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!

Rainbow 2016

We had a week off after the Middle School bike trip and then Noah and Evie went out to Rainbow Bible Ranch together for the week. It was Evie's first time staying for the whole week and Noah's third time. They were able to be the first on their horses when we dropped them off the evening of Monday June 27. There weren't as many of their church friends attending that week, but this way they had a break after the bike trip and the weather was much cooler than it had been the previous week.

It sure was quiet around the house, but I didn't sit around. I finished my pew and refinished our dining table and the boys played outside with me.

 When we went out there Friday afternoon for their rodeo, Evie was one of the first kids to barrel race. 

She was so slow!

She was rather adorable when she rode the horse back because since she is so small that horse jiggled her all over the place and her hair was flapping. 

Noah improved greatly from last year when he had been somewhat afraid of the horses. 

Unless you tell those horses who is boss they are rather slow. Mr. Larry spurred a lot of them on behind the riders. 

After barrel racing came a goat exercise where they had to ride down the corral, jump off their horse, grab the tied cloth off the goat's horns, and tag/tackle the flag holder.

Most of of kids knocked her over.  

Evie's turn. It was funny to watch the kids have to chase the goat down. 

Inside after dinner the kids sang for us, Larry gave us a summary of the week, and some of the kids recited Bible verses. 

Evie forgot how to smile while at camp apparently...

Noah is a whiz at memorizing. 

Noah's 2nd trip to Rainbow

A week after Terry returned from his two-week mission trip in mid-May, we dropped Noah off for his second ever week of camp at Rainbow Bible Ranch. It was definitely strange having him absent from the house during that week. It was so quiet! I think it was good for all of us to have a little space though. We were glad to have him back at the end of the week.

Like I've mentioned, we've had a very wet spring/summer. Therefore, the corral at camp was super muddy and soupy. They could only use a fraction of the total space they had and even that was still pretty thick.

They went alphabetically so we got to see Noah right away. When Larry was introducing Noah to the crowd he nearly called him Terry. He went on to say how Noah looked so much like Terry and how Terry spent a lot of time there as a kid. 

When Noah was getting off his horse in the back and the next kid was going, Larry became distracted by what was going on behind him. He laughed and said something like how he wished we could see what was going on back there. Turns out it was Noah - he had fallen in the mud after he dismounted!

We knew that the afternoon would be a long one since the drive was 40 minutes, there was a rodeo, dinner, and then a show. But for some reason we didn't think to leave the two littles with someone. We took them along. Ezra was happy in the stands for about 10 minutes... 

Then Ez got bored. He came down on the ground with me and spend a lot of time playing in the sandbox. Then he wanted to climb the fence and fall into the mud. We compromised and I held him above the mud. 

Shari, her girls and Grampa came out to watch as well. Here's Evie and Grace by the sandbox. 

Grampa and Sarah.

It was a large group and took a long time for all the kids to have their turn.

Once everyone was done going around the barrels, they went in reverse alphabetic order and raced to take a flag off a calves tail. 

The dismount. Check out his muddy jeans. 

See how muddy that corral was! 

Noah sat in the stands after his turn and we got to give him a hug. 

Larry went by and his big horse slopped mud on Terry. Ha! 

Dirty boys. 

We had dinner and then listened to the kids sing a couple songs and Larry tell some stories about the week. 

Noah waved at us a lot. He was glad to go home, but he had a good week.