family

All posts tagged family

Fun for all!

Posted by kenleighacres on April 11, 2011
Posted in: family. Tagged: , , . 8 Comments

Awhile ago we were invited to come ride horses at a friend’s house and it finally worked for us to go this weekend.  Our son was very excited, but while we were driving to their house he was really quiet.  Being the chatterbox that he is I thought something might be wrong, so I asked him if he was nervous about riding a horse.  He said ‘yes’.  He said that he would feel much better if his dad rode a horse too.  I don’t know if my husband was going to riding a horse or not, but this sealed the deal.  I’m glad it did, because it was fun for all of us to ride.  Plus it gave us the opportunity to have a really nice family photo taken…

My son’s horses name was Luv.

She certainly was a ‘love’.  What a perfect horse for him to start on!  

Kristi helped him with the cues and the finer details of how to start and stop and then he was off…

Pretty soon he was walking, trotting, stopping, circling, and backing!  He had so much FUN!  

Here is my husband on ‘George’. 

This is the beauty I got to ride, her name is ‘Darla’.  It was fun to ride again and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer horse.

After we rode, there was a little bit of time for my son to play with his second favorite dog…

a little Jack Russell named ‘Ricky Bobby’.

He is a basketball fanatic and LOVES little kids. 

He has some pretty good skills with the ball…

Before leaving we had to say ‘hi’ to Max. 

Gotta love donkeys 🙂

Thanks Kristi and Doug for a great time!

A new Christmas tradition

Posted by kenleighacres on December 27, 2010
Posted in: family, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 5 Comments

This year we did something a little different on Christmas day…we went sledding!  It was so much fun!  In fact, it was so much fun that it will probably become our new tradition.  Our son has been wanting to go sledding soooo bad and since Christmas is also his birthday, we thought it would be a fun birthday gift.  This year there was an extra bonus…

my brother and his son went with us.

The cousins are great buddies and enjoyed the day together.  They couldn’t wait to go sledding, so while they were waiting for us they started sledding on their bellies 🙂

Ah…to be a kid again 😉

Finally we were ready and we headed up the mountain.

This is the view from the bottom of the sledding hill.

There were two options – you could walk to the top…

or you could catch a ride and get pulled up to the top.

The first option was MUCH faster because of how many people were in line waiting to get pulled up, but it sure looked good after walking up 2 or 3 times.

The view from the top definitely made the climb worthwhile!

 This mountain in the background is Three Finger Jack.

 

No matter what way you went up…there was only one way down.  I had to be pushed coaxed by my brother to go down the first time.  It was crazy fast and while you were flying down the hill your tube would spin in circles.  Sometimes you would be facing forward and other times you would be backwards.  I found that closing my eyes helped 🙂

They had double sleds available and the boys had fun riding down together.  I tried getting pictures of them coming down the hill, but it was a little scary standing at the bottom.  Several people flew through the stopping area and crashed into the barrier fence!  The weather was just perfect and it made the slope fast!

In addition to having a great time, this was also a good way to work up an appetite for the excellent Christmas dinner waiting at my parent’s house. 

We all hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Snow Day!

Posted by kenleighacres on November 23, 2010
Posted in: Dogs, Ducks, family, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Snow. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

I love snow days, especially when it isn’t sloppy and wet.  This is a very rare occurence where we live.  In fact, we didn’t get any snow last year.  They have been forecasting snow for days and it finally arrived.  We woke up to a winter wonderland.

Ok…it isn’t a lot of snow, but it is a lot for us this early in the year and it is going to stay cold for a couple days which means it is going to stay!  I gave all of the animals extra food last night and extra bedding.

All except for the ducks.  They didn’t want to leave the pond last night and I didn’t want Kate to get soaking wet.  They seemed quite happy to be in the water this morning…bbbbbrrrrrrr.

All of the sheep were happy to see us and eager for breakfast.

The dogs had fun running, jumping, and playing in it.

Snowballs were thrown…

and a little sledding was done!

While all of us were home I wanted to take some pictures for our Christmas cards.

I had my picture taken with the girls.  I like this one of me and Infiniti…

and this one of me and Delight, such a funny girl…

but I think I like this one the best.

My son of course wanted to have his picture taken with Rose 🙂  This took several attempts…Rose kept jumping off the bridge and running a BIG circle before she came back.

This picture turned out great of my husband and his lab, Deuce. 

Yay for the snow day and Christmas card pictures!!!

Christmas – all wrapped up!

Posted by kenleighacres on December 29, 2009
Posted in: family. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

Christmas has once again come and gone – why does it always go so fast???

We spent Christmas eve with Tony’s parents, Christmas morning here, and Christmas afternoon at my parents. 

With 6 kids, spouses, 4 grandsons, and 1 new granddaughter – my parent’s house becomes very noisy!  The boys had a great time with grandpa.

The delicious dinner was enjoyed by all.

The secrets on the other hand, were just shared amongst the ‘older’ boys 🙂

After dinner all of the grandkids participated in a pageant with the story read by great grandma.  The youngest grandson was a sheep, but he ran off part way through – darn sheep!

We also enjoyed a birthday cake – he is now 6 years old – wow when did that happen???

He got this really cool book.  It has 28 badges that he can earn with requirements and sticker badges in the back.

His cousin, Conner, got the same book and we headed outside mid-afternoon to earn their insectology badge.

They each had to find 3 bugs and identify the main parts of an insect.

It was cold and the insects were hard to find, but after flipping a lot of rocks over and digging – we were able to find a few.  They did a great job identifying the required parts and earned their badges.

