Southern Happenings

Yes, it has once again been too long since I have updated. I apologize for that. It's been quite crazy around our house lately... with my birthday in September, then Reformation Day in October, and traveling to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, Thanksgiving weekend, and once... wait... twice again traveling to the Creation Museum.



I guess I should start where I last left off in my blogging. I guess the last thing I really said was that Beauty was getting adopted. Well, sadly, that adoption fell through. BUT the week of Thanksgiving, all three mustangs (Ace, Beauty, and Ruby) were taken to a mustang adoption and were all adopted! Their pens look strangely empty now.........

For my birthday back in September, we went ice skating and a few of my friends and their families got to come too. That was great fun! We even proved that there are three girls (me included!) that can skate faster than the guys (yeah!). After ice skating we went out to eat and then Zachary and Lauren took me to the mall to do some fun shopping (and we had a blast!). For my birthday I got a really big framed horse painting that has a Bible verse on it (and now belongs on the wall over my bed), I got a really neat little box (I call it my treasure chest :D), a really nice leather coat (it's quite warm!), three western shirts, a new western belt (it's got braided horse hair for decoration on it!), a Lil' Kinz panda (which I named Charlie Oreo), 18 Kids and Counting DVDs, money, an awesome horse lamp (I'll have to post a picture sometime if i remember to), an awesome hat that says "Equine Spirit", a necklace from my best friend (we have matching ones now - mine says "Friend" and her's says "Best"), money, and lots of other stuff too.

Next was Reformation Day. This year my best friend and I once again re-inacted Margaret (me) and Agnes (my friend) Wilson. Margaret was an eighteen year old scottish martyr and Agnes was her thriteen year old sister who was also convicted, but ransomed.

Lets see..... what comes after that? Ah, yes, the Creation Museum. The first weekend in November my family traveled up to Petersburg, KY, to volunteer at the Creation Museum. That whole weekend my Dad and Zachary worked on building props for "Christmas Town" while Lauren, Mumma, and I worked on fringing costumes (lots of fun..... sitting on the couch, watching movies while your fingers start hurting from pulling the fabric apart....). Actually, I got "Daniel Duty" most of the time - spending time occupying Danny by taking him to the petting zoo and through the museum. That Sunday we decided to go to a church service held at the Creation Museum. Daddy only gave us about five minutes warning (amist packing and cleaning up the bunkhouse to leave later that day), so we ended up going in our blue jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and tennis shoes. Let me tell you, going to church for the first time in the fifteen years of your life wearing blue jeans is pretty awkward......

Thanksgiving weekend was spent in Mississippi at our grandparents' house. On Thanksgiving day, my older brother took me hunting. It was quite fun, even though we didn't bring back any deer meat.... Oh well, maybe next time, eh?

Last weekend we traveled back up to Kentucky for the Christmas Town dress rehearsal/benefit dinner. Friday night was pretty cold, considering we were standing out there in three layers of clothing plus our costumes. Saturday morning I woke up in a winter wonderland of two inches(ish) of snow on the ground. I took Daniel outside to play in it for a bit while everyone else finished up packing. He decided to throw a snowball in my face, then rub the snow in... so he got tackled :). I'll tell you... it's pretty weird to find yourself waking up in Kentucky with two inches of snow on the ground (with it still snowing!) but fall asleep at home with the weather feeling rather warm at somewhere around 60 degrees....

This weekend we travel to Kentucky once again to participate in Christmas Town. In fact, we leave tomorrow.... It's kinda weird that when I was little I considered three hours in the car to be a "long trip", but now, six hours in the car isn't too bad.

Have I really gotten this far in my post and not mentioned anything about Winston?! Well, he is comming along quite nicely. When I first began riding him, he would become confused and freak out a bit. Yesterday, when I went out and spent some time with him, he stayed quite calm. He has finally gotten out of his confusion and freaking, and now has quite an attitude about him. He has gotten into the habit of playing 'chase' whenever I get him out of the pasture, but amazingly enough, yesterday he walked up to me and didn't run off. He also tends to get worked up in our lessons - getting himself into the mindset of "let me run, or let me stand still". He seems to stay much calmer outside of the lesson setting (not sure why, it could be that my methods of doing some stuff with him is different than the methods my teacher uses). Yesterday when I rode him I saddled him up and rode for a little while with the saddle on him, letting him get some of his energy out. Then I did something brave. Well brave considering he is a 15.2ish hand high (a 'hand' is four inches) horse and quite big, and tends to be hyper when being ridden. I rode him bareback. Amazingly enough, he seemed quite calm being ridden bareback. In fact, he seemed calmer being ridden bareback than he is being under a saddle. After riding him (by that time I was slightly cold - after all, it was only 30-something degrees outside!), I had to give him some feed and Mumma and I had to feed the four cats (Peanut, Gidget, Gizmo, and Morris) and lock them in the tack room, feed Lucky the dog and tie him up, then lock up the barn before heading home. All in all, it was a very fun day at the barn.

