Mini Summer adventures Part 1

Here are a few of the fun things we did with the kids that we actually remembered to take some pictures of...

First, in June we went and rode horses at the neighbor's house.  Our neighbor Lena is so good about getting the kids on her best trained ponies and horses.  We planned to do a lot more of this through the summer, but between farm work and my work schedule it didn't happen more than a couple of times sadly.

Lena was great working with Ellie on leading Twix by the reins on her own.

 And each of the girls got a ride, of course.

 Kassidy mostly rode with Mckayla, but in typical Kassidy fashion was much more interested in the other horses, cats, cows, or any other animals around.

 Or, this pink ball.

 Even Gavin enjoyed sitting in the saddle for a few minutes.

Steve and I also got turns because Lena and the girls insisted, but those were some really bumpy, awkward rides on such a little pony...

Another day we took the girls fishing again at a local reservoir.  Ellie's early fishing luck continued.  We couldn't believe she caught this fish - before we even had all the kids out of the car!  We decided it was a little Blue Gill.

 Mckayla got her own massive catch as well - a little Perch.  Those were our only other catches of the summer between our few, quick fishing trips.  We hope to do more fishing next year as the girls loved it.

Another fun hobby we had this summer was watching killdeer nests.  Our first nest got destroyed, but this second one got marked so it would be safe.  Then one day Mama killdeer was going nuts - which honestly is amazing to me to see to this day - doing the broken wing act.  We went and checked the nest and sure enough it was empty!

 We eventually had to listen closely and watch where mama went to check after we walked away and found three little baby chicks!

 Steve was careful to wash his hands in alcohol before he touched this baby to show the kids and then we put them back.  After just a few days the chicks are mobile and we didn't see them anymore - although we "enjoyed" listening to killdeer in the early morning hours all summer long...

Ever wonder what 144,000 lady bugs looks like?  They fit into just two canvas bags...  We had a weevil problem in one of our hay fields and Steve and Ray decided to try using ladybugs to kill the weevil where the timing wasn't right to spray insecticide.  So, when the ladybugs arrived, it was a family affair releasing the lady bugs into the fields.

 Steve took the two little girls (Kassidy was in front) out on a four wheeler to release his sack.

 And Ellie accompanied Papa.

 While Grandma and Gavin hung out.  These two are such good buddies and it's awesome.

So, there are a few of our mini adventures from the first part of summer.  We had a pretty fun June, even working around pipe and my swim lesson and guarding schedule.