Bareback Lessons, Bee Stings & Tire Trouble

I could hear Aislyn quietly sneaking in and out to visit Mr. Jenkins around 7 while the rest of the house still slept. I stayed curled up in bed editing and sorting through the many riding photos from yesterday — so many photos and even more hilarious facial expressions.

Eventually Ais wandered in to quietly chat, pet the dogs, and help me laugh over some of the pictures while S continued sleeping. She also popped back out to give J some dry food.

The two of us finally headed to the kitchen for breakfast where I made coffee while she happily settled for cereal and a banana. Ada joined us not long after, also opting for cereal sans banana, while S eventually wandered in bringing up the rear choosing only coffee.

The morning stayed relaxed as we looked through riding photos and laughed at funny faces before S showered and headed off to church with the girls.

While they were gone, I caught up on tutorial sharing, started tackling blog catch-up, and squeezed in my weight workout since I had skipped it yesterday. Naturally, both dogs supervised the entire thing very seriously.

I was in the middle of watering houseplants when the church crew returned just before noon carrying hot dogs and buns. The girls immediately were back into art mode while S cooked wieners for lunch.

Afterward, it was impossible to stay inside with temperatures hitting 22 degrees and absolutely gorgeous weather outside.

Today’s riding lesson theme was bareback riding.

The girls started by grooming Miss Roo before I led each of them around individually. Next the girls took a turn lead lining too. By the end of the lesson, both girls were confidently doing solo bareback rides and absolutely loving it.

Britt and Cooper arrived while lessons were underway. She caught Bird and gave her a trim while the girls continued riding.

Meanwhile, I moved over to the west flower bed to weed and prune shrubs. Unfortunately, the very first thing I did was kneel directly onto a poor bee. So now I once again have a random painful swollen spot completely caused by my own actions. What are the odds I did this twice in a month, I should buy a lottery ticket with those odds.

Aislyn was out to help, including delivering dandelions to the horses after helping B with feeding chores. Ada, meanwhile, stayed happily occupied on the deck arranging fort pieces and creating her own little setup.

B and Cooper headed home shortly after 3 because she was off to "The Fray" concert with Shaina and Matt later that evening. Busy butterfly B definitely packed a lot into one weekend.

S spent part of the afternoon watering the little evergreens using water from the under-deck tanks while hoping the forecasted rain would actually show up and refill things. I continued bouncing between gardening projects until Amanda arrived before 4 to pick up the girls and Clover.

We had a quick visit before they headed home, Amanda had an unexpected tire issue this weekend.

As if on cue, we discovered the Mercedes had one too.

S aired the tire up and quickly found the culprit — a giant three-inch nail. He figured a simple patch kit would solve the problem, but of course it immediately turned into a much bigger ordeal than expected.

While he wrestled with the tire situation, I tackled more long-overdue house projects including bathroom cleaning, orchid care, and adding gold detailing to the little bird cage decor piece I’m currently color changing.

For supper I prepped veggie packs for the BBQ and timed them perfectly with steak and hockey for first period.

Intermission, however, became full tire-repair chaos.

There were a few more trips outside to try a different repair solution before racing back in to catch more hockey. I wrote up an ad to finally list our car for sale to see if indeed we will buy a new one.

Eventually S declared the tire fixed — hopefully permanently this time — and was able to relax not he couch.

Once hockey wrapped up, we went for a soak in the crystal clear, super full hot tub then finished watching Balls Up before finally calling it a night after one very long, busy, sunshine-filled day.

Look at these 2 cuties <3