Homecoming Dance and Solo Trips.

Kendall's girlfriend, Abby, asked Kendall to go to her school's homecoming dance with her.  Kendall was super excited!  Abby's parents took some pictures of the beautiful ladies before the dance.

They had an absolute blast.  Kendall knew a number of the people at the dance, which was also fun, since it is not the school she regularly attends.

This video is awesome and shows off the girls' dancing moves.  I did have to laugh when I saw the video though, because it appeared that they were the only ones dancing.  Apparently this was not the case at all, as evidenced by some of the other pictures.  They even had a full fledged mosh pit at the dance.  

After a long night of dancing, both girls had to wake up bright and early for their third day in a row of Team dance choreography.  Oh, to be young again.

On another first...Kendall took her first solo road trip last weekend.  Yikes, was I ever a nervous wreck.  Last Friday, I received a text from Abby's mom that they were in Tamarack.  They spend a lot of weekends up there and had been asking Kendall to join them for one.  With our busy summer, the timing had not worked out.  Abby's family had went up there early Friday morning, but Kendall had work and dance that day.  Latonia asked if there was a chance Kendall could join them, only if I was comfortable with her driving up there by herself.  

Kendall and I talked and decided that she would drive up there Saturday morning, after a good nights sleep.  The drive is only two hours, but it is a windy and crazy road, with sometimes wild and crazy drivers.  We talked about 'all the things'.  Kendall was great about keeping me posted and pulled over to take a break about halfway.  She sent me this cute selfie once she had arrived.

I know we are supposed to let go a bit as our kids grow, but it is HARD!

Back to School - Part 3/3

For part three, here are their individual shots.  I just love these pictures.  Tina really captured who these girls are right now.

Back to School - Part 2/3

For part two of the back to school pictures, I bring you 'together'.  Here is the special, more serious side, of their friendship.  These girls rarely need entertained.  This is them.  Tina did not need to do any posing.  She just snapped away.  There were SO MANY to choose from.  I tried my best to narrow it down.

The one below is my absolute favorite.  

Back to School - Part 1/3

My beautiful and talented friend, Tina, agreed to take pictures of the girls to celebrate back to school.  They are in 10th and 8th grades this year.  Where does the time fly?  I decided to upload these pictures in three parts.  For part one, I give you the true spirit of these girls.  They are funny, spontaneous, best friends - mostly, and worst enemies - sometimes.  I love the special relationship they share.  Tina captured it so well.

Glamping at Wagon Days.

The Eh Capa team was invited to participate in Wagon Days in Sun Valley.  We left early Friday morning, so we could beat the weekend traffic.  I had not been to Sun Valley since the SEANW Engineers Gone Wild conference in 2008.  I remember the exact year, because the conference was in June and I was very pregnant with Sidney.  The town seemed to have only gotten more beautiful and more fancy.  We set up camp at the Old Sun Valley Barn right next to Sun Valley Stables.  We really have this camp thing down now.  As soon as we got settled, we went into town to check things out.  

After a bit, we decided to grab a bite to eat.  The girls spotted a restaurant that was very reasonable with $35 lamb shank.  No thank you.  Where are the sandwiches and salads?  After a bit of walking around, we landed at Lefty's.  It must be the local hangout as it was loud, crowded and fun.  

It was a scorcher out, so after dinner, we walked to the splash pad we had seen.  The girls made no hesitation of getting totally soaked.  Yep, these young women still are little kids at heart!

After getting soaked, we found a spot in the center of town to grab ice cream and listen to the live band.  Abby and Kendall showed off their dancing skills.

Of course, they could not resist a picture in the giant chair!

When we got back to camp, the place had filled up.  One of the families was from Eastern Idaho and had brought 3 adult camels, a baby camel, a goat and a baby buffalo.  Kendall was enamored with the baby buffalo.  I am pretty sure she wanted to take it home with us.

Despite having coffee and donuts provided to us by the city, I decided to take an early walk to town and grab Starbucks.  There is no shame in glamping.  In fact, I love it!

The team had practice at 8am.  The start of their very full and very fun day!  Sidney, of course, had her posse (in racing terms, this is referred to as a pit crew).  Yep, Abby, Kendall and I were there to support her and cheer her on.

At 10:30, they had an exhibition performance.  A nice size crowd gathered for the performance.  The team did great.  Afterwards, the riders lined up at the fence for the crowd to ask questions.  Though I did not get a picture, it was super cool.  I think I was stunned into a proud parent moment.  Sidney had about three families that asked her questions for a good 20 minutes.   They asked about the team, her riding, her horse, etc.  She did such a great job of speaking up and articulating herself.  I thought back to a few short years ago when I doubt she would have been able to speak to a group of adults and kids.

After that, it was parade time.  This was a unique parade, in that it was animals only.  You had to be riding an animal, walking an animal or pulled by an animal.  The streets of Sun Valley were lined wall to wall with chairs and bleachers.  This is the part that always makes me nervous.  I have to leave Sid and head out to the parade route.  You see, Pigeon does not really like parades.  He is a 'go' kind of horse.  He gets pretty amped up when asked to stay put.  Sidney has been working with him a lot.  She even brought a lunge line and tried to wear him out a bit between the performance and the parade.  I always walk away and wonder (worry) about how they are doing.  Thankfully, my friend Wilson was one of the papa's.  He was very thoughtful and sent me pictures periodically, letting me know that things were good!

It is always fun to watch these girls in a parade.  Periodically they stop and do drills.  The crowd is always amazed at the bravery and discipline of these kids and their horses.  No saddle, no bridle, no problem!

A Gloriously Long Weekend!

I decided to take a few extra days off before the long holiday weekend.  It was amazing.  The first day, I created myself a spa day.  I started off with a 90 minute facial at the Aveda Institute.  

After that, I had a 90 minute massage at my favorite place.  Yes!

In the afternoon, the girls joined me back at the Aveda Institute.  Kendall and I got our toes and nails done, while Sidney enjoyed a haircut and facial.  I was uber relaxed after that.

The next day, my dad and I drove to Payette to play a round of golf at Scotch Pines.  We had received free passes at the golf show this year and neither of us had ever played the course.  It was a fun course.  Lots of hills.  I even managed to get a par on hole 4.  This is an accomplishment for me.  My tee shot made it too the tall grass right off the green.  I made a nice easy chip shot that landed a couple feet from the hole, and scored a nice easy put into the hole.  Yay!

Looking back at the tee box on my par hole.  After that, nothing mattered!

On Friday, the girls and I and Abby drove to Sun Valley for Wagon Days (another post). We got home on Saturday evening.  Dylan and Heather had come down for a visit and we wanted ample time to hang out with them.  It was a fun time.  We went golfing on both Sunday and Monday, ate lots of food and generally had a good time.

The Many Faces of Grandpa.

My dad is a goofball.  Not in the life of the party kind of way, but in the 'never take life too seriously' kind of way.  Kendall caught this on camera.  I remember as a kid, he would rarely take a picture without his tongue sticking out or some other goofy face.  Some things never change.