Nine Day Trail Ride 2011

We are now back from the annual Nine Day Trail Ride. This year was awesome...although it ended pretty stressful. We had a great time. Aaron stayed from Sunday-Thurs. night. Gigi was so helpful to keep him the other nights/days so that we could ride longer and give us a break. I think he liked being with her just as much. He got to go to his first movie "The Smurfs." Jenny said he wore his 3-D glasses through the whole movie, even fell asleep with them on! He still hasn't stopped talking about it. Plus Lauren and Alex Smith were there (teen girls from church). They are so much fun for him to cart up and down the stairs to get him toys. So, Aaron got the award for the 'trail rider who had the most fun.' He did so great and slept better than he does at home I think. I'm sure it was because he got to sleep in his 'trail ride bed.' Who wouldn't?!?! His riding stamina was so much better than last year and seems to LOVE horses now more than ever. Of course he would only ride with his Papa or his Daddy. Super sweet, but sad too because I asked several times to ride with me...ha! Friday morning we loaded up horses in the trailer and went over the Garden of the Gods to ride for the day. Everything went great....until Mark and Jerry, who left us to ride back to the trailer, got stuck in a thunder storm and both got struck by lightening! I know....CRAZY! Mark was just fine, although he felt it a little. Jerry got the brunt of the strike and is in the hospital in Paducah with an irregular heart beat and a pneumothorax (hole in his lung.) He is stable and looks like he will be fine, but very sore because the electric field he was in made him pass out for a few seconds and fall off his horse on his left side. He severely bruised some ribs and has cuts/bruising all over his left side. God has taken care of him and we are so thankful that he was not hurt more than he was and it looks like he will recover fully after a lot of rest and healing time. If we can only keep him off his feet during that time...it's gonna be hard! So there's the short version of the story..you'll have to call for the long version if you dare. It's a tear jerker! I included a few pictures of our adventures...more on facebook!

At the Rock House/Swimming Hole

Didn't miss a ride for anything...even nap time!

Trail Ride boy

Loves Papa

Adams Family 2011

Follow up pictures

Here are some pictures that I wanted to put with the last post about our busy summer.

Reading with daddy (I love this picture)

Swimming by him'felf'

always wants to help

awesome form!

We've been busy!

So...we've been VERY busy the past few weeks. Mark has been out of town for work a lot over the past month and has plans to leave again over the next few weeks. Since I am not a good 'stay by myself person', I have been finding different places to go close to home to stay. In between trips, we have been working more and more on the house trying to get some smaller jobs completed. All the rooms are now painted (minus closets) and Mark has almost all the outlets/plugs changed out. The biggest projects left are lighting and base boards. Furniture and accessories are just going to come along the way as we find the quality pieces that we will keep forever AND that are decent deals. Next week, while Mark is out of town, we will just stay in T-town because I have to work and also prayer group on two different days which makes it difficult to go out of town. Over the weekend, we are going to Kentucky for the weekend and then I will drop Mark back off at the airport on the way home for ANOTHER business trip. I will probably go to Rachel's for the week after that to help her paint in her apartment (I have been promising all summer). Then it's home for a few days and then it's off to the Trail Ride. It will be a whirlwind I'm sure. Yesterday Aaron has his 2 year check up (a few weeks late). He did great with Dr. Bard and nurse Vicky. I told him that if he did what Dr. Bard and Ms. Vicky said without being ugly or whiny he would get a 'special treat' when we were done. He did GREAT and was sure to tell everyone there that he was going to get a special treat when we left. Hopefully they didn't think I was too horrible of a mom...especially since it worked like a charm. He was in perfect "Aaron form" and showed his mad skills of naming animals, singing his songs, showing his body parts, and many other things. That about sums things up for now. No pictures because our computer is not working. I ordered a new power cord which hopefully will fix the problem. For now, we are using a lap top from Mark's work that doesn't have the ability to accept our camera chip. So you'll have to use your imagination until we can get the computer back up and running. Have a great weekend!

Fun with cousins!

Well....Mark had to go out of town....AGAIN! This time, we decided to go to see Matt and Lori for a few days. We have had a blast. Aaron and Eli are playing non-stop together and LOVING every single second of it. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

More swimming pictures

I know...I'll stop with the swimming pictures soon. We have spent the week with Ra Ra. She has a pool at her apartment complex. We had a great time. One of the highlights for Aaron was the swimming! He is starting to ask to swim by him'fulf.' Quite an independent little thing.

His version of doing it by him'fulf'

"There's RaRa, Mom!"

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10....booster!"

(he decided to mix in VBS songs with his swimming)

Little swimmer

Aaron has decided very recently that he likes to swim. The night before we left for Kentucky we were at a friends surprise party which was also a pool party (mostly for the kids who came). I didn't bring swimsuits for us because Aaron never wants to swim when given the opportunity and doesn't like to be in a crowd of noisy kids...so I thought the combination of noisy, wet, and swimming wouldn't mix well. I just figured he could play with other toys. Of course I was WRONG! He begged, pleaded, and finally resorted to just staring through the iron fence real pitful like at the other kids swimming. Mark finally borrowed some shorts from our friend and a swim diaper for Aaron. He was a little apprehensive when he first got in but before we knew it he was jumping off the side to Mark. UNBELIEVABLE! I mean seriously my son normally HATES to have his hair and face wet. I guess being 2 years old allows you to change your likes and dislikes quickly. So yesterday when we told Aaron we were going to Kentucky (for Kelsy's wedding - which was beautiful by the way) he asked to swim in Gigi's pool. Of course he did! He is now OBSESSED with getting in the float for little kids and kicking his little legs as hard as they will go until he is forced to get out. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Gigi even let him swim right after church this morning before lunch. When I saw him at lunch he was sure to tell me that he got on the diving board and "jumped' to his Papa (aka - Gigi let him down easy into the water where Papa was waiting). Cutest kid EVER!

PBS!

We just got done with a week of VBS...or PBS as Aaron calls it. He wasn't a fan of the bible class portion of VBS but couldn't get enough of the singing at the beginning and end in the auditorium. He even got to sit with his own class like he was big or something. It's crazy to think of him as a little boy doing real little boy things, like sitting with his 'class' at VBS. I can't hardly stand it. His new favorite song is the 'Hippo' song. I bet we sing it no less than 100 times a day and I catch him singing it to himself while playing alone. We really enjoyed going this week. Here's a shout out to those who did SO much to make this week successful. Especially Andrea Abrahams and Corynn Moyers...you girls rocked!!!