June Happenings

Guildy Turns 7!!!

Yep, Guildy turned 7 last week. Here she is with the amazing cake that Grandma Linda artfully crafted for her. (This beautiful gluten-free pastry was Linda's Redeemer Cake for last year's ballerina cake, which melted, ran, and oozed, causing the little ballerina on top to faint face down in a puddle of variegated frosting:o) We had a little party with family and a few friends at the pool. The kids swam, did  a scavenger hunt, beat up on a pinata, ate tacos, and generally had a good time. 

Party sister:o)

Our friend Jacqui, her grandson Wade, and Talby. 

Cute people, bad lighting. Grandma Lisa and baby niece Milli. 

Father's Day

A Father's Day horseback ride for Guildy and Hadley. 

 Puppies=Chaos! 

First, we got King. He is a purebred border collie. He came from one of Josh's dad's dogs and had just one littler mate. Thus, he arrived fat and happy. Like all border collie pups, he is a complete land shark and spends his time biting, chewing, chasing, and generally harassing. But he's super cute and he worships Josh, which is what we want in a cow dog.  

Then, on Monday, we got Mousy. Josh found her litter on Craigslist down in the  Bay Area.  Thanks to Mapquest technology, I made the epic journey down there by myself and made it out alive, so I was pretty pleased about that.  In contrast to King, Mousy came from a litter of 8 and looks a little like a Honduran street dog. But she is already gaining weight and looking better.  She is half border collie, half American Stafforshire terrior, which is a big bull dog. We wanted a big, calm, loyal dog to hang out with the girls, and so far she is perfect. The girls pack her around and she spends hours following them and watching them play. 

While there are no dogs in this picture, it does nicely showcase Talby's new haircut (I cut off her aggressive toddler mullet a couple weeks ago) and Hadley's faithful commitment to her black rubber boots. 

And unrelated to anything else, this is just a comical picture of the Browning girls....

Horse Camp!

Guildy's birthday gift from Grandpa Mike is a week at horseback riding camp. A lady a few miles away has a great facility and does lots of day camps during the summer. Yesterday, after her first morning of camp, Guildy declared, "It was the best day of my life so far." So I guess she's having fun.

I think the pig's name is Snuggles. She lives at the stable with the horses and provides lots of entertainment. And, of course, she wouldn't miss a trip to the creek. 

Riding bareback down to the creek for a swim.

That's one patient, kid-broke horse....

 

A kid-sized donkey....

To Montana....and Oregon....and Back

A couple weeks ago, we made the trek up to Montana to retrieve a few things we had in storage there. Josh got his pickup and tools, which he had been missing terribly, and headed straight back to California. The girls and I spent a few extra days in Circle and Bozeman and went home through Oregon so we could visit my brother Lee. I did a pretty poor job of taking pictures, but here are a few that I did manage to get.

Four and five-year-olds just can't seem to produce a real smile for a picture. Hadley and Adelyn are severely plagued by this problem right now:o)

We finally got to meet baby Ava!! And doesn't her mama look gorgeous!

Dinner with the Egelines and the Bents.

The girls were in swimsuits our first day in Bozeman and in  snow the last day. This is the transitional season commonly referred to as "Sprinter" in Montana. 

 

The girls with Uncle LeeRoy in Oregon. Eastern Oregon is beautiful. I can see why he likes it so much there. 

My great uncle and aunt Phil and Mary. We got to see them twice on our way to and from Circle, and it was so nice to get caught up.  

Prairie Elk

A couple weeks ago when I was in Montana, I took the girls out to the ranch where I grew up. I hadn't been out there in about 8 years, so the girls had never seen it. 

Hadley, Talby, and Guildy standing on the catwalk along the chute. 

Very seriously assembling a horse skull and jaw bones on the way up to the Cave Hill. 

The house and buildings are all falling down, but the Cave Hill  is still the same:o)

My brother Shanon's really deep initials carved in the Cave Hill. I'm pretty sure he did this in 1985 or '86 on a  Prairie Elk School field trip. That was the one room school house we went to at that time. I remember him working on his initials long after everyone else had quit. None of my old initials are still there, and I didn't take the time to carve a new set. Maybe next time. 

Prairie Elk Creek- still red and nasty and able to kill the hardiest of cows. 

My and my brothers' hand prints on the front steps.

The maroon VW Rabbit on which I learned to drive a manual and the 1950 Ford hay truck on which I perfected  those skills:o) The old Ford looks pretty much like it did when I was driving it in junior high and still had air in the tires. I bet it wouldn't take much to get it running. 

The Ford's dash.....

 

This was the cement mixing wagon when I was a kid. 

 

The sign at Weldon junction.