Fathers' Day at the Stables

For those who read this post already, Suzanne asked me to add more pictures. Scroll down to see the updates.

For Fathers' Day we met our friend Gloria and her daughter Allison so the boys could ride horses again. It was Carter's third time, and McKay's first! In the past he was too afraid, but the trick was to not try to make him ride all by himself. McKay didn't want to get near them at first, but I climbed up and he allowed Suzanne to lift him onto my lap. Here's Suzanne and McKay a little later on Blue, with Allison adjusting the stirrups. Here's a video of Carter, being walked by Gloria. She was really patient with him, even obliging when he started giving commands: "Fast! Now stop! Now fast!"

Sorry you can't see his face. He had his hood up the whole time and there are no pictures where he doesn't look like a Jedi.

I was busy looking stupid - Gloria was trying to teach me to run on her black horse, Pixie, and I "accidentally" deleted a long video of me making kissing noises and shouting "Giddy-up!" while the horse walked in lazy circles and the onlookers shouted something about ballet dancing. Fortunately we did manage to get this ego-saving gem. Sorry about the sound - Newport is a windy city.

Family fun times

Hi, everyone! Since our last post, Suzanne and I took a trip to Disneyland. Here's the only good picture we have with both of us in it, in front of Big Thunder Mountain. Those things hanging around our necks are Dream Speedpasses, which we got for doing absolutely nothing! They count as a speed pass for 12 of the busiest rides in Disneyland and California Adventure Park, meaning we spent all day cutting in line! Oh yeah... we left the boys with Grandma and Papa Phillips. "Mommy and Daddy went to Disneyland and all we got were these stupid t-shirts."
We do try to make sure they have fun times. They get to whale watch in Depoe Bay (no whales were out this day.)
They got to go to the "Touch-a-Truck" activity put on by Lincoln City Parks - they got to climb all over a fire engine, a police car, an ambulance, a search-and-rescue helicoptor, and a garbage truck. Suzanne reports that Carter liked the garbage truck best. He was in the driver's seat turning the steering wheel when the worker raised the dump part. Carter thought he was doing it!
Inside the helicoptor.

Playing at the McDonald's Playplace. We don't like to eat there, but the slides bring us back anyway.
There was a carnival in town with overpriced rides. The boys were really excited to go on the Merry-go-round, so we shelled out six bucks and I got to ride free to keep them on the horses. McKay started bawling before the ride began, but I was thinking, "If I let him get off now, it's three bucks down the drain! Plus he might start to like it, you never know..."

Suzanne took a picture everytime we went around, and they tell a great story: McKay's face got redder and redder, mouth open wider, until this last one. I like to think he started smiling before the end, but this could just be relief that it was over.And since we're on the subject of riding horses, this was taken on the Saturday before Suzanne's birthday. A friend of mine has horses and was kind enough to lend them to us so I could make up for my dismal lack of thoughtfulness on Mothers' Day. My horse is named Blue and Suzanne was on Desi. We rode up and down Nye Beach for a couple of hours and really had great time.Hope you all enjoy the pictures.