Noah & Evie to Rainbow 2017

On Monday, August 7, 2017 we dropped Noah and Evie off at Rainbow Bible camp for their second and final week there together. 

Noah's best bud Jack also attended so he was rather excited.

I was trying to capture the kids giving their little brothers good bye but Evie turned out looking like a rag dog. It had been so cute.

Terry, the littles, and I had been out at the ranch since the day before since we rented our house for the Rally plus helping Terry's dad on a project, so we had half the normal drive to Rainbow on Friday the 11th for the rodeo. But a sizable cloud followed us out and we were surprised that it actually rained. We've had a bad drought this summer and have grown accustomed to never receiving rain. Really it was only wet enough to keep the dust down, but they did postpone the rodeo until after it quit.

Their waterhole is pathetically empty this year, it's sad.

They shortened the rodeo due to the rain and Noah had to get back in line (he had been on a horse ready to go while it was raining). Finally it was his turn for pole bending. 

Noah said he wasn't scared of the horses like two years ago and that he didn't have that slow of a horse. 

Seemed a little slow to us though!

Noah's ride. I am standing next to Jana who is kindly sheltering me and my camera from the sprinkles with her umbrella.

Evie was nowhere near the front of the line so we did a lot of waiting, even despite the rodeo being shortened. Terry stood at the back of the building and kept an eye on the littles 

Samuel and Ezra probably had the most fun ever at this year's rodeo since they were able to throw rocks in the green waterhole.

Jack went before Evie and was a very good horseman. He rides at his Grandpa's.

Finally, near the end, as you can tell by that line of kids watching, it was Evie's turn.

She or her horse were pretty quick!

She could hear us cheering her on and gave us a big smile. She's so darn cute on those horses, the way she bounces up and down and her hair flaps.

See how cute here:

Reunited.

From there we went inside and had roast beef sandwiches and then watched the kids' program. Evie's in the middle and Noah is on the left.

This was the song Robin wrote for last year's camp and I really love it. Evie does too, she sang it from memory for the talent show the night before. Sure wish I could've seen that.

Rainbow for Samuel!

On Thursday June 8 we all loaded up and drove Samuel out to Rainbow Bible Ranch for his first ever experience there at Little Ranchers Camp. And how cute is he?!?! 

We arrived a little early and had to wait in line until they opened the door and Shari snapped this completely unscripted photo of the kids that captured their personalities so well. Noah is being all stoic back there, Evie is being whacky, Grace is laughing at Evie, and Sarah is a sourpuss. If only we could see Samuel and Ezra! Oh, yes, Grace attended as well since they are two-day-apart cousins.

Couldn't get my dumb camera to focus but here he is all ready to go!

We went inside, got the paperwork done, dumped his stuff on a bunk, the boys played foosball for a bit, and then the little ranchers were called outside for their first horse lesson. 

He wasn't upset about us leaving at all and neither was Grace.

It was definitely strange not having him on the drive back and of course at home for that day and the next. The kids were all so spaced out that we had Evie come up front. 

I snatched this photo from Rainbow's Facebook page. Samuel is right in the middle.

The next night we loaded up again to go pick him up. We got there a little late to hear all of their songs. You can't see Samuel in this shot but Grace is on the right most bottom row.

There he is sort of tucked back in there!

After some songs and some words, we all headed back into the 95 degree heat to watch the kids wait in line before getting their turn on a horse.

The line. And boy was it hot that day! What a drought we're having. :(

Almost his turn!

There's Grace on the right!

She had a great time. They both did.

Andrew is one of our youth and he's working at Rainbow this summer. 

And he's up.

And he's off.

Samuel blinks so much when I take his picture!

The kids are only six and seven so they need a lot of help.

I cracked up when I saw Samuel kicking the horse though. 

Almost done.

Waving hello. Good job Samuel!

winning the Stick Horse Rodeo

On the last Saturday of January, Samuel and Ezra participated in the Stock Show's World's Smallest Rodeo Stick Horse competition. 

We are not cowboys in this family (despite going to Rainbow Bible Ranch every summer), but Terry's folks are ranchers. It was them who saw an ad in the paper about the Stick Horse Rodeo and thought it would be great for the grandkids, Samuel, Ezra, Grace, and Sarah. They were right!

So Terry took in all of their registrations and Evie got the boys all wrangled together to do some stick horse rodeo practicing. That girl is seriously amazing. Mommy doesn't do this stuff but the eight year old daughter does. Wow.

So we arrived at the Civic Center, the kids picked out their stick horses, and everyone got in line. The kids were exactly like cattle in the shoots leading to the corral. Ha!

Next the rodeo queens were introduced followed by the three different age groups of kids. Samuel and Grace were just barely still five years old and so able to participate. 

Three year old Ezra. Sarah was nearby but I don't think I got a picture of her. Notice how we only had one cowboy dress up costume and Samuel got it since it was his. Ha ha, poor Ezra, maybe next year.

The kids first competed in pole bending. Samuel and Grace below:

Ezra and Sarah

Next came barrel racing.

Ezra followed his little rodeo queen around the barrels.

Samuel's video:




Ezra's race:




In the end they let the kids just ride wild in the corral. It was adorable and looked like so much fun.

Ezra.

