Giddy up

This past Monday the family drove out to a friend's ranch for a visit and some horseback riding. Alena has been begging for riding lessons for a while now so we wanted to see how she would do on a horse before shelling out the cash for lessons. We had a great time and the kids loved being out in the country because they had lots of room to run and could be loud without any neighbors nearby.

Christian liked it but got bored quickly. I think he was expecting to cowboy up and ride free rather than a simple walk around the corral.

You can see the joy radiating off of Alena. She loved it and listened to my friend give her directions about getting the horse to go, stop, turn, and so on. We may just have to go forward with getting her those lessons.... BUT! My wonderful friend did offer to let us come over any time to ride and if Alena was serious, she would give her some lessons herself. Score!

Meanwhile, Noah had to "suffer" through watching his older siblings get their turn at the horse. He was being extra fidgety and whiny and we just thought he wanted to get down and move. But when we took him to the horse, he smiled and got really excited. So I hopped into the saddle and put Noah up with me. Oh the look on his face! Pure glee. Once he figure out that we weren't moving, more fits and whining. My friend lead the horse around the corral and Noah was on top of the world. Smiles for days and lots of giggles. He absolutely loved it!

It was a great end to our long weekend and we're looking forward to doing it again. :)