Stoker Crew: July 2011

The time has come for our trip to Africa. Man it seems like a long time coming. But it is finally here. From those of you who don't know, but Blake's boss for Christmas 2010 gave us a trip to South Africa. I have a whole post about the trip. That will be in a separate post. I tried to keep an accurate entry for each day we were there, since as you can see I have not been very good about posting very timely. But we are getting there.

We had some help packing, in fact I think she would have tried to stow-away if she could. We tried to get as packed as much as we could before leaving on 7 July. With the 4th of July so close and both families liking to do so much we tried not to spread ourselves too thin. We managed and were able to go to the cabin and have a day in the sun.

POTTY TRAINING UPDATE
Potty training is going okay for the most part. I finally was brave enough to make the switch from pull-ups to panties during the day. Time wise she will have been in panties 2 weeks prior to us leaving. I hope it goes well. Kennedy in reality hasn't had too many accidents. Only 1 or 2 maybe a week. Hope she keeps doing good.

Since we packed as much as we could we went to the cabin for a couple of nights.

Kennedy with her helmet. She didn't cry

this time. BONUS. Snowmobiling she

didn't like it too much. It is so big. Helmets

start at the age of 3. Utah law requires anyone

under 18 to wear a helmet while riding on an ATV, etc.

Riding Mr. B. Kennedy still doesn't quite love them enough

to go on a ride out of the drive of the cabin. Maybe next year.

Earlier in the morning after breakfast my dad and Blake saddled the horses up. I rode Mr. B since last September we put Chance down. It is a bit weird without him. I now understand when people lose just that little bit of enjoyment when their pride and joy isn't around any more. Still love riding. Wish I had more time. I look back and wonder how my parents ran my brother and me around while still making time for the horses. They are a 24/7 operation. Not like an ATV that you only have to feed when you use them.

The horses were saddled and we ready to hit the trail. I really wanted Kennedy to come, but by the time the horses were saddled she had fallen asleep. Which in hindsight was a good thing. My dad was leading and he was riding Blackjack. He has been working with her for about 2 years now training her to be a mountain horse. Blake rode Bobby Jo, I rode Mr. B while leading Maudie. Usually my dad rides and leads another horse. But today he wanted me too. We got off the rode and went on the trail that my dad has taken me on since I was a kid. No surprises right. Well, along the trail a tree got Blake's hat. He was at the end of the horse train. So we sat and waited. I was in front. The trail here is cut into the side hill of the mountain. The slope is not gradual slope, it slope probably 20% grade. It is steep in other words. As my dad and I are waiting for Blake, next thing I know his horse has stumbled, lost her balance I am not sure. But I can tell you there was not enough room on the trail to stand side-by-side. My dad grabs my horses lead rope and down the hill Blackjack and he slide. (just a bit scary.) They land just about 3 - 5 feet below me. My dad gets to a point so he doesn't keep going with her, has his feet out of the stirrups and tries to step uphill. Just then Blackjack tries to stand up and steps on my dad's lower leg. (not finding this out till we got back to the cabin.) As Blackjack stands she gets into goes down the hill further into a willow bush. My dad has her lead rope or some reins. She looked as if she was ready to give up and just roll down the mountain. Just then my dad says, "DON'T YOU ROLL! Because if you do, you ain't coming out." The reason she wouldn't probably be coming out is that she was only about 5 feet from the creek. If she would have rolled, she could have hurt her back and possibly as she came a round broke one or more of her legs. If her one or more of her legs were broke no getting her up to move. Fortunately, she did not roll and needless to say it was a bit edgy and scary. Blackjack got her whits about herself and managed to walked to the creek. My dad walked down to her and got her lead ropes and walked her back up the trail.

