Llamas are very photogenic

I don't know squat about llamas.  I've heard they can spit but have never seen one do it.  And that's about it.  This week I spent some time in the llama section at the local 4-H fair and learned that they are fairly photogenic and some have a serious under-bite problem!

Apparently some llama's are "princesses" and need carpet and their own personal fan.

She does have quite the regal face, don't you think?  Do pinned ears on a llama mean they are mad like they do on a horse?

This guy was totally curious and wouldn't let me stop taking his picture.  He had great expressions!

I'm not sure if this one is smiling or if that's an evil grin....

Oooh, serious under bite going on here.

Gawd but this one is even worse!

This one was rather shy and kept turning his head on me.

This boy LOVED the camera but that's a face only a mother could love!

Llamas come in lots of different colors too.

And the llamas I called "he" or "she" above...no idea if that's what they were or not!!

Mooooooo!!!!!

It's 4-H Fair week.  These little guys stole my heart.

This one had a shy momma.

Oh dear.  I might have to bring the real camera tomorrow since these were taken with the cell phone....

Portraits II

My Sister

Me.  With my camera and in front of another one!

My Mom

Rained out.....

We were supposed to be at a horse show all day Saturday.  It didn't quite work out the way we planned.

On Friday we packed up, loaded Stanley and headed to Allegan for a Paint show.  When we got there, we unloaded, set up camp including a tent for Motocross Boy, and got in some practice time.  Then we gave Stanley his bath and started clipping.  The power went out at the barns for a while, but we got the clipping done after dinner.

It was very hot and very humid.  The heat index was 102.  Before 10, everyone headed into the trailers because the bugs were so bad and the A/C inside felt so good.

Unfortunately, I wasn't all that tired yet and had delayed having a sleep inducing cocktail until after my shower which turned out to happen just minutes before the bugs turned into beasts.  Since Scott and Equestrian Girl commandeered the bed, I was left with the couch where the A/C was dripping and a cocktail to drink in the dark by myself.  I don't like to drink alone.

I also don't like Chinese water torture.  At all.

And almost 13 year old boys sleeping in a tent when a monsoon blows in can rob a mom of sleep too.  Especially when he calls at 4:00 a.m. to say he's the only thing holding the tent down.

In my sleep deprived state of mind at 7:30 a.m. when they decided to cancel the show because of the rain and underwater conditions of the arena, I wasn't too bummed.  Now that I've had a nap and some food, I  feel bad that we didn't get to show today.  This would have been Scott's first Paint show with us this year and only 2nd show all season....

Portraits

Motocross Boy

Wolf Girl (my niece) 

Equestrian Girl

My Dad and his big sister, Gail

BBQ Men

Normally for Christmas in July we do the whole traditional Christmas turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  This year, not only was it really too hot to add all that heat to the kitchen, we had extra guests coming for dinner after the gift exchange so we went for summer picnic fare of hot dogs and hamburgers.  

Motocross Boy recently learned how to use the grill for hot dogs so he encroached on David's grill to sling his dogs with the best of them!

And keeping true to the male grilling tradition, he handled his tongs with one hand while snacking with the other!

Christmas in July Part 3

This year we had a special surprise when my cousin Diane came down from Boyne City with her husband and boys and my Dad's sister came over too.

Motocross Boy was happy to have another boy to play with!

Grandpa loaded up his squirt gun and got in on the action.  We saw him fly through the backyard - I don't think he's ran that fast in years - but Equestrian Girl went for the big gun - the hose!

My cousin Diane and her baby.

Grandpa finally traded in his squirt gun for his camera but his targets didn't stand too still.

Next came the Silly String again!

The Equestrian Girl unloaded on Cousin-D when a duck turned into a goose.

But when the beast arose...he went after them with a vengeance!

But girls are sneaky.  The girl cousins planned their next move with cunning and skill.

Can you see them in this picture??

I think the military makes a big mistake in not allowing women in combat.  I remember playing "war" as a kid and the girls ALWAYS beat the boys!!

Christmas in July Part 2

The Christmas in July idea is big with the kids.  Grandma and Grandpa take them shopping in the weeks leading up to the big day and let them pick out stuff they want.  Sometimes they buy it and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they go back and buy stuff that they said they wanted as a surprise!

And sometimes the bags are bigger than the kids!

Motocross Boy was big on the X-Box stuff this year including a wireless thingy for X-Box live.

Equestrian Girl went for clothes and perfumes.  Bath and Body works will never be the same after her visit there.

The men get fun stuff like golf shirts.

And golf gift certificates.

My sister and I generally get the same things from Mom & Dad so we open them together.  This year is was a nifty pink cordless computer mouse!  We also got dessert plates.  This works good - we have lots of matching dishes so when we go to each other's house and bring dishes to serve, we can leave the dirty one and take a clean one.  Not shown in pictures are the heavy duty floor mats I got for my truck and my sister's big ladder.  We are nothing if not practical!

But we don't look much alike any more, do we?

Merry Christmas! In July!

Our family has a fun tradition that started years ago after my parents moved to Florida and stopped flying home in December for Christmas.  Instead, we do it in the middle of July!

Every year my mom saves up all her change and we start Christmas with the kids dividing up all Grandma's change between the 3 grandkids.  This started out being to "pay" them for cleaning up all the wrapping paper and boxes but it's kind of loss that meaning and is just a bunch of money now!

Next Grandma and Grandpa get to open their gifts.  Sometimes they need help.

Sometimes they don't know what they got.

This year that happened a lot.

Luckily David, my sister's SO got them something they recognized - a BBQ spatula!  You can see him in the mirror looking pretty proud of his idea.

The spatula came in handy a few minutes later to open the Crate & Barrel box!

Next up - the kids get to open their presents!

My Boy...

My boy will be 13 next month.  Gulp.

I don't think I can handle it.  I want this back:

Behind the scenes at a horse show...

I'm usually much too busy to take pictures "behind the scenes" at a horse show, and especially at one of our open shows where we show out of the trailer and I ride a few classes too.  Then it's all about rushing to put tack on, change clothes, pull tack off, change clothes, put more tack on, change clothes, and so on.  And all the while keeping an eye on Stanley to make sure he's safe, has water and plenty of hay, and isn't untying himself to wander off in search of grass.

But this past show my Mom and Dad and niece came to watch for a while and snapped some good pictures of us back at the trailer.

Equestrian Girl and Wolf Girl after the last hunt seat class.  And Stanley's butt.

Do I see a pattern here?  Me untacking the horse.  Equestrian Girl changing clothes.

These are the nicest boots we'll probably ever own.  They are also a bear to get off.  I literally have to use ALL my weight and strength to get them off.

The people parked next to us had some adorable yorkie puppies for sale.  The girls were in love.

Lunch time is over.  Get dressed in Western clothes and Stanley into Western tack.

This is my favorite place to park since there's a bit of shade from this tree.

Wolf Girl looked cute wearing my cowboy hat!  It badly needs cleaning and shaping!

and its back off to ride Western classes now!