One Last Football Game, and Horse Therapy

We've all been very focused on football lately.  The little boys love wearing their brother's uniform. 

 ... and cheering on the Denver Broncos and Wyoming Cowboys.

 The five year old suited up in all his brother's gear - the pants, with pads go clear to his ankles :)

 The older ones among us as are hooked on playing a football pool.  These are my picks this week - I missed three (the red ones).  I new I should have gone back and taken the colts over the ravens, but I didn't do it, so I ended up in a tie with three other people. It came down to total points in the Monday night game for the tie-breaker, and I was 8 points too high.  Boo.  Last week my husband won it, and I was second, but he has me to thank for the win.  I talked him out of two bad picks.  Should have kept my mouth shut and I would have won :)

 Last night was the ten year old's last game against our arch rivals from the next town over.  We played in their town, and beat them.  They had a good team.

 We have also had company - my Dad and his friend have been here for a couple of days, so they got to come to the game, and also to the five year old's therapeutic horseback riding lesson.

 They were learning the parts of the horse - going from post to post identifying the body part and collecting colored pasta pieces to make a necklace.

He refuses to wear it, but likes the necklace.  It was a beautiful day for both events yesterday.  Sunny and warm and just a little breeze.  Perfect fall weather.

Football Fun

 Friday night at the high school homecoming football game, the youth football players were introduced.  First, they lined up to high-five the varsity players as they came onto the field.

 My ten year old is in the orange section there, but he's behind another player so you can't actually see him.

  After the high school players made it onto the field, they lined up to high-five the youth players.  It was hard to get a good picture because they are so much shorter than the varsity players, so you'll have to just trust me that he's running through there :)

 Our son is the first orange blur :)  It was getting dark and I tried to zoom in.  Guess that didn't work.

 All the youth players are in the center of this mass, with varsity all around them, and middle school on the outside.  They were jumping and chanting like football players do :)  Lots of energy on the field.

 The band performed the national anthem.

 And then we were on to the game - unfortunately playing the team that will probably take state this year.

 Oh - and another cool thing.  Our band marches now.  Remember the last post I mentioned that they just got real uniforms?  Well, we're moving up in the world.  Probably won't be invited to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for a few more years, but I was impressed :)

 Then this morning, it was the the young kids' turn.  We're done with 8 man ball and are on to 11-man, where only 4th and 5th graders get to play.  Now the kids are all on the green team.  They played against Jackson Hole (in the orange and black).

They played really well and it was a fun game to watch.

 I saw these cleats and thought they were pretty cool.  Reminds me of that commercial from years ago when the football player got a concussion and said, "I'm batman."  I think it was a Snickers commercial or something like that.  I saw another player with Superman cleats but didn't get a picture of those.

 It was sunny, but extremely windy.  Papa and Bugga did make it to the game with us though, which was nice.  She's gone through a few rough months healthwise, so we were really glad she could make it to the game.

 The five year old insisted on bringing his monkey along.  If you don't believe me about the wind, here's proof.  If we didn't hold onto or attach the monkey to something, it would roll onto the field.

 We won the game 18-8 - woohoo!  In case you're wondering about the scoreboard, they played 6 quarters, so all the smaller kids could have a chance to play.  The starters played the first 4 quarters...

... then collapsed on the sideline ;)

 We had a fun time watching.

 ... and snacking.

 The five year old took the camera and came back to tell me he was taking pictures of shadows :)

Pretty hard work being a football player :)  Good job!!

Homecoming Parade and a Moose in the Yard

 Friday morning we headed to town for the homecoming parade.  The weather was pretty decent, but still chilly and breezy.  We picked up Papa and Bugga and brought them along.  The five year old got out, but when the band started playing, he ran back to the Excursion.  He did seem to enjoy the parade from the safety of the vehicle though.  (He hates candy, so he wasn't disappointed not to get any.)

 Our band finally has real uniforms!  For years they wore green and white striped rugby-style shirts with green sweat pants.  Looked like they were ready for a nap.  These are SO much better.

Very festive, but I'm glad I'm not the one who has to wash the paint off.

 The high school classes have a competition for decorating floats.  I didn't do a good job of getting pictures because I was trying to make sure the three year old didn't pick up any candy he is allergic to.

 He was thrilled to get a little beach ball.

 And he did get one candy he isn't allergic to - Smarties :)  The girl coming by had two hands full of Tootsie Rolls with one pack of Smarties in the middle.  He lit up in joy and just took the one he knew he could have :)  She dumped the rest at his feet, but he was thrilled to get one he could have.

 Look closely at the back of the house.  See the moose?

 How about now?  When we pulled in to my in-laws driveway he was laying by the back porch.

 I *carefully* sneaked around the front of the house to snap her picture.