Ezra and Samuel. Grace was there too but Sarah had ducked out for this part. I guess she had enough.

There's the whole wild horse ride.



Afterwards we were so surprised to hear Samuel's number called as the winner for the 5 year old boy group! Shortly thereafter we were approached by a reporter wanting an interview with Samuel and one of us! Whoa.

This cute little reporter pulled Samuel and Terry over to a quieter area and I stood at a distance observing. All I really saw was her asking Samuel questions to which he shrugged his shoulders in answer to. Inwardly I cringed a little. I wondered if she would be able to piece together any actual words from him!

We were very pleasantly surprised when we watched the piece on the 9 o'clock news that evening. Samuel did fantastic! He was so cute!

Here is the actual transcript of the aired piece and video:

The Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo continues, and on Saturday children showed off their stick horse skills.

Black Hills FOX Reporter Katrina Lim takes us to the World's Smallest Rodeo.

At the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, children from three to five years old showed how well they could handle stick horses.

First they zoomed through pole bending and dashed through barrel racing.

Then they finished the rodeo off with a wild horse ride.

Four-year-old Emsley Whittington participated in the World's Smallest Rodeo last year and prepped for the big day with some shopping.

Emsley Whittington says, "Buy new boots yesterday and eat breakfast."

Some kids did some nose dives, but most of them just enjoyed themselves and got back up.

Samuel B. won the five-year-old category for boys and says his favorite event was the wild horse ride.

Samuel B. says, "I like that one, but I fell once. I fell once, but I just got back up and ran."

Samuel's father Terry B. is proud of his son's win, but at first he was unsure how he would do.

Terry B. says, "We were a little unsure how he would do because he's never been in something like this and we didn't know if he'd want to participate, but he got into it and did really great."

Emsley's grandfather Dave Whittington enjoys seeing the kids have fun and says they all had different "riding" styles.

Dave Whittington says, "It's a lot of fun. It's exciting to see different kids do it a little bit differently. Some look like they've practiced a lot and others it may be their first time on a stick horse."

B. says his son was actually able to get some practice in beforehand.

Terry B. says, "The day that he found out, his sister actually set up a little course for him and his younger brother. They both were in it today and so she made them practice barrel racing and stuff like that. They got really pumped up right away when they found out that they were going to do it so they had a little practice."

Youth Rodeo Queens were on-hand to help the rodeo contestants.

And there was a boy winner and a girl winner in each age category.

The Stock Show started on Friday and will go on until February 5th.

Katrina Lim, Black Hills FOX News.

Samuel won a little gift certificate for a free pair of jeans or shirt. What a fun, fantastic day it turned out to be!

refinishing the dining room table

This is what kept me busy while the biggers were at camp: refinishing our dining room table.

In 2007, right before we had moved away to Gburg, we had purchased several items from Unpainted Furniture using the big bucks I had made at my first nursing job at the hospital - our armoire, dining room table and chairs. That table has treated us well over the last nine years. However, our kids have not returned the favor...

The table is made of a soft wood called alder and the kids have been steadily gouging away at it. Ezra seems like the biggest culprit but I think all of them have banged their silverware down into it over the years. Initially I put six coats of polyurethane down when I first finished it. Two years later when we bought two tall kid chairs, I added four more coats of poly. It seems ten coats was not enough to protect it. Plus, the color was yellowing and I just hate yellow wood.

Because we were going to be gone for two full weeks in July I thought it was a good time to refinish and let it have time to really cure. Halfway through Noah and Evie's trip to Rainbow Bible Ranch I got started. Terry was at youth group and I was sanding away for the afternoon and evening. The littles and I even had to go buy more sanding discs.

It didn't take as long as I thought it would. 

I put one coat of Weathered Oak down, hoping to imitate my $10 coffee table finish...

Like an idiot, I put two more coats of Weathered Oak on and ended up with a blue table! 

The next day I put two coats of Special Walnut down. I hated it!!! I didn't want a black table. I wanted a light brown table with gray undertones. Obviously, my plan failed. 

Here is the overview. Gray, gray, gray, brown, brown = bad.

I did not want to be stuck with a table I despised, having to look at it and be reminded of my disgust every single day...so I decided to start over. I let it sit overnight and then started sanding it down once more with the orbital sander. It was incredibly slow going. 

Even though the tabletop was dry to the touch, when I'd saw off a layer, it was pretty wet underneath. The sanding discs kept getting coated with gummy stain. I went through a lot of them.

I would lift up my sander and chunks of stain would just go flying everywhere.

I made a huge mess.

I kept at it through the darkest moments when I thought I'd never get there, berating myself the entire time, and I finally overcame all the stain. 

Boy was I glad to see that bare wood again.

While contemplating the dark black stain and the steps I had taken to get there, I realized that I loved most the color I had put down in the very beginning - one coat of Weathered Gray. After we returned from camp on Friday night, I took the plunge... 

I LOVED IT!!! 

Getting some poly down...

Finally, before our trip to Wyoming, we brought it inside. 

Right now we have the original two leaves in the table because Nathan, Ana and their kids are here. But this is a good comparison to what it was before.

It was a shock to see how much lighter it was, but I love, love, LOVE it! I don't regret starting over at all. It's even better in real life so come and see it.