Pony Club

Here's Sara and Badger after they had completed their testing! He was such a good boy, he earned himself a few treats back at the barn. Also, the girls in the picture below are the peers of the girls taking the tests. I think it's wonderful to teach these kids how to administer test, complete them and help the "newbies" feel more comfortable.
Sara will be heading out this coming Sunday for "OPENING DAY" for the foxhunt season. She will not however be wearing a red jacket, as they have to earn those (kind of like earning your stripes in the army)

Certificate Time

Here's Sara after being awarded her D1 and D2 certificates for the Pony Club Ratings. D1 is the first level when you are a new member. Because that was the first level, they went ahead and completed the second level also. They now want Sara to go and try for her D3 Rating, which is much more involved. This one will take place around December 27. We will have to see if she has managed to soak up the amount of book knowledge that she will need to take it then. We will certainly keep you all posted.

"Catfish Bob"

As you can see, Bob is having a wonderful time with having a pond behind our house! In his spare time, he throws out a line to see what the catch of the day will bring him. Yesterday, he pulled in several huge Catfish. He looked like a little kid pulling in his first ever fish. Anyway, after taking the bait and hook out of the mouth, he gave all of the Catfish to the Mexican workers who were working on a house next door. They were thrilled with their "fresh catch" for dinner.

New Job

Well, for those of you who don't know, I started a new job! Yes, I gave up working with the little kids at the pre-school and moved on to bigger and better things. I am now working at the Citadel! I work in the HESS Building (across the road from Bob) ~ I work with the club sports, with one lady, and also with the classes, schedules, fitness tests, etc. with another lady.
For the most part, the day goes by very quickly and I for sure enjoy my job. The ladies thank me everyday for what I do!!! Not used to that up here, but they are all so very nice.
Bob comes home and deals with the kids when they get home from school, so the logistics were pretty easy to take care of.
I know I will be finishing for the Christmas Holidays somewhere between the 10th and 15th of December, so that will allow me a little trip to Florida to see Mum and Dad (hopefully if the gas prices aren't too high) and both of us will get our "fix"
Until then, have a great weekend and stay out of trouble (if that's possible) :0)

HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!

What a cake! I made Hayden a birthday cake, and he got the privilege to decorate it. He made a face with glasses and then put sprinkles on it! What a great job! Hayden will be having an official birthday party at a place called Velocity Sports Performance! He has invited a few hockey buddies and a few school buddies, along with a couple of kids from the 'hood. They will do a 45 minute work out with a trainer and then go into the gym for a session of 3 on 3 basketball ~ dodgeball and kickball. They should all be ready to eat after that and then (hopefully) be exhausted enough to chill out for the rest of the evening before going back to school on Monday. I will post more pictures after the party!!!!!!

Birthday boy....

Hayden opening up his birthday cards! He waited all day for this to happen! He is very patient to say the least!

Shorts

Hayden keeps telling us all that he will be going to Boston College when he turns 18 so that he can play ice hockey for a great team! He has been "wishing" for a pair of Boston college shorts for some time now, so that time finally arrived! He got an "official" pair of Boston college shorts ~ also the correct color for school!

Birthday

Here is Hayden with his official Under Armor shorts that are the correct color for school! He loves the Under Armor stuff and already has one pair of shorts that he has pretty much worn out in a very short time!

Sliding Rock (very cold)

Okay, another year visiting Sliding Rock. You can't beat this place for the price. It costs each rider in the car $1. You can stay as long as you want and go down the rock as much as you want ~ assuming that your body can take the freezing cold water!

One person you won't see sliding down this baby is Janet. I cannot stand cold water! The kids had a great time and love it. I will post video of the kids coming down the rock next.

Conquering the Waterfall

Here's Nick and Hayden climbing up a waterfall at a place called Deep Creek way up in North Carolina. We had gone there to go down the river on inntertubes, but the water level was low and it was way too rocky. Didn't look like too much fun, so after the conquered the falls, we left to a new location which was so much more fun.

Campfire

This was the night for singing around the campfire at the top of the mountain. We were out behind the main house on a slanted hill. The lady who was playing the guitar and singing was an old family friend of the people who owned Cataloochee Ranch.

MORE TO FOLLOW SOON.....

