September blog

Back to the grind. School started. I was already at work so I could not take the 1st day of school picture. Steve took one at the end of the day. I am amazed with how grown up Sophia is.

Sophia helped the barn out at the Pony Club Tet Rally. This means Sophia has been to every rally. She participated in Quiz, Dressage, Jump Rally and Nationals. She was the stable manager for Eventing and Tet. She is all in.

Steve and Sophia made a bucket list item come true for Leslie. Leslie applied for sponsorship from the Dream Foundation to visit see the Star Wars park at Disney. Sophia, Steve, Nick, Natalie and Emma joined Leslie. I didn't get many pictures but know they had an awesome time. The first day they went to Hollywood Studios to see Star Wars. Then the second day to Animal Kingdom. The third day Leslie was too tired to go to Harry Potter in Universal. Leslie rested that day while the others toured Universal. Leslie's favorite (and Sophia's too) was the making of the lightsaber. These are memories that are going to be held deep in heart.

The day before Steve left for Disney he noticed something on Mr. Twinkletoes belly. When I got home we examined it and realized it was a pretty large puncture wound. Steve took him into the emergency vet while I worked my night sight. Four staples and a cone of shame later they came home. Mr. Twinkletoes was not happy but learned to adjust to wearing the cone for 10 days.

 While Steve was away I caught up with friends and family. George, Tracey and Danielle were in town to see Angie's softball game. I took Stephanie who just started college out to the game. We all went out to celebrate Danielle's birthday. It was great being with them.

Our furry family members are looking forward to fall. I am already missing summer!

August blog

August came and went quickly. I started the month with a trip to visit Linda and the girls. Sophia decided to stay home. I missed her on the trip but still had fun with Linda. I visited Aunt Philly on the way up. I love spending time talking to her.  I also stopped at the cemetery to visit my parent's grave. We went out to dinner with Pat and Bev. We went to Lorenzo's. I went to school with Lorenzo and it was great to see him. Linda and I also saw our cousin Paul. We had dinner on the water and caught up. It was a great visit.

Nick came down. We celebrated his birthday with a dinner with Leslie and Emma.

Sophia is enjoying riding with the Pony Club barn. We have stopped riding at the old barn with the exception of taking care of Navajo when his owner can't and a private lesson with a former instructor, Sarah, and her awesome horse, Raymond.  Sophia did her first cross country event. It was a low key schooling event. She rode Bonsai and had a blast.

Sophia has begun working on her Silver Award project for Girl Scouts. She is working on an activity board for a therapeutic riding center.

Animals are all doing well.

Summer is over and back to the hustle and bustle of fall. Time passes far too quickly.

July blog

It doesn't get any better than this. Sophia competed in the Pony Club Nationals competitions in Tryon, NC this month in the modified dressage division. She worked hard for months to prepare for this competition. She not only worked on her dressage riding skills but also on getting the horse, tack and herself ready. She gave Lucy the nickname of "Wash, Rinse, Repeat." That horse had to be clean to pass Pony Club's inspection. All Sophia's riding gear needed to be spotless. She needed to tend to Lucy and ensure that she always had clean water and a clean stall. They were rated on horse management and it was intense. Sophia had a perfect score for horse management, not an easy thing to do. Sophia and Lucy learned to work well together. They rode three different tests over three days and each day their scores were higher. Sophia and her team won first place for both horse management and overall scores (riding and horse management added together.) Tryon is an incredible venue. It was such an experience to be there. I am so proud of all Sophia has done with Pony Club.

The first night at Nationals they had a lip sync contest. Sophia worked with her friend Naomi to come up with a performance for "The Greatest Show." It is neat because that is one of the songs her coach has in her musical freestyle routine. The DJ did not use the version we gave them which caused a bit of a snafu in their routine but they girls covered it up well. They won second place and took home a check for $750 for the barn. You can catch them at 1:14:00 in this video https://tryon.com/article/live-streaming-uspc-championships-east-opening-ceremony-the-battle-of-the-barns-lip-sync-competition-live-at-630-p-m-est-on-thursday-july-25th

Sophia also did a team demo with her friend Emma for 4-H. They did a great job. I am sure it takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of a room full of people with two judges looking on and deliver a presentation. Both 4-H and Pony Club are shaping who Sophia is.

Sophia is working the Pony Pal Camp again this summer. She is a hard worker.

We are enjoying spending time with Leslie. On a weekend that Steve was away Leslie and I had some girl time. We got our nails down, had some dinner and watched TV. So glad we can see her frequently.

And all our pets are doing well.