Well, I had best wrap up this blog ramble before it gets too terribly long.

Adios my dear readers, and I hope that I shall see you soon.

Hannah :)

Yes, I know it has been quite a while since I last updated. Too long, probably. Let's see... what all has happend since we came home from Colorado... may I summerize by saying "a lot"? I'll try to blog a bit about the main stuff that has happened.

About two weeks after we returned from Colorado, I started taking riding lessons at a barn called Shadowfax. For my first lesson, I rode Bo - whose full name is Bonzanza's Texas Tea, for my next three lessons I rode a pony named Scout, and then I rode Bo twice more (during which time he earned the nick name "Bonanza's Brat"), and then started riding a big bay horse named Winston. I rode Winston once after a lesson on Bo, and then started riding him in my lessons. At Shadowfax. my teacher fosters mustangs. She had four there when I first started taking lessons - Ruby, Ace, Beauty, and Ben. Since then, Beauty has been halter trained and adopted, which was awesome since just a few weeks ago she was scared to death of people and would

Our Trip - Day 8

July 31, 2010 (I wrote about the last day the day after we got home since I was so tired) - Day 8

We stopped in Kansas City, Missouri (I still don't get how KANSAS City can be in MISSOURI!) Thursday night. Yesterday we stopped at the St. Louis Gateway Arch on the way home. It was really cool! We got to go all the way up in the arch - 630 feet at the top! Part of the roads near to the river and the parking lots were flooded. I got a t-shirt and a postcard there. We got home about 10:30pm or so.

Well, that concludes our trip!!!! Hope you enjoyed hearing about it all!

Our Trip - Days 6 and 7

July 29, 2010 (didn't get to write July 28) - Days 6 and 7

8:20pm

Yesterday, Aunt April and Uncle Erik left and we spent the day in Colorado Springs. We went to the Garden of the Gods, Focus on the Family, and the Air Force Academy. Daniel and I got rocks at the trading post at the Garden of the Gods. At Focus on the Family we ate lunch and got ice cream at Whit's End. I had a Wodfamchochsod (World Famous Chocolate Soda) and it was great! We packed up last night. Mamaw and Papaw left early this morning (around 6:00am). We left around 8:30 this morning and decided to go through Kansas since we haven't ever been through it before. We are gonna stop in Kansas City in about an hour.

Inside the chapel at the Air Force Academy:

The outside of the chapel:

Yes, the imagination station is simply..... and elevator.

Balanced rock:

Our Trip - Day 5

July 27, 2010 - Day 5

9:45pm

We took the two four wheelers, the jeep, and the Land Rover up one of the mountains to two lakes today. At the first, we went fishing and I caught the first fish (Daniel caught the other one). At the second one we ate a picnic lunch. I went wading in both - the water was FREEZING but felt really good! After lunch we went up the mountain a little more to an old building that the minors. We had lots of fun today and plan on going to Colorado Springs tomorrow.

The first lake:

The second lake:

Mom..... she flipped the hammock when she laid down on it ;)

Our Trip - Day 4

July 26, 2010 - Day 4

3:03pm

We went on a two-hour train ride through the Royal Gorge and it was sooooo fun! The only other time I have been on a train was when we rode one in Amsterdam in 2005 when we went to Ukraine to adopt Daniel. [We had extra time in Amsterdam coming home so we got to ride a train!]. I was able to get some post cards of the gorge and train! I think we are going four wheeling when we get back to the house.

The train ride:

Some horses we met:

Our Trip - Day 3

July 25, 2010 - Day 3

6:28am

We stayed up late watching Prince Caspian. They have surround sound here which was awesome once we got it set up! The sunrise this morning was AMAZING! I got several good pictures of it. Its a bit weird how it can be really cold at night and in the morning and really hot during the day. Its beautiful here, but the rankings of my favorite states hasn't changed.... yet. Its currently third, though (1. Alabama, 2. Texas, 3. Colorado).

2:37pm

This morning we ate breakfast and had church here (sang songs and read Colossians 3 [we have been working on memorizing that chapter lately]) then went four wheeling all over the place on new trails. It was really awesome! Mumma, Mamaw, Papaw, and Cousin Jennifer went shopping (closest place is about 45 minutes from here) for groceries. Right now everyone here but me is playing "Clue". Oh, we saw mountain sheep earlier when we were riding four wheelers! I'm outside sitting on the deck by myself. It's so peaceful, quiet, and the mountains are beautiful!