Hockey in Philadelphia

Hi everyone! Most of you already know that Hayden and I took almost a week long trip to Philadelphia for an ice hockey tournament. Hayden had been selected to play for a team that was to represent North and South Carolina. What a great privilege! We drove 3 1/2 hours one way just to practice and then came home again. Total dedication, but I have to say that I loved it. Then came the big day where it was time to leave. Our trip was 11 hours one way. We stopped over in N. Carolina and picked up the next day and drove straight through. It was a great trip, and we were both amazed at how many states you can drive through in such a short period of time. The tournament was great, playing time was abundant, and the body checks were free flowing from Hayden! I was very proud of him, as most of you know he loves to check, and also seems to keep the bench warm in the penalty box! He ended up with only one 2 minute penalty out of 5 games. Quite an accomplishment ~ on top of that, he played great hockey and even got on the scoring sheet himself on 2 of the games. During downtime, he entered the competition for the most accurate shot. He ended up winning a pair of hockey gloves with 3 out of 5 shots in different holes. Neither of us can wait to go again next year! Out of the 20 kids that went, the coach selected 10 for next year, and Hayden was one of them. Hopefully, we can go to the tournament in Toronto, Canada. That one is on the wish list of the

Game Time

Here's a picture of Hayden after game number 5. Each game they awarded the top 3 players an award. Hayden received one of those awards! Hayden only received one 2 minute penalty the whole tournament! Now, for those of you who know Hayden, you will say that this cannot possibly be true. Well, it is. He was allowed to check, check and check again ~ my oh my was he in his element! Aside from that, he played really good hockey and scored goals too! I don't think you can ask for more than that! Now I can't wait to go again next year! (you might notice that his shirt says "Florida" and not NC/SC like it should. Well, they did not have enough, and I guess they figured that since he came from Florida he wouldn't mind. How correct, he couldn't care less as long as he was playing hockey!

Duck Ride

Well, here we are in downtown Philadelphia. The one thing the kids all wanted to do was ride this "bus" thing that went on the road, and then straight into the water! It was fabulous! As you can see, the boys all had these yellow "duck beaks" that when blown made a quacking sound. They had so much fun with the music and songs! To be honest with you, I think the duck ride was the highlight of the whole hockey tourament! Go figure!!!! In case you don't see Hayden, he has on the green striped polo.

Sara & Jessie

This is a video of Sara riding JESSIE. She belongs to a friend of ours and she has not seen her horse jump this high since she got her. Sara decided to try to jump her and slowly raised the jumps each time she cleared one. We finally decided to stop at 3 feet and 1 inch! As you can see by the video, there is plenty of room between the jump and the pony. Have fun watching, it is a really quick one.

Me...

Okay, I know some of you ask why there is never a picture of me on the blog. Well, there's a very simple answer to that question - I am ALWAYS the one standing behind the camera taking the pictures. Hayden took this one after I had just showered and put on my nightie for the evening. Enjoy it, because you won't see too many more.

Hello

Hello Everyone:

Well, I have not blogged in so long. I have been so busy with all of the goings on around here, sports, end of school, getting ready for camp at my place of employment, job interview, etc. I am going to try and find some "up to date" pictures to put on the blog and will try to keep on top of it as much as I can.
Bob and Sara are getting ready for another week of soccer camp starting tomorrow. Sara is a regular employee now that there are so many "little ones" attending camp. She does a really good job with them. Nicholas also tried his hand at it, and did a great job too. Nicholas will be having 6 stitches removed from his finger tomorrow so that he will be able to play in a golf tournament starting on Tuesday. He cut his finger while attempting to slice up a watermelon! The knife slipped and cut deep into the finger... a couple of months ago he had 5 stitches in his foot, and 2 days before Christmas we had to call the paramedics out and take him to the E.R. I think I need stock in the emergency room!!
Hayden and I will be leaving for Philadelphia in the early hours of Wednesday morning. He is playing in an ice hockey tournament with a team based out of North Carolina. Long drives for practice are finally over - only 3 hours and 45 minutes one way! Anyway, we are excited to be heading to Philly and can't wait to see the competition. We don't expect any miracles, but the experience will surely be a great one, and hopefully we can surprise everyone and at least make it to the semi-finals next Sunday. If not, we will head home on Saturday - (10 1/2 hour drive,) arrive home Sunday, pack and leave for a family vacation on Monday (another 5 hour drive.) I think my bum will be ready for a long walk by then!
Okay, I will see what pictures I have. Will post soon.
Love to all.... :0)

Nice one Nick

Nicholas caught this fish in the pond behind our house. I was in the kitchen and heard him yelling that he "had one" I told him to hang on, that I would be right down there with the camera. Thank goodness I always have that thing handy! When Nick, Hayden or Bob are in the yard fishing, Sally always stand guard of them. The white pole to the right of Nick is where they leave their poles and if they see their bobber go under, they run out and see what's on the line.

Let me see

Sally wanted to get in on the action too. As soon as Nick brought the fish out of the water, Sally jumped on it and wanted to see it was all about. Not sure that she was really too impressed with it though.

smaaaaaash

Hayden and I drove 3 1/2 hours up to Charlotte, North Carolina for him to tryout for a team that will be made up of North and South Carolina players. If you made the team, you would need to travel back to Charlotte for 3 weekends for training, then you would have to travel another weekend to Raleigh to play in the SC/NC State games. After this, there would be another training session (2 days) in Charlotte, and then we would travel 10 1/2 hours to Philadelphia to play in a big tournament up there. We would play a scrimmage game on Tuesday night @ 8pm and then the tourny would start on Wednesday and go through Sunday. Hayden wanted so badly to make this team. He made me proud! He went out there very focused, worked hard and did not mess around at all. I think he may have sent home several players with some severe bruising though!

