enough to enjoy the pool and get some dinner just down the street. Just as we finished up our dinner we heard a rumble of thunder. We had the camper wide open because it was 90+ degrees and no shade. We finished up our dinner and by the time we got to the restaurant door it was pouring down rain so hard that from the front door to the car we were sopping wet!! Luckily the rain was straight down and nothing was wet! We went to bed early listening to the hard rain that lasted most of the night. The next day we had about 4 hours of driving. Along our route down to Tennessee we had planned to check out some interesting roadside stops that weren't too far out of our way. The first one was Metropolis IL on the first part of our trip to check out the giant Superman and downtown. We have lunch there and treated the kids to malts at Sonic! Our second stop was right in Nashville which was a airplane wing sundial. Our 3rd stop between Nashville and Pigeon Forge was the Minister's Tree House which was the most unique. This massive tree house wrapped around a group of trees and was just about 4 stories high!! It was very cool and all built by hand sort of gave off a bit of a creepy feeling too.
We arrived at Bear Creek Crossing, home of the King Family Reunion by about 2pm that afternoon. We were just in time to greet everyone as they checked into the resort. Seemed like more than just 4 yrs. since we had seen everyone, it is so crazy how fast life goes by in just that short of time. Lots of new cousins to meet and lots of catching up to do. Bear Creek was amazing! All the cabins were built onto the hills driving up was quite the thrill! Everyone was divided into their own cabin and then we had the clubhouse as a main gathering area at the bottom by the entrance. This was also where we all gathered for our catered breakfast and dinners and had different activities planned for the week. Our house, Cinema 6 was shared with 4 other couples, Adam and Amy, with Lucas, Taryn and Lance; Casey and Amy with Noel and Kelli; Michael and Abby and Meredith and Mike. It was a full house but so big no one was ever in the way of one another! Everyone had their own bath and the whole place was 4 levels! The top floor was the master bedroom, 1st floor was the main level with kitchen/living room, below that was the game room and the lower level was the cinema! The cinema was a hit with the kids who watched a movie just about every night and had big slumber parties! We had two big wrap around porches with two hot tubs and rocking chairs! Our house and porch seemed to become the main battle grounds for the nightly water balloon fights! These water balloon fights seemed to become quite the serious event. A LOT of planning and preparation went into these battle every night. First starting out with water guns small coolers and garbage cans full of balloons graduating to pitchers and buckets of water and larger coolers to bathtubs full of balloons and the purchase of a hose and sprayer!! The grounds were littered with hundreds of balloon fragments and the kids were bribed with money to pick up the pieces! The kids had their fun with the water fights in the daytime launching two big attacks on Grandpa with the help of some fellow cousins!
We made the most of our time in the Pigeon Forge/Gaitliburg area. On Monday we headed our for a hike to Laurel Falls in the Smokey Mountain National Park. The rumor was heading up that there were bears to be seen up by the falls. Sure enough about half way we had a bear step out onto the trail just ahead of us! Almost a little too close for comfort being only about 15-20 feet away! He was a nice bear and kept to himself and wandered about the trail for a couple minutes before realizing there was no where for him to go but up to get out of our way! We saw another up the hill from us just a few more feet down the trail. It was quite the experience and the kids were amazed!! I still have to remind myself that they were wild bears, yikes!
On Tuesday I had set up a whitewater rafting trip for about 60 of us! It was a great hit and everyone had a great time!! Lucas and Grace went along with us and really enjoyed themselves. Taryn, Lance and Owen hung back with Grandpa for the day!
Wednesday we headed into town to take a look and ended up at MagQuest which was kind of an indoor magic adventure quest. It was a good time but not something I would do again. Kids seemed to enjoy it! Wednesday night was the talent show night which was a big hit again this year and with even more participants! Grace did her jazz competition dance as a solo and did fantastic. Owen decided last minute that he wanted to participate and showed off his moves with his dance to Ima Be by the Black Eyed Peas and it was a hit! I was tearing up I was laughing so hard!
Thursday was check out day and we headed to our next adventure with Adam, Amy and the kids! We drove over to the other side of the Smokey Mtns. to Cherokee NC where we camped till Sunday. It was a gorgeous area and I really fell in love with the Smokies. I think I even liked it more than the Rockies! The driving was a little less hairy than the rockies which made it much more enjoyable for me! The campground was beautiful situated in a valley between two streams. We did a lot of hiking in the national park and there were waterfalls everywhere! I hope to go back again another year and take the kids tubing down the streams! The kids got a chance to do a Ranger program and became Jr. Rangers! Cherokee was really a neat little town in the Indian Reservation. Aaron, I and the kids roamed around the town and took a moment to watch some indian dancing along the roadside. Not sure really how authentic the show was but the kids got a kick out of it!
