Horse Camp

Kabree and her new horse Captain/Pal

it's named depending on the moment

Justice liked to run with his horses nose to the ground  

 Hanna

 Hanna roping

 Heather helping Kabree rope

 Justice showing us how it's done

 Kabree and Justice trying to play ping pong

 Libby, Haylee, Shay, Katie and Heather in front

 Haylee, Shay, Libby, Katie and Kooper

 Kabree dancing

Hanna dancing

    Heather asked me if I wanted to go to horse camp with her and Mom...Tuesday morning...they were leaving Wed at 3 a.m.????  If you know me you know that I do not do last minute, I need to plan and plan and plan and organize some more.  I had a mini anxiety attack all Tuesday as my sister tells me she already told Mom I was probably going and Mom was all excited, then she proceeded to tell me all I needed to take and the agenda, as if I had already said yes.  Again, MAJOR ANXIETY attack, I gave her and Mom multiple excuses and they continued to shot me down with solutions and continued to act as if I had planned to go for months.  Well 7 p.m. I finally accepted the fact they were not going to let me out of it and I had better start packing.  I was able to pack and get laundry done before Heather pulled up to my house the next morning at 3 a.m., however I broke my cardinal rule of having the house spotless before leaving.
    So, 3 a.m. we started our trek to horse camp...kids loaded in car, Mountain Dew in my hand (I caved, I have not drank a Mountain Dew in forever and a day but with my anxiety I caved, I know I'm a failure).  We met Mom on an on ramp, where we learned she had a flat on the horse trailer so Heather had to fill it with fix a flat.  We then had to stop at a gas station to fill it with more air, potty brakes caffeine...you know the drill.  4:30 a.m. we were back on the road again.  Mom's truck granted full of sleeping teenagers looking oh so sweet and quite, our car...Kabree, wide awake, laughing, talking, hitting Justice to wake him up when he dozed off.  We arrived just after 7 to our horse camp, people were not able to start arriving until 6 a.m.... the first class does not start until 1 p.m.... the camp was FULL, I swear we were the last ones there to get a spot.
    We set up our trailers and got all signed in.  Heather signed Hanna up for clover buds and we decided to tag along with her.  They had extra supplies so they let Justice and Kabree join in.  They loved it, Kabree was in heaven.  In their first class they made their own stick horses and packed them around the rest of camp.  Their classes included roping; which Justice was a natural, trail class with their stick horse, barrel racing, showmanship and dancing.  We joined the big kids for some of their fun classes too, we made bracelets in their beeding class and made ropes in their macrame class.  The older kids were great!!!  Everyone helped with the horses, cleaning up camp, helping with Kabree and Justice.  My cousin Haylee pushed a stroller every time she went up the hill.  They helped us dish food, clear plates, change diapers, you name it they all helped do it.  We had so much fun, everyone got along great and had a good attitude the whole time.
    We parked at the very bottom of the hill, which made it nice for being around less people but also meant a lot of hiking.  Anyways, the first day when they were setting up panels for the different classes I was thinking oh look they are setting up one close to where we are camping.  Then they tell me it's where the working ranch horse class will be, I think sweet, all the kids have that class and it's right by us.  Hello, did not think about working ranch horse being cows.  Well, lets just say it was a joy at night when they mooo'd, Kabree would scream and cry "I scared, cows".  I hope this fear or cows goes away soon because I told her cowgirls cannot be scared of cows.
    Because there was only 3 adults and so many kids we would split up who went with who, Haylee helped a ton and would go with anyone who had a class by themselves.  Well I ended up going to clover buds with Hanna and just let Kabree and Justice run around close by.  I took her to horse show.  In this class they had the clover buds use their stick horses and teach them about doing halter, the terms and what they need to do.  Well the instructor asked the kids to walk their horses to one end then turn it to the left and walk back.  Hanna very nervous tells the instructor "uh my horse doesn't like to turn that way, he gets really upset when I try too...neigh...oh no...neigh...see he's upset, I don't know if I can do this...neigh...whoa boy your okay"  Now remember these are stick horses, the instructor looked at Hanna very confused and tells her "uh...just try" and walks away.  I was laughing so hard I about peed my pants.  The whole week Hanna acted like the horse was real, we had to feed it and tie it up.
    Ok, the showering, I could have killed Heather!  I decided I would take the two little ones in with me and shower them, then send them out to Heather for her to dry and dress then I would watch them while she showered.  Sounds like a good plan right?  Well my loving sister kept opening the door, the kids kept trying to sit on the nasty floor, lets just say I totally flashed all the people waiting in line for the shower and Heather just sat there with the door open laughing as I'm mooning people I do not even know.  Got to love situations like that.  So, when I got out of the shower I looked at the lady and maturely told her my sister is a butt and I'm sorry I flashed her, she just laughed.
  As you can tell there was not a dull moment while at camp.  Thursday Heather and I turned the corner headed to our camp site and there were all these people standing around, our horses were all untied.  Well the tree right next to our horse trailer had a fracture and while our Mom was standing by it she heard a snap and saw the crack shoot up a foot higher, so she hurried and found some guys to cut down the tree before anyone got hurt.  We had to move the horse trailer but were able to leave the camper while they cut it down.  Well later that night at dinner the one of the guys gave my Mom a safety award made from the tree : ).

  On the last night there they had a dance and the kids got all dolled up.  They were all so shy and didn't want to dance once we got there.  Except for...get this...Kooper, he was dancing it up to everything.  He was moshing, country swinging, line dancing, you name it he did it and that kids got rhythm.  Ok so after a lot of pressuring from Heather and Heather dancing like crazy the others finally joined in and wow, Katie was cutting it up out there right along side Kooper.  Kabree, completely enjoyed herself she would go in the middle of the dance floor and start dancing it up.  She cried when at 10:30 I told her it was time to go to bed.  So, Miss Hanna found a boy at the dance that she "fell in love with" they danced and played all night, then Heather saw Hanna sitting in the corner looking sad so she asked her what''s wrong, she told her "he had to go home to bed....I'm heart broken."  Ok, I died laughing.

  As you can imagine by Saturday we were all very tired and very ready to be headed home.  So we cleaned up camp and loaded up our trailers with lighting speed.  Then we realized Heather's camper had a flat tire, yes 2 flats in 1 trip at least it was on a different trailer.  She had a spare and with all of us helping got it changed super quick.  We were able to get out of there stop off for some square ice cream cones and head home.  With Heather and I we were able to get home, unload the camper, clean the suburban and start taking care of our own stuff by 2 p.m.  I was so lucky because my husband knows how crazy I am and he cleaned the house during the week so when I came home all I had to do was laundry.