This is Hayden on the "puddle" with a different player from another team. You will see Hayden against the boards wearing white. Yes, he is literally "smashing" a kid against the boards. He is playing in the Squirt league where there is no checking, but because they will be playing kids older than them and they check, this team must also learn to check. No problem with Hayden doing that - he lives for checking! I figured the coach would either pick him for the team because he was tough, or he would tell me to take my child home because he was a bully. Fortunately, he was picked for the team. So, we will now be spending Memorial day weekend and then each weekend through the end of June traveling to train and play hockey! I hope the tires are good on my car!

The Puddle

This one is Hayden on the "puddle" with his fellow team member from the Charleston Wolverines. They played 2v2 with an additional goaltender each. This is Hayden getting a shot off on goal. The idea of this drill was to be the team to score first.

Look Mom, no hands

Jenn (our trainer) decided to give Sara's legs and balance a really good work out. She lined up 3 jumps in a row - short, a little higher and then even higher. She asked Sara to jump all 3 in a row with no hands. Badger was great, he did as he was asked and took only 2 strides between each jump. Sara's balance was super. As you can see by the picture she was out of her saddle and balanced superbly! She was so proud of herself. Doing stunts like this, gets the adrenalin flowing and she wants to do more! When Mom is there though, there is a limit!

Relay 4x100

One of Sara's events was the 4x100 relay race. Sara ran the 3rd leg of the race around the bend of the back of the track! She loved it, kept up a great pace and helped her team to a first place finish! Sara also ran the 100 meter sprint and finished 2nd in her heat and in the final finished 3rd. Not bad for a "gimp" Sara had pulled the quad muscle in her leg the week of the race, and wasn't quite healed yet. Her next event was the softball throw. She did quite well in that one, finishing 3rd in her age group. Not bad for someone who throws like a "girl."

Thank you...

Sara wanted to see how "gentle" Badger would be if she put a carrot in her mouth and offered it to Badger. Well, I must say that he lived up to our expectations...... he moved over to Sara, sniffed the carrot and took it gently out of her mouth. Now if you ask me, that's trust!

Red Fish

Here's Bob fishing in the pond behind our house. He was so excited to have a big one on the line. When we saw him outside, he had been trying to reel in the fish for 15 minutes. He had walked around the pond twice trying to find a "good spot" to reel it in. Obviously he did not find one very quickly. Anyway, Nick and I saw him and went to help out - Nick with a net and a Kayak we conveniently saw behind someone's house (yes, rather cheeky to say the least - but we did put it back) and me with my camera in hand trying very hard not to laugh at everyone involved.

Let me help

Here's Mr. Greg from across the street. He's a fisherman and came out to help. He was all dressed up ready to take the kids out to a birthday treat, but he hopped into the boat and - like any fisherman would, decided that the birthday celebration had to wait! (I hope Brenda doesn't see the blog!) Well, after about 45 minutes of chasing the very smart red fish around the pond, they could NOT net it or reel it in. It gave us one more good splash - just to tease I think - and then proceeded to snap the line. Until next time, the red fish won and it was time for Greg to go and get changed and take the kids to the birthday celebration! Even Nick had to get changed again since he got his brand new shorts mucked up! And just so you all know, they have been fishing in the pond every day since March 28th trying to catch the elusive red fish. I will let you know if he ever loses focus and gets himself caught.

Let's go Dude

As you can see, one must get around any way one can when one does not have a car, or one is too young to drive a car. Actually, Nick's friend Mac seems to have all the toys a boy would need. They either travel on this go cart, their bicycles or Mac's golf cart. It's amazing how boys seem to be able to just "make do" with what they have. Watch out if you are ever heading into Rivertowne - you don't know what or who you will encounter.

Boring.......

This is Nick with his friend Mac. They had been down at the pond fishing when they decided it was time to come in as they were being eaten alive by the NO SEE UMS (I am sure I spelled that incorrectly). They are horrible. I gave Mac a hat to wear, as the bugs love the head. If your arms and legs are not covered up, when you come in the house you will look like you have the measles.

MOOSE AWARD....

Nicholas was the recipient of the MOOSE AWARD for his hockey team two weekends in a row. For some reason Nick decided to save his best games ever for the end of the season. I guess you could say that he wanted to go out with a bang! He played so well, scored several goals, and got several assists in 2 games in a row. I am so proud of how well he played - unfortunately, one of his best games ever was in Atlanta, and wouldn't you know.... neither Bob nor I could be there. What a shame. I am however happy that the parent and friend that we sent him with has always been very good at giving the praise when needed, and a "reminder of how you need to be playing" when not playing up to par.

