Pint sized Cowboys

You know those friends, the ones you haven't seen in ages and yet, when you finally do see them, things pick right back up where they left off? For me, this is my friend Ashley; my best friend and partner-in-crime all through elementary and high school. Ash and I rarely see each other these days, but when we pulled up to her house for dinner this past weekend, it was like I was sixteen and headed over for a sleepover with Bucky (my high school horse....yes, our horses generally slept over too) rather than rounding the corner towards thirty and pulling up with three kids and a husband in tow.

Ash and her fiancé, Richard, live on a great piece of property about twenty minutes from our house. Their ranch is filled with dogs, horses, trees to climb, huge open lawn to run amuck on, and in general all things fun for little boys. Ashley had invited us to come out for dinner and had tossed around the idea of throwing the boys up on one of her five horses. Not sure if it would come to pass, I made sure not to make mention of anything other than seeing horses to the boys. Sure enough though (and I should have known, really), Ash was true to her word. Not more than ten minutes into our arrival there, the boys had her roped into catching a horse and letting them ride.

Meet "Dillan". Dillan is Ashley's cutting horse and was so patient with the two eager little rubber boots clad munchkins that had hopped up on him. After a quick lesson on how to make a horse stop and go, and how to steer...

...Drew was up and running all on his "own"

Same lesson for Collin...

...and off he went too!

Eventually they roped me and my uber rusty horse riding skills back up in the saddle (and in shorts no less. Nothing says "city-kid" more than shorts and tennies on a cutting horse!). Anyway, we put Drew up in front of me so that he could feel what it felt like to jog and lope, aaaaaand, eventually Ash and I fell back into old high school habits and played "cow". One person on the ground is the "cow" and the other up on the horse gets to cut. We told Drew to hold on tight and then let Dillan loose on his "cow". (Did I mention Ash is six months pregnant?? Superstar.)

When we were all done, we hosed Dillan off and set off for new adventures around the property.

And adventures they found! A surprise monster truck Richard had hiding in the shop...

...trees to climb and many a round of hide and go seek to be played...

...silliness to be had (although Coll hardly said five words the entire time we were there!)...

...and puppies to play with.

We had a blast and it was so much fun to catch up (so much in fact, that I forgot to get a picture of me and Ashley together as I had intended to! Next time). Thanks again She She and Richard!

After a fun weekend, our week unfortunately took a sharp turn for the somber as we had to say goodbye to our old boy on Monday. He was a great friend to each of our kids and oh so loyal. He has left a big hole in our family and will be greatly missed.

Wrigley

November 13, 2002 - April 22, 2013