Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Cross Country Schooling

On Tuesday, a group from Stoneybrook went schooling at the Northwest Equestrian Center in Rainier, WA. There were eight horses plus a small group of family members to watch. The weather was questionable all morning, and when we got there, it was raining pretty steadily. But by the time we signed forms and unloaded the horses, the sun was peeking out. We got rained on a few times, but ended the afternoon with more sunshine. What a great day!

Here's me and Jack over our first jump of the day. He picked his knees up so neatly. I guess he knows that these jumps won't fall over like the ones in stadium jumping!

Here we are jumping a ditch. Jack was fabulous and went right over it. He's definitely looking at it, though. I had a hard time not looking down at it, too!

We jumped several of these jumps in this field. It was really fun jumping one jump and then galloping to the next! This was great practice for the show in May.

This water complex was really fun. Some horses don't like water, but all the horses were happily splashing in and out of the water. We all jumped this little log in the water and also practiced a bigger log right after one of the out ramps from the water. That was cool to canter through the water, up the bank, and over the log.

After a day like this, it is hard to believe I only did dressage for so long! Eventing is so much fun, and it's especially great to spend a day with a group of friends on our horses :-)

Monday, April 7, 2008

Just A Reminder...

You can click on the pictures we post to see them full sized. I always forget, so I figured some of you might not know that either!

Molly and Dylan Love Agility!

Molly and Dylan have been very happy to be back in agility classes with Lisa Selthofer. They both are super excited to get up on Saturday mornings, and they start to pester us that it's time to leave no matter how early it is. They both whine and cry in the car on the way over, so I'm glad the ride is only about 3 minutes long!

Molly is a little rocket! The more excited you get, the faster and more frantic she gets. Here she's jumping 16", though we'd like to get her in the 12" classes. She may be just a hair too tall, though. Either way, she's a great jumper!

I love Dylan's face in this picture. He's smiling and his ears make him look like he's taking off to fly!

Maybe his is! He's just flying over this jump. Dave got a ton of great pictures in this session. Dylan ran really smooth for Dave on this day. Dave is really good at getting his front crosses in. He makes it look easy even though Dylan is not easy to keep ahead of!

Overall, we all look forward to class. It's fun to run around outside and all play together. Maybe we'll try showing the dogs this year, but if not, we're still loving agility!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Pony Club Rating Prep

A bunch of girls from Stoneybrook are going for their next Pony Club rating this summer. Alex and Alyssa especially have been riding a ton to get ready for it. Stacy and I went to watch on Saturday and Sunday and cheer the girls on. I took a bunch of pictures of Alex and Cody in their dressage class. Somehow I never took any other pictures. Oh well!

Here's Alex's parents, Eric and Janet, with Alyssa, Stacy, and Ting. We were all freezing! It was really windy and chilly. We were all underprepared for what the weather threw at us all day. It rained, was windy, then sunny, then snowed. Crazy Washington weather!

Here's Alex and Cody. They looked great! You will notice she is riding without stirrups. Not easy to do, believe me.


We were all numb from the cold after watching Alex, so we warmed up in one of Donida Farm's tack rooms. Here's Stacy, Ting, me, and Alyssa. It was cozy!

March Visitors

Mom and Dad came to visit on Easter for a few days. We saw the "Salmon Thirty Salmon" on the way to the airport! I was really excited that Dave spotted it, and even more excited that I captured in on my camera. How handy to have a pocket-sized camera for this very situation! I love this plane. It's very clever. Our second cool 737 sighting at the Seatac airport. We saw the Shamu plane two years ago.


We went to the Future of Flight museum in Everett one day. Here's Dad, Mom, and Dave standing in front of a 777 engine. It's huge! I wanted to stand in it, but I suppose they frown on that without supervision. You can see people must do it sometimes, because there's a pad inside the nacelle.
This is at the museum entrance. It was a good way to spend a chilly day. It was almost like being at work, though, because it was all Boeing related displays. Maybe we should have counted it for work instead of taking vacation ;-)

The trip was too short, but fun to have Mom and Dad around for awhile. Molly and Dylan loved having "Grandma and Grandpa" around to take them for walks every morning!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Wild Hockey Game

On March 9, Megan, Aaron, Dave, and I went to a MN Wild hockey game! We had a great time in the State of Hockey!

Here we are all decked out in Wild gear. It was fun to see all the fans in Wild jerseys and clothes. It seemed to me like the best bunch of fans for wearing the team colors. I love it!

This is right after we scored. The Wild were good, but not good enough to win this game :-( But they are in the playoffs now! If I lived in MN, I would definitely go to a lot more games. We all had a great time!