Horsin' around on the 4th of July

Is anyone else like me?  I always feel some sort of relief once the 4th of July is over.  Maybe it's because I am not a crowds person.  And Independence Day seems to be a day of crowds.  But despite my mild dislike of the holiday, it comes every year.

I did make shirts again this year.  I just can't help myself!  It seems that half of what the kids wear are shirts that I've designed in some way.  I hope that they will forgive me for that when they are older.  :)  

I was too lazy to line them up properly for a formal shot of their matchy-matchy shirts.  This is the best I could do.  Sadly, two of my children ended up without faces!

The kids really didn't care about their shirts anyway.  We were at the Bishop's this late afternoon to ride his horse, Shadow.  Leah nearly combusted waiting for the time to get in the van to drive 3 houses down the road.  So we let her go first.

Then it was Rebekah's turn.

Joseph was next.

Doesn't that expression make you wonder just what he is thinking?  I love this shot.  He is gripping that saddle horn pretty tightly.

Next was Daniel's turn.  I tried to tell the Bishop that you can't just throw Daniel on a horse the same way he'd been doing with the first three.  I think I was too far away.  Daniel is short, but he has 12 years of growing packed into that body.  I hope the Bishop's back was OK the next day.

Daniel enjoyed his ride.

We had to force Nathan on the horse.  He's our child that would rather watch life pass him by.  Half of his memories will probably be ones we shoved him into.  Even so, he did enjoy the ride.  He just wouldn't admit it.

This one of Sarah kills me.  I think she should become a jockey.  She sure looks like she wants to go!  The funny thing about Sarah is that she doesn't think she is small.  She had just watched 5 people before her ride this horse and she was going to have her turn.  When she started to slip off the saddle after the horse jumped to the side, she decided she wasn't so brave and let her 2-year-old girl cry out.

Luckily, Sarah's Daddy was there to make the experience positive.  They rode together once the Bishop brought the horses out of the corral.

When it got dark, we lit our fireworks.  We had decided to skip the public show because it wasn't the firework show that had the kids wide-eyed and mesmerized.  We don't need drunks and scantily clad women to complete our holiday!

True to tradition, we were down to 3 empty BBQ lighters to use to light our fireworks.  Our thumbs and fingers were raw by the time we got everything lit.  I guess it just made the show last longer!

HOLY SMOKES!

It would not be a real family celebration if someone didn't cry.  It was way past this little girl's bedtime!

Even now we still have a few sparklers left over.  I can only take so much smoke and burn risk!

Shearing Sheep

Part of owning sheep is getting them sheared each spring.  It's easiest if you can do it yourself.  We do not do anything easy.  Fortunately, our bishop had some experience shearing sheep as a teenager and offered to help us out this year.  It was very nice of him.  Especially since he's the Bishop and very busy. 

He loaded up our 6 sheep into his trailer and drove them 3 houses up the road to his shed he'd already set up for our activity.  The day was hot and he'd be dripping in sweat by the time he was through.

In the end, we had 6 MUCH skinnier sheep and two bags of wool (Baa, Baa, black sheep).

After the work was done, Bishop got out a horse for Leah and Joseph to sit upon.  The other kids were invited, but too shy to accept.  Leah gets excited when she only smells a horse.  Being on it's back was major points in the Bishop's favor!

As fun as the shearing was (which it really wasn't, though we tried to ignore how hard the Bishop was working while we stood and watched), we may not have the opportunity again.  We are trying to sell our little flock.  With Chad's frequent absences, it's not something I relish doing in the winter.

 But at least we tried it and have the memories!  meh-eh-eh, meh-eh-eh