Memorial Day Weekend

I'm a little behind in wishing everyone a wonderful Memorial Day, but I hope not too late in thanking all those who have and are still serving in our armed forces for their dedicated service. In particular (please forgive me if I forget someone) Jim's Dad, Larry; Jim's brothers Nicholas and Tim; brothers-in-law, Tim McDonald and Dave Lemilin; Julie's Uncles Toni and Rich, and our dear friends, Bud Vander Well and Matthew Parrino. You all are so very special for all you have done and are doing for our country... THANK YOU!!!!

Rain was forecasted all weekend, so we opted not to go camping. Instead, Saturday we trailered up to Coon Rapids and rode at White Rock Conservancy. A perfect sunny day with a slight breeze had us trail riding in timber, through fields and a creek crossing for good measure. Our ride ended with us having lunch in the shade as the horses rested at the tie cable, but not before "EMT Jim to the Rescue"... As we were unsaddling the horses a gal next to us had her horse rear as she mounted. She fell hard and was knocked out. She came to quickly, but couldn't recall getting on the horse, so 911 was called. Turns out Jim had been on a horse related emergency call for her once before and she recognized him - go figure! She felt a little better as time went on and she declined further treatment. (Thus the reason we now wear helmets when we ride)

Sunday we had feeders to build, lawns to mow (thanks to the Nowysz boys for all their fabulous help), this and that and the other to do, so we could take another day to ride on Monday, which we did! We headed out to Red Rock to ride on Monday morning. The forecast called for rain later in the afternoon, so we figured we had plenty of time to get in a ride.

A chilly and cloudy day of only 62 degrees had us in sweatshirts and me in gloves, but it was a really nice park and trails. Jim had his handy dandy Blackberry along so we kept tabs on the rain clouds via the Internet (boy would that have been handy years ago!) After an hour and a half Jim called the trail ride early due to impending rain. By the time we got the girls unsaddled back at the trailer it began to rain. So we loaded the tack and the girls back into the back end trailer, while we made sandwiches and ate our lunch in the front... testing the heater!!

Well, it wasn't raining yet back home! And we couldn't very well celebrate Memorial Day without a BBQ, now could we?! So Jim fired up the grill and we had some mouth-watering steaks and baked potatoes- MMM, MMMM!

Then I was whining about not being able to sit by a campfire, so Mr. Firefighter made that happen too!

The dogs even seemed to enjoy the campfire... for a whopping 15 minutes... when it started to rain!! Oh, well, at least it held off until after dinner!! :) Hope you all had a terrific holiday weekend!