This is one of his favorite gifts from his cousin’s on my husband’s side of the family.  It has made us all laugh a LOT!!!  It can play music from mp3 players and it records short little snipits of  stuff – music and conversations.  It plays the recordings back randomly.  It responds to motion and will start talking and moving when you walk by.  It has made us jump a time or two 🙂

Here are some of my goodies.  Yummy, soft alpaca yarn and roving from my friend Lisa.  A whippet frame from Kristine.  A whippet sign from Tisha and a new hat from my mom.

I got these really cool buttons from my dad from his recent trip to Alaska.

I made almost all of the gifts that we gave and it felt really good.

This is a little felted sheep mobile that we gave to our new niece/cousin – Gracie Anne.  Hopefully counting sheep will help her fall asleep.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to enjoy it with family and friends!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :)

Posted by kenleighacres on December 19, 2009
Posted in: family, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

My poor son doesn’t think Christmas can happen until it snows.  He doesn’t understand that we live somewhere that doesn’t often have snow on Christmas day.  So, we brought snow inside.

It would be so much fun to live somewhere like this!

 

This is a dog training academy – I love the style of this building.

With a dog training facility down the road, you need a veterinary clinic.  The name of this is ‘The Padded Paw’ 🙂

I imagine this barn to be very warm and cozy inside. 

Looking at our little wintry scene has helped me get in the Christmas spirit and he loves to sit and look at it.

We also set up his nativity scene…

and made a star for on top of the tree.  This was also another MUST HAVE before Christmas 🙂  We used felt, a toilet paper tube, and a few jewels.

The ornaments have all been hung…

and Mr. Moose is waiting to ‘Welcome’ Santa Claus to our home.

From all of us to all of you – Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Summer Lake 2009

Posted by kenleighacres on October 15, 2009
Posted in: Dogs, family. Tagged: , . 3 Comments

Summer Lake is a large, shallow, alkali lake in Lake County, Oregon.  It is approximately 20 miles long and 10 miles wide.  The lake was named by explorer John C. Fremont on his expedition into Central Oregon in 1843.  It is also home to one of the tallest exposed fault faces in the world, over 30 miles long and 2000 ft. above the valley floor. 

web IMG_9997a

The marshes around the lake support a wide variety of birds and other wildlife and the second weekend of October it becomes a very popular place for duck hunters.  My husband hasn’t missed opening duck hunting weekend there for the past 20+ years.  He grew up going with his grandpa, uncle, and cousins and has taken our son every year since before he was 2.  I haven’t gone the last couple years because it is just too tempting to have a weekend at home by myself, but this year a friend convinced me to go and I’m glad she did because I had a great time.  I went on numerous walks, enjoyed the campfire, and was able to finish 7 1/2 felted bags 🙂  I love having a craft that can go camping!

I was inspired by Joan’s recent roadtrip photos and took a couple from the passenger seat on our way there. 

web IMG_0033

I love the wide open skys in this part of Oregon. 

web IMG_9981

We saw a lot of antelope.

web IMG_0003a

On Saturday morning, while everybody else got up at 4 am and headed out to sit in the freezing cold marsh, I slept in until 7:30 in the comfort of our warm trailer.  I took the dogs for a walk and enjoyed the sites. 

web IMG_0016a

This is a muskrat mound and the hunters often use old ones to sit on to stay out of the water.  The younger boys like to go sliding down them 🙂

web IMG_0013a

web IMG_9995a

I love the various stages of cattails.

web IMG_0006

These two are such a couple of goof balls 🙂  Kate likes to lick Theron in the ears and he thinks it is hilarious. 

web IMG_0011

The crew.  Theron didn’t understand why Kate couldn’t be their hunting dog and go out with them.  I got some pretty funny looks when I was walking them around.

web IMG_9987a

The mighty hunters.

web IMG_9989

This kid knows how to work it!  Complete with chocolate milk and bag full of snacks.

web IMG_9991

and they are off…

The weather was perfect and it was great to get one more camping trip in.

A walk at the dam

Posted by kenleighacres on September 2, 2009
Posted in: Border Collie, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Dogs, family, whippet. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

We usually go for a bike ride or a walk at the park several times during the week, but today we went to the dam.  It isn’t a very long walk, so we took all the dogs.  We usually take Kate and Paisley, but Darby is limited on how far he can walk so he stays home most of the time.  He is a little heavy to be carrying back to the car – been there done that 🙂 

web IMG_9556

web IMG_9546

web IMG_9549 

He loves the dogs!

web IMG_9551

He started off walking Darby, but Darby is kind of a mama’s boy and doesn’t like to run with Theron.

web IMG_9565

He quickly traded me for Kate and they were off. 

web IMG_9560

There were quite a few rowing teams out on the water today.  We both thought it was really funny when they rowed by singing ‘You’ve got that lovin’ feelin’.

web IMG_9610

web IMG_9567

The Willamette river is so pretty in this area.

web IMG_9578

I love this picture – happy, happy, happy!

web IMG_9587

We found a little trail that went down to the water and Darby decided the whole trip was worth it.

web IMG_9597

I’m not sure what she was trying to do, but she would have gotten a big surprise had she jumped over the barrier – it was very DEEP!

web IMG_9605

web IMG_9606

It was a great walk and I think we will add this into our walking rotation.  On the way back Darby tried talking me into carrying him, but he was a muddy mess, so we just took it slow.  Poor guy isn’t a youngster anymore.