horse camp

Emily did something new this summer...horse camp!  She loved it.  Absolutely loved it.  Enough so that she is trying to talk me into riding lessons.  The camp we tried with good recommendation was way out in Dodge, WI, so about a 25 min drive out.  There is a ranch in town, but they only offered M-Th 8am -Noon and this one was M-F 9am-5, for only $25 more.  I think it's funny that you pay a bit over $200 for a week of horse camp and all the kids are doing most of the daily work, ha!  She loved the resident cats (pictured with Bilbo above) and dogs (pictured with Tina below).  They had riding lessons and craft time (good ones too!) and worked cleaning stalls and feeding all the horses being boarded.  She even stuffed her backpack with carrots one morning as a treat for a special horse.  I wish I could have seen her ride, but they ride later in the morning and in the afternoon before chores.  Thankfully they took some pictures of the kids and sent them out to everyone.  

Emily and her pony, Candycane.

coming to a close

 Summer swim league is just about done!  Em had her final 2 meets last Saturday in La Crescent and today in Onalaska, WI.  Last Saturday was awful.  Rain + no umbrellas + no sitter for the boys = torture.  We got through it though and Em swam good.  She did a couple relays I think, breast and fly.  She won her breast race by something like 4 seconds.  Which in swimming.... is a lot, ha!  (I'm not sure how stiff the competition was in that one though.... :) )

 These are from this mornings meet in Onalaska.  She did 2 relays, back and breast today.  Big thanks to Katie who came and took the boys for me for a few hours!  Seriously, swim meets are 100x better when I don't have short little "extras" with me.

 Getting ready for backstroke....

 She's finally learning to just reach instead of worrying about hitting the wall.  She was neck and neck for 1st and Coach thinks she won it, so we'll see come ribbon time.

 Em's final event, the Free relay.  She swam the last leg.  If you notice the splash in the far left, that's the #4 girl in the next lane taking off.  Emily is waiting for our #3 girl to touch so she can go.  I figured that Em would be trailing since that other #4 girl got such a head start.  But, half way down, she kicked it into high gear and got head to head and passed her in the last couple of seconds.  It was her most exciting race yet!  The girls won both relays.

Half of the dynamic 8 & Under Free relay!   She just has 1 more week of practice and then off until fall stroke clinic and regular season.   The kids have a busy week coming up.... Camp Wenonah!  All day, everyday.  Both of them  :)

girly girl

Emily went to a sleepover birthday party on Thursday night.  They went swimming, watched the American Girl McKenna movie and she came home with a big bag full of Justice and Claires goodie bag goodies.  Stella modeled a few.  Hey wait...what is she doing upstairs?!

growing garden

 Time for a garden update.  The heat definitely took its toll on it!  The smaller snap pea plants burnt out.  We did get several on the 1 or 2 larger plants, but that was it.  Got a few trips of radishes before they dried up or were really bitter.  I'm not sure what is up with the green beans.  We picked some, but they tasted awful.  And they were purple inside :/  Heat damage as well?  Who knows.  The plants still have lots of buds so we'll see what we get.  Not sure yet for potatoes, carrots and onions since I don't think they are ready.  The beets and lettuces/spinach burnt out.  But, we are drowning in tomatoes!  We usually end up picking 3-4 larger ones, a couple romas and the kids get a handful of grape and cherry a day.  Enough to share with neighbor Carol and neighbor Shirley.  We are surely getting our doses of lycopene a day!  The green peppers would be awesome as well, but I underestimated the size of the tomato plants and they started hovering over the green peppers.  We are getting some though!  Now I know better where to place things next year.  Our little "extra" garden along the fence was toast after the big heatwaves.  The squash started turning yellow immediately and the cucumbers dried up, although there were only a couple anyways.  I think I'd be happy with a garden full of tomatoes and green peppers next summer.  At least they do well in the heat.

Emily's Fair Weekend!

 Pictures from Emily's weekend at the fair!  The Winona county Fair was 2 weekends ago and she participated with her Llamateer 4H group.  We spent nearly all of Friday and Saturday there.  Big thanks to those that helped out with the boys, consider yourselves booked for next year also!  She had a lot of fun.  On Friday they did the main llama show, which was costumes, showmanship, obstacles and llama games.  It lasted over 3 hours!  Then the girls had some "free" time after and ran around doing fun fair stuff, ie: rides!  Emily has meet a really great friend named Shannon from Llamateers, she's a great mentor for her.  She had a lot of her own animals there to show and included Emily in taking care of them while at the fair.  The kids and I went out to their farm in Stockton last week (pictures to come!).

 Llama limbo and the 7 legged race....

 She won some ribbons!  I should have been better about writing down what they were for.  We've been spoiled with swimming ribbons having all the information on them.

Em had a great experience working with Lorraine and her llamas.  We're looking forward to doing the Llama Project next year!  We need to do more brainstorming for costume ideas, but Emily is pretty set on a Bride and Groom.  We'll see!