Meanwhile, Mr. B and Maudie are getting a bit antsy. And since I am leading Maudie she should be behind me right, nope. In all of this she managed to get in front of me. As I look ahead a tree has fallen right on the trail. The tree trunk is too big for the the horses to step over. My dad had handed Blackjack off to Blake and he came and grabbed Maudie. Me being used to Chance didn't keep good head control of Mr. B, which was very bad. Because as my dad was walking up leading Maudie, Mr. B decided to follow very closely. The tension in the air is tight because of what just happened. I remember my dad saying you want to get me killed. I pulled my head out and got serious. As Mr. B started going up, Blake brought his horse forward. Well since I wasn't suppose to go and just waiting on the hill wasn't a good idea, Mr. B ended up sliding down the mountain into the horses below. I then I had back Mr. B up VERY quickly so Blake and his horses didn't do the same thing down the mountain into the creek. We had to go about about 20-30 feet of this tree trunk to get around. After we got around we took a breather for the horses and us (sigh.)

We continued on our ride because my dad didn't want Blackjack to think it was acceptable to act like that and then her reward be to turnaround and go home. We got to the top and started to work our way down the mountain. My dad did not want to deal with the down tree on the way back, so we took another trail. My dad was leading with Blackjack, Blake on Bobby Jo leading Maudie, and me bringing up the end. I thought it seemed weird and we got half way down the mountain and my dad says "I'm getting off and going to walk Blackjack." Blake was like I better get off too. So I asked "do I need to get off?" It wasn't that steep in my mind. My dad has taken me into some harry stuff and this would not be one of those times. Mostly because of where he has taken me, I never know how bad it is until I told someone what happen or where we went on a ride. Plus I have come off this mountain this way many times before. Next, thing I know Blackjack has lost her balance and began sliding down the hill. I want to say she even rolled once. Away she went and my dad let go of the lead rope. Fortunately there was a tree that stopped her. When she stood up, she was shaking like a scared dog with it tail between it legs. As she did this my dad was just starting to switch back down the hill so we didn't go just straight down. Blake was actually closer to Blackjack. He threw my dad the two horses leads he had and he went to get Blackjack. I started my switch back and my dad his. Just then he unhooked Maudie's lead rope and let her pick her way down the trail. I past my dad, as I did he also let Bobby Jo go. Blake started making his way to the bottom with Blackjack and were down first. Again we took a slight break. As we were waiting I asked my dad if he could tell she was going to something weird again. He said "her breathing started to change and didn't want anything bad to happen to either one of them." Also the few weeks prior to this when I went with my dad riding I was leading while riding Mr. B. But I just wasn't leading one horse, but two. I then said "this is why you had me lead last time to because you haven't been to trusting of Blackjack." He said "yup."

We got back to the cabin in one piece considering all that happened on our adventurous ride. Now after all this I am glad Kennedy fell asleep. She would have made the situations worse because she would have been crying and scaring the horses or we could have had some people seriously hurt.

Getting ready for a ATV ride.

Kennedy being the photographer.

Maybe we should invest a kid tough camera.

Grandpa and Grandma

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Lew

Kennedy "wanting" help with the laundry.

Playing in the closet.

The morning of the 4th of July we headed down the Stoker's for a party. We had some brunch and then the kids played on the trampoline and in the water.

Kennedy, Cousin Mason, Cousin Ellie, and Cousin Jordan

Majority of all the grand kids

Brooke, Brayden, MaKayla, Kamryn, (Sarah) Ellie,

Brinley, Mason, Kennedy, Kaitlyn, and Jordyn.
Sarah was lucky to be in the picture. Kamryn
wasn't being too cooperative.

All the 2 year old cousins.

Mason (July 2009), Kennedy (May 2009),

Avery (March 2009), Tyler (Dec 2008)

Kennedy is the size of the 1 year old cousins.

The ones her age tower over her.

Good things come in small packages. Right?

Kennedy taking more pictures.

Kennedy watching fireworks.

Kennedy's first sparkler.

I don't have lots in between of what took place in the month since we were gone. But we brought Kennedy a couple of souvenirs. This is her baby. Let me tell you what in trying to find a baby in Africa. Not easy.