WAY TO GO NICK!!!

coaxing..

Okay, we seem to have mastered the food thing. I think he will go on if we leave a trail of food. We hope and pray that works. As you can see, Denise is right behind him so that when he does step all the way on, she can lock in the butt bar and there is no coming back out. GO DENISE!! Badger seems to be quite a smart horse. He would eat the trail of food, and then back out of the trailer. We have to find some way to outsmart the beast. Until then... see ya later........

still trying.....

Here we are, trying to load Badger the Beast onto our trailer. He just doesn't want to go. We tried everything........ Hmmm let's see if a trail of food will work on him..... gotta go and get some

Finally on....

As you can see, 2 hours and 15 minutes later we finally got "Badger the Beast" loaded onto the trailer and strapped in! What a flipping chore that was. As you can see, he can't quite understand what the trick was that we played on him. Oh well, as long as we won, we won't tell him. More on the show to follow............ I am sure it will be quite interesting to say the least.

Hello Atlanta...........

We headed out to Atlanta for a hockey tournament with Hayden's Squirt team. I took Hayden and the 2 boys you see on the left of the polar bear. The other two tagged along on our visit to the Coca Cola Museum. What a crazy visit it was. The boys were non stop and "high" from drinking the free cokes on the tour! They were bouncing off walls for sure. I was very surprised to see them all take such a great picture with the Coca Cola Polar Bear - mind you, they thought it was cool, so that was good. Everyone got to take home a freshly bottled bottle of coke, but the boys I took with me forgot to get them out of our little refrigerator in the room when we left! Of course I didn't complain, because they would have polished the stuff off in the car on the way home, and I really wanted them to sleep! Way to go boys - I was very proud of you all in more ways than one!

Medal..

Hayden was supposed to be over with the other boys receiving the banner since he is one of the captains. Mind you, I don't know how they expect 3 to do that, so it was just as well that I was taking his picture. I wanted to make sure that I got one with his medal on - back to front or what??? Doesn't really matter, it's the MOMENT that is the most important! What a tourny.... Hayden didn't spend as much time in the penalty box as usual, so that was a big plus. He did get put in there during the final period, and I was a bit upset. I found out later though that his coach had told him that next time the kid "did that to him" he was to knock him on his ass. (sorry, but that's what he said) Those kind of penalty minutes I don't mind I guess. Next season though Hayden will be so excited as he is legally allowed to check players all he wants!

Charleston Wolverines - Squirts

EXCITEMENT ALL AROUND! A great trip to Atlanta, and what a way to end it all. We will have a banner hanging from the ceiling at the Ice Palace in North Charleston - every player will have their name listed on the banner. What a happy bunch of boys! WELL DONE!

Taking Home the Banner!!!

Here's the "hardware" that the boys brought home from Atlanta. What a great trip this was. The boys played 5 games and were undefeated in all. They scored a total of 26 goals and allowed only 5 goals. You could really see the difference in our team from the beginning of the season. Kudos to our coaches .... Coach Bunker, Coach Otap and Coach Ellis. What a great way to end the season.

Hi Sara

This is Denise, a good friend of ours who rides Badger too. As you can see in this picture something or someone has caught the attention of everyone. Well, let me tell you....... Bob just dropped Sara off at the barn (I was already there) and as she got closer, she said "hi guys" and Badger stopped in his tracks, turned his head and was very happy to see his owner - (who by the way gives him way too many treats). That is surely a horse who loves his owner.

Time to work

This is Sara on her comeback after taking a really bad spill on Badger. She was not able to ride him for a full week because of the injury to her back. I knew she was hurt badly when she didn't complain about not riding or doing P.E. at school for a week. Anyway, as you can see she is back to full strength and going "all out" She is gearing up to take Badger to his first show March 8th. It is just a fun show, no pressure at all. This will be a test to see how he performs in a competition ring. We will keep you all posted.

Nemo

Badger is on the right and Bodie (his pasture mate) is on the left. They decided that they were going to give Nemo the pig a run for her money. This was the first day that Badger and Bodie spent at their new stables. Nemo wanted to play, but Badger and Bodie had not seen a pig before. I don't think they were too impressed. Nemo was quick on her feet for a pig. She out ran both of them! No wonder Badger wasn't a big winner on the race circuit!

Sara & Badger

Here he is... "Badger" This is a good picture of Sara and her horse. She is so proud to be a horse owner. She has bought all of her own tack, blankets, etc. She is babysitting to earn extra money to pay her bills. Believe me, they are endless! I have to say though, she has taken on this responsibility and is doing a great job. I am very proud of her.