Random Pictures

Good Morning Readers!

Johnny walked by me this morning as I was gathering pictures for today's post and asked, "why all the random pictures Mary? ...uh, that's not a blog post is it?" So here I am, caught in the act, with one of those random, 'use-them-up pictures' blog post. Guilty as charged. :-P

Anyway, here we go...

  A few days ago the sun peaked out during a rainstorm. It was lovely and caused everyone to run out on the porch and see the awesome rainbow.

  A candid shot of me... probably saying, "Wha--?"

  When the rain stopped, Steve ventured away from the shelter of our covered porch to snap some rainbow shots.

  This one is for Andrew, who's away and probably missing Kady (our big puppy dog) by now. ;)

  --Okay, end one random set of pictures. Now onto another! :) --   Yesterday, we went for a horse ride. The apples are ripening which makes for lots of stops to check out various trees, much to the horses delight.

  I haven't ridden much since spring, so of course the first rides the kids have taken me on have been miles long so that those hardened riders can laugh at me and my sore bum... walking around like John Wayne here lately. :-P

  New horses have been enjoying getting out on the trails this year.

  We always feed our apple cores to our horses this time of year, so as a result, the ponies stop every time you crunch a bite out of an apple and turn their heads back hoping for your core. The kids have been doing their best to chew quietly, but they still inadvertently stop their horses when a lip smacking of sweet apple juices comes out louder then intended, making the horse just too jealous to continue. ;-)
  --End another set of random pictures. ;) --   Next, these are for Annie, (who's away right now). She wanted to see pictures of my new hair cut.  For girls, you know, especially sisters, a new hairdo is a big deal. ;)

  Theresa did a great job cutting it--layering it so it looks thicker and all that stuff.
    I really needed it since I've not been taking the time to care for my longer hair very well this summer.   Comparatively; my messy longer hair (another candid shot, btw)...
  ...and new shorter hair:

  Yeah, I like it. :)

 If anybody needs a hair cut, Theresa does a really great job! She's fast and free--you just have to get over all her gasping and shocked/horrified faces and off handed mentioning's of hair extensions and whatnot... I've just learned to ignore all that. She always does a fantastic job. :)   Next, a random picture of a kitten, since Annie wanted to see how they're growing up:

  And lastly, Donna wanted to show Annie, Grandma and Aunt Joanie some of her drawings... See, Annie was teaching her how to draw people before she left, so Donna's been drawing all kinds of people and scenes and stuff now... She's got the drawing bug! ;)

 
 This is Mom, me and Donna at the County Fair! The poor creature on the bottom  (inside all the squiggles) is a pig in it's pen, with Donna (the big headed person with the hat) reaching in to petting it. :)  

This is Micheal (big headed person... she's so accurate to have captured that trait! ;) teaching her (Donna; the concerned looking person), how to mike the cow (creature with the ears and tail) and the milk spraying everywhere because she shot some in his face (she enjoyed that a lot ;). The blue spidery looking thing is a pig that she came back and randomly added after seeing the pig at the fair... she likes pigs. :)  


 And she's very proud of herself.   OK, I think that's all the randomness I could find to squeeze into one post. Thanks for stopping in today! :)

A Birthday Outing

Lots of picture sharing lately... Annie and Andrew are down south right now visiting friends, so this helps them keep up to date with us.

Stephen turned 19 yesterday... he shares the birthday with his horse, which was born on our farm. We got our work done early, then they went for a ride to commemorate the day. After that, we headed to a new lake for a little birthday outing.

Singing in the car on the way there... course.

  Always fun to check out a new body of water... this one was super warm and shallow.

  A family picture, minus Annie and Andrew.  
  Some playground fun.


Oh Michael...

  Dads playing with Donna on the playground brought back floods of memories of being 7 and playing with him and my other siblings at various parks and playgrounds... his input was always the best part of the outing. :)

  Oh Michael...

  Was a really lovely day...

  ...and a really lovely lake.

    The younger kids went fishing...

  With SteveyJ's help...



  Nothing caught though... too shallow and warm.

  A picnic lunch of cold pizza.



  A swim and some sunbathing...

  Then we walked over to the tennis courts.



  Steve's pretty good, but Dad is very good. (Dad won.)

  I was killing Theresa until she 'remembered how'.

  Then she finished me off pretty good. :P

  Boys played football on the baseball diamond with Kady.



  Oh Michael...



  Then we drove a few miles down the lake to check out another park on it.

  But it was getting late...

  ...so the girls played on the playground instead of swimming again.

  A really lovely day was had by all...

  Thanks for sharing it with us! :)