June 2011--Once Again a Busy Month

June has whipped by somewhere between a wild wind and a tornado. It started out with a week of having two grandchildren visit. In this photo I captured a rare nice day and a calm moment.

Marin is learning the joy of spotting birds, and we are thrilled to have another future birder on our hands.

And, of course, art is an important component of any visit.

Exercise is a must also: walking for me, bike riding for Marin, and in the lead, Noah on his Spiderman scooter.

The highlight of this first week of summer vacation is the arrival of Little Bit. We now have a well trained, kid friendly horse for grandchildren to learn horsemanship.

Noah is the first one to ride her.

We returned Marin and Noah to their home in Vancouver, WA, to witness our daughter Rachel's 2nd Marathon finish. In May she ran and finished her first marathon in Eugene.

The following weekend, with the help of Rachel's husband Josh and master barbecue chef, daughter Meg, we returned to Vancouver to throw a surprise 35th birthday party for Rachel.

After the birthday bash, we scooped up granddaughters Angelica and Marin to return to Blue River with us for a horsey week. We arranged with Little Bit's former owner to do some instruction. The moment we arrived, the girls were in the pasture with horses. Angelica renewed her friendship with Tuscany, a beautiful Arab mustang who is not trained.

And, believe it or not, no one else, with rare exception, can even touch this horse.

So this week is one of learning how to work with a horse who knows its job is to cooperate with people.

Marin and Mike groom Little Bit.

We are grateful that Nichole is willing and available to share her wealth of information on horses in general, and specifically Little Bit.

So, here we are at the end of the month of June. The rain has returned for the day, but the schedule is definitely one of summer. With all the activity of the day, we are eating dinner at eight, going to bed later, and the grandchildren are sleeping in.

Today is Tuesday, art workshop day. I'm thankful to have this one day set aside for art, since it is a struggle to make time in my own studio. I am feeling very thankful for these long days so full of wonderful activities.