 The boys enjoyed the view from the safety of the back porch.

 Looks like a framed picture, don't you think?

 She looks like she's in great shape heading into winter.  Sleek coat, decent weight.  I'm guessing this one's a yearling.

 We shooed her out of the yard.  I took this picture of her going by the garage for size comparison.  Judging from the windows in the garage door, I'd guess she's about 6 feet tall.  I'll have to measure when I'm there next time.

 I love that a boy can be so excited over one little packet of candy. :)  I opened it for him and he waited patiently, then asked me, "Can I eat it?"  This was his expression when I said yes.  Sure do love this boy :)

Such joy.  And he was perfectly happy that there was only one packet :)

September Reading

Only three books this month, but they were all good.  I'm still not back up to the 5-8 books a month I was reading earlier this year, but things have been B-U-S-Y, so I'm good with three.  I'm thinking I'll be lucky to get through three in October.  So, here's what I read:

1. Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord - what a great book.  I probably never would have read this book apart from the Evening Book Club at our library, but I'm so glad I did.  I have already checked out another of her books (but surprise, surprise, I haven't started it yet, and don't know when I can).
2. Winterkill by C.J. Box.  - I always love CJ Box books - set in Wyoming with a game warden for a main character, in a place that sounds like it could be right here.  This one felt that way even more.  Not elite reading by any means, but I do enjoy it.
3. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - this was a very well done book.  If you love reading, you'll enjoy this book.

September Stats:
Total Books: 3
Total Pages: 1,066
Total Inches: 4.5

Year to Date Stats:
Total Books: 52
Total Pages: 14,760
Total Inches: 60

A Little Catching Up

 I mentioned the other day that my mother in law took us to dinner at the fancy restaurant on the lake.  I forgot I had these pictures on my phone.  The five year old thought he was pretty cool wearing sunglasses.

 The view out the window next to our table.

 Tuesday we had therapeutic horseback riding for the five year old.  He has been obsessed with cats lately - meowing constantly.  Bugga (his grandma) and I were trying to convince him to purr instead, but then realized he probably had never heard purring.  When we got to the horseback riding arena, Paws was there, and willingly showed him what purring was.

 Unfortunately then Paws thought he should just make himself comfortable on my lap and purr through the whole lesson.  We used to have a cat that looked a lot like this - her name was Polly because when she was little, she would sit on my shoulder in the rocking chair, so it was "Polly wanna cracker?"  She reminded me of the parrot.

 Lessons went amazingly well - better than ever.  He connected the bridle by himself, untied the lead rope, and led the horse into the arena completely by himself.  His helper was over at the gate - probably 15 feet away from him, letting him do everything himself.  He was pretty proud of accomplishing that.

 They played a sorting game today, going around the arena to buckets that had grooming tools in them.  He had to pick up all the tools that went in the red grooming bag, then weave his way through the cones to come back and put them in the bag.  He has been reluctant to do any reining on his own, but this week she showed him how to switch the reigns back and forth in his hands to reign with one hand.  He did it!  We were both shocked and pleasantly surprised.

 After they had all the grooming tools collected, it was time to sort them.  She gave him the option of getting off the horse to sort, or staying on.  He chose to stay on.

 So she showed him how to turn around backwards in the saddle and use the back of the horse as a table.

 Then they discussed which brush is used first, what each tool is for, etc.

 After the lesson, instead of tying up the horse like normal, they took off the saddle and reins in the arena.  He unhooked the reigns on his own.

 Sadie had been kind of itchy and they hoped she would roll in the dirt for him to see, but she waited until we were on our way out of the arena, and then hid behind some stalls where he couldn't see her.

Thursday morning the Forest Service hosted an event at the library to celebrate Smokey Bear's 70th birthday.  They told the story of the real Smokey Bear...

  ... and they had a puppet show about campfire safety.

 And then Smokey showed up.  The boys were too shy to go see him.  Neither of them would go so hi, despite the fact that the three year old told the five year old, "It's not scary. It's just a guy."

 After that, we dropped Bugga off at physical therapy and headed to the park.  It was chilly but we've got to get out while we can.  We saw an interesting X in the sky from where two planes had crossed paths.  The boys were very impressed.  :)  This is the biggest letter they've ever seen.

 It was interesting to watch it move with the jet stream too.  I guess I'd never really thought about those jet trails not being a fixed point.  The X was 90 degrees to the left of where I was standing to take this picture when we got to the park. By the time we were ready to leave, it had squished down and moved to in front of me.

See how far it had moved just in these two pictures?  That was 10 minutes or so.

 We had snacks at the park - chocolate milk and pretzel crackers.

 He was very excited to have a milk mustache and insisted on not washing before school, so the bus driver and teacher could see it.  Oye.