JB in the "Wings Like Eagles" Performance

Waiting in line to perform on the horse with his friend, Rachel.

An enthusiastic run, skip, hop to the horse when it is his turn to vault on Sailor.

Go JB!

The dismount...

...recovered!
Can you tell that JB enjoyed every minute of riding camp?

Benaiah's Wilderness Experience

Benaiah trying to walk to the log

He was very interested in the tall grass and would play with one piece for a while.

"There aren't any bears out here, right Dad?"

Yeah, I made it!

Mountain Hike

View from the drive up Mt Herman

View of Pikes Peak from Mt Herman

Benaiah and mom - as Gramma Shell would say - Benaiah is having a "picnic"

Relaxing among the aspens in a very pretty meadow.

Tamsey's Birthday

JB and Gloria helping me blow out my birthday candles. This is the year I will stay the same age for the rest of my life - 29 years! Max took me ring shopping for my birthday to replace the antique engagement ring I have been wearing daily for the past 9 years. I will save the antique ring for special occasions now.

I also got to have my wisdom teeth out two days later...I made sure it wasn't scheduled on or before my birthday...gotta be able to have birthday dinner and cake! Now all I'm eating is yogurt, fluids, soft scrambled eggs, and lots of Motrin! I'm no longer plagued with the future occurance of getting my wisdom teeth out...now it's just getting through the recovery.

JB in Riding Camp "Wings Like Eagles"

JB waiting his turn to vault on Sailor, the horse borrowed for camp from good friends and neighbors, the Couchmans.

JB on Sailor led by Wings Like Eagles counselors.

JB about to get into a kneeling position on Sailor.

I think this position is called The Candle

JB got to do two whole weeks of riding and vaulting camp here at the ranch in a program called "Wings Like Eagles". It has been going on since Max was a teenager, so JB is, in a way, following in his Daddy's footsteps. Maybe some day he can be a counselor too. JB loved camp and never wants it to end. He is going to wonder where all the people went come tomorrow, which is Monday. Yesterday was the very last day of camp this year and was topped off with a performance by the campers and counselors.

Horse Issues

New foal, "'Lil Bub", nursing on her mother, Abby. It looks like kind of an awkward nursing position to me:).

The kids and I watching a stallion, Bunco, get acupuncture for an injured back. He had to be drugged because he wouldn't let the procedure happen without a fight.

Bunco and Michele getting ready for acupuncture by a vet.

Tornado Shelter!

This picture was taken 2-3 weeks ago. Sorry I didn't have a title or text with it before. Max went ahead and published the post before I got the chance to write anything with it. In the last few weeks we were in KS there were 2 tornado warnings, which means that a tornado was actually spotted and was heading our way. The kids thought it was very exciting that we had to use our tornado shelter (a.k.a. basement bathroom). The second time that the tornado sirens went off, the movers were still moving our household goods into the semi-truck. This was at about 8:30pm and we still had lots of our stuff in the driveway because the driver was carefully and s l o w l y packing the truck like a giant puzzle. Benaiah and I were at a friends house having dinner (as the tornado sirens went off), but Max was outside filming the wall cloud and the funnel cloud and trying to get things into the semi and out of the rain.

Tube Riding Relaxation

Max and JB riding the tube. Max also water skied, but those came out blurry. It had been eight years since either of us last water skied and it was along the Ten-Tom River in Mississippi. Max co-worker and friend, "Yav", took us out on his boat.


Tamsey on the tube. Yav's daughter and Gloria sitting at the back of the boat.

Kids happily stranded on the tube...they liked it better when it wasn't moving than when it was moving. They seemed to enjoy riding behind the boat on the tube, but I think once was enough for one day.

Max's Finis-Flight

Okay, so I posted these backwards, so if you want to see them in order start at the bottom.



JB and Gloria got to sit in the hot hot cock-pit after his last flight at McConnell.



Max feeling the spray from the fire extinguishers.





Family-finis picture






I don't think that Max knew we were going to be there hosing him down with fire-extinguishers, but you might ask him. We were trying to make it a surprise. JB and Gloria got to press the handles to drench him.







Ice water poured from above by his boom operator on the flight. I'm sure this felt good because it was a very hot day and a hot flight circling the pattern. I sort of felt bad afterward that we didn't spray the rest of the crew because they were looking a bit warm and envious. Fortunately, the ice water gave him a shock.

Last Run on the Slide

This is Gloria's first summer that she is willing to do the slide with JB. This was the last time we had the orange slide blown up and used in KS. We ended up throwing it away so that it did not have to be moved and because it was on its last legs. It was sad, but we'll look forward to a new one in Alabama...or maybe just new and different experiences...although I'm sure a water slide would feel really nice out there.

Mulberry makeup

These were taking after getting home from mulberry picking-and-eating. We didn't save any of them because they were eaten so fast. We knew we wouldn't have time to can them with moving and all so we didn't do like we did two years ago and whack the trees with PVC pipe with a big tarp underneath.

Catch up

We have moved out of Derby, KS, but I still have some good pictures to share from there. The delay in posting came from first a new laptop that took a while to get set up with all the programs we wanted and the second was moving. We are currently in Monument, CO enjoying some time off.