9:05pm

Uncle Erik and Aunt April got here at about 4:30pm. Uncle Erik, Zachary, and I went four wheeling again once they got here - it was sooooo fun! We had supper and roasted marshmallows - huge ones - YUMMY! I got marshmallow all over my face and Daniel grabbed my arm and got marshmallow goo all over it. I ended up accidently getting it in his hair - PAYBACK! Yeehaw! :D:D:D:D We are going to watch "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry" in a few minutes ;).

(In case none of you can tell, I really like writing smilie faces in my journal!)

Sunrise:

Views from where we rode the four wheelers to:

Our Trip - Day 2

July 24, 2010 - Day 2

12:05pm (I skipped my morning entry because it was...... too boring :P)

We spent all morning traveling through the rest of Oklahoma and through Texas (Texas is actually one of my favorite states). We are traveling through the corner of new mexico right now and we should be in Colorado soon. After we get in Colorado we still have several more hours to go :(.

1:13pm

Yeah!!! We are finally in Colorado! We still have a hundred and something more miles to go though. So many mountains! It sure is pretty though!

5:59pm

Well, we are here! We got here around 4:30. Zachary, Mr. Dick, Papaw, Daddy and I rode the four wheelers and the ATV on some of the roads around here (they are dirt! :D) and got really dirty! But we did have TONS of fun!

Too cute.

Our Trip - Day 1

Well, I think for this trip I will mostly type up my journal entries and add some pics ;). Enjoy!

July 23, 2010 - Day 1

8:28am

Well, here we are on our way to Colorado! We got all packed up yesterday (July 22) and were able to leave the house at 6:05am - only five minutes later then the time we were hoping to leave at (which is quite remarkable for us!) A little while ago we saw two fawns playing near the road - they were so cute! The boys are watching

Looney Tunes right now, I'm listening to my iPod (and writing this of course!), Lauren is playing a game on her computer, and Mumma (that's what I tend to call my Mom) and Daddy are talking. We are meeting up with Mamaw and Papaw soon. I currently can't think of anything else to write, so, "that's all folks!" :) Too many Looney Tunes......

4:49pm

Today has gone fairly well. We met up with Mamaw and Papaw at about 9:45 this morning. Lauren and Zachary have been riding with them and Daniel and I have been riding with Mumma and Daddy (the whole van to ourselves!). Daniel and I had a fun time playing together and listening to music this morning and this afternoon he watched Looney Tunes and I watched National Treasure. Riley's last line in the movie is "C

ould'a had a bigger house!". We have been through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, and we are now in Oklahoma. We still hav

e a few hours of driving before we stop for the night.

No, there wasn't a single moment that we were bored ;)

Busy around here.....

Well, since I last posted was starting back school, gone to a weekend singing school, tried to figure out a packing list for our next trip, officially forgotten to write in my journal (don't worry, I fixed that problem the other night), celebrated Buster's birthday (or rather I am still celebrating), big brother got his first vehicle (a blue truck)..... and well, I'm having a hard time remembering it all. School is going great so far... besides the fact that I still do not enjoy math. We went to singing school over last weekend and had so much fun! We learned a lot too! We are busy this week with our schoolwork, our normal activities during the week, shopping for our trip, and packing up and leaving bright and early Friday morning... or at least we hope we can leave bright and early... we all know how that is :). I forgot to mention Father's Day (of all the things!)! For Father's Day, Daddy took us to see Toy Story 3 (in 3-D!) the day before, and then Sunday we ate out and simply had fun! I gave my Daddy a recording of a song I wrote for him. I have Charlie Zahm's CD "Recent Journeys" and loved the song "My Little One", so I rewrote it and gave the lyrics to my Daddy when he took my sister and I to the Vision Forum Father Daughter retreat last year (2009). So for Father's Day, I got permission and did my own recording of it for Father's Day! Independence Day was really fun too. We spent the weekend at Grandparent's house and had tons of fun shooting fireworks, and running in the smoke :). I do have one picture to share with you all. Meet Daniel the cow:

He had fun dressing up for "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chic-fil-a. Daniel and I painted cow spots on our faces and dressed in black and white, big brother drew cow spots on his arm, and sister dressed in black and white and the four of us headed to Chic-fil-a for free food! Well, that is about all the time I have right now, so I am off to try to write up a better packing list :).

Buster's Birthday!

Today, July 19th, was Buster Bear's third birthday! To celebrate, we gave him a new toy (a fox squeaky toy - that dog just loves those squeakers!), and got him a pack of bones. I snapped a few pictures of him and I will post those along with ones of him as a puppy. :) Enjoy! :)

What a sweet face!

"BUSTER BEAR! If you dare to eat my snowman... you wont be happy for long!"

"Ooooh you have a snow ball! Can I eat it? Please? PLEASE?"

These are from the first few days we had him - what a cutie!

The 'dead dog' pose :)

As you can probably tell from some of the pictures... he is actually pretty spoiled. We can't resist spoiling him - he's just way too cute not to!