The vacation really was a great one and somewhere I really could see going back to some day! So much more to take in and great nature time!
Make sure and check out the You Tube links on the side to see the videos of Grace and Owen dancing and the King Kids water balloon fight!!!
We arrived at Bear Creek Crossing, home of the King Family Reunion by about 2pm that afternoon. We were just in time to greet everyone as they checked into the resort. Seemed like more than just 4 yrs. since we had seen everyone, it is so crazy how fast life goes by in just that short of time. Lots of new cousins to meet and lots of catching up to do. Bear Creek was amazing! All the cabins were built onto the hills driving up was quite the thrill! Everyone was divided into their own cabin and then we had the clubhouse as a main gathering area at the bottom by the entrance. This was also where we all gathered for our catered breakfast and dinners and had different activities planned for the week. Our house, Cinema 6 was shared with 4 other couples, Adam and Amy, with Lucas, Taryn and Lance; Casey and Amy with Noel and Kelli; Michael and Abby and Meredith and Mike. It was a full house but so big no one was ever in the way of one another! Everyone had their own bath and the whole place was 4 levels! The top floor was the master bedroom, 1st floor was the main level with kitchen/living room, below that was the game room and the lower level was the cinema! The cinema was a hit with the kids who watched a movie just about every night and had big slumber parties! We had two big wrap around porches with two hot tubs and rocking chairs! Our house and porch seemed to become the main battle grounds for the nightly water balloon fights! These water balloon fights seemed to become quite the serious event. A LOT of planning and preparation went into these battle every night. First starting out with water guns small coolers and garbage cans full of balloons graduating to pitchers and buckets of water and larger coolers to bathtubs full of balloons and the purchase of a hose and sprayer!! The grounds were littered with hundreds of balloon fragments and the kids were bribed with money to pick up the pieces! The kids had their fun with the water fights in the daytime launching two big attacks on Grandpa with the help of some fellow cousins!
We made the most of our time in the Pigeon Forge/Gaitliburg area. On Monday we headed our for a hike to Laurel Falls in the Smokey Mountain National Park. The rumor was heading up that there were bears to be seen up by the falls. Sure enough about half way we had a bear step out onto the trail just ahead of us! Almost a little too close for comfort being only about 15-20 feet away! He was a nice bear and kept to himself and wandered about the trail for a couple minutes before realizing there was no where for him to go but up to get out of our way! We saw another up the hill from us just a few more feet down the trail. It was quite the experience and the kids were amazed!! I still have to remind myself that they were wild bears, yikes!
On Tuesday I had set up a whitewater rafting trip for about 60 of us! It was a great hit and everyone had a great time!! Lucas and Grace went along with us and really enjoyed themselves. Taryn, Lance and Owen hung back with Grandpa for the day!
Wednesday we headed into town to take a look and ended up at MagQuest which was kind of an indoor magic adventure quest. It was a good time but not something I would do again. Kids seemed to enjoy it! Wednesday night was the talent show night which was a big hit again this year and with even more participants! Grace did her jazz competition dance as a solo and did fantastic. Owen decided last minute that he wanted to participate and showed off his moves with his dance to Ima Be by the Black Eyed Peas and it was a hit! I was tearing up I was laughing so hard!
Thursday was check out day and we headed to our next adventure with Adam, Amy and the kids! We drove over to the other side of the Smokey Mtns. to Cherokee NC where we camped till Sunday. It was a gorgeous area and I really fell in love with the Smokies. I think I even liked it more than the Rockies! The driving was a little less hairy than the rockies which made it much more enjoyable for me! The campground was beautiful situated in a valley between two streams. We did a lot of hiking in the national park and there were waterfalls everywhere! I hope to go back again another year and take the kids tubing down the streams! The kids got a chance to do a Ranger program and became Jr. Rangers! Cherokee was really a neat little town in the Indian Reservation. Aaron, I and the kids roamed around the town and took a moment to watch some indian dancing along the roadside. Not sure really how authentic the show was but the kids got a kick out of it!
The vacation really was a great one and somewhere I really could see going back to some day! So much more to take in and great nature time!
Make sure and check out the You Tube links on the side to see the videos of Grace and Owen dancing and the King Kids water balloon fight!!!
Monday, August 23, 2010
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