Frozen feet

My dd had another horse riding lesson yesterday, but it was around 38 degrees the entire 1 1/2 hours she was there. She normally wears one pair of riding socks (about the thickness of dress socks) and rubber boots. Her feet were cold within minutes after arrival. She said it hurt really badly when she had to jump down from the horse at the end of the lesson and every time she needed to push her heels down while riding. Does anyone have any ideas about how to keep her feet warm during riding lessons? We only live 10 minutes from the stables. I am wondering if they sell socks with some kind of gel that can be heated up, kind of like those hand-warmers they sell at Walmart.

I had thought I would be cold as well sitting in the car with the heater off, but the sun shines straight through the windshield and turns the inside of the car into a nice toasty place to sit.

College

I just wanted to say congratulations to my sister for entering college. She will be starting her first semester on the 22nd and is starting with a full course load. Her goal is to get her degree in teaching and she would like to teach high school history. I am so proud of her!

New Puppy

Here is our new puppy, Annabelle. This was taken when we first got her and she was 10 weeks old. The other dog is Milo. The two dogs are best friends and love playing together. Milo still has the upper hand (even though Annabelle is bigger at this point) only because he is faster. She will soon have the upper hand, though, as she will far outweigh him and have much more strength. She is now just over 4 months old and she has probably doubled her weight and added around 6 inches to her height.

Geocaching

We started geocaching when we lived in Virginia and have logged about 10 finds. We don't get out as often as we should or would like to, but enjoy ourselved immensely when we do get out. You can find more information at www.geocaching.com. We bought some small trinkets at the dollar store for the kids to "find one/take one" and grandma and grandpa got us all travel bugs for Christmas. I can't wait to place my travel bug and see how far she travels.

Kansas

In Kansas we were just plain lazy. Dh's mom lives in the middle of nowhere and we enjoyed having nothing to do. Dd and ds stayed behind once dh and I left and spent the next two weeks helping Grandma and Grandpa around the house. Grandma appreciated dd's willingness to work and her excitement at even the mundane tasks. Ds spent most of the time "cleaning" Grandpa's old truck. They joked that he was polishing a "turd".

Colorado Visit

We were able to fly into Colorado on our way from Hawaii to South Carolina. We decided to have our truck shipped to Denver. We spent the next two weeks visiting family on our way east. Our first stop was in Colorado Springs to see my mom and sister. We drove up to Pike's Peak, walked around downtown Manitou Springs and helped my mom pack up her apartment so she could move to Florida.

Pics of Hawaii and Husband's Pinning Ceremony

These are pictures of some turtles up by Turtle Bay and the Koolau

 Mountains. I have also added pictures of dh's pinning ceremony when he made chief.

Horse riding

Here is dd riding her horse, Kai, right before we left Hawaii.

Science experiment

Ds and dd were doing a mini-unit on weather and we did an experiment on pressure. You are supposed to take two toilet plungers and stick them together. With a child on each end, they are supposed to pull in opposite directions. The toilet plungers we bought did not stick together as the rubber bottoms were not cut smoothly. The kids got the general idea, but the effect of the experiment was hampered by the poor quality of the plungers. 

First Art Lesson

Dd and I did our first art lesson today using The Phonics of Drawing from the Masterpiece Collection. We really enjoyed ourselves and I can't wait for more lessons. It is a great bonding time for us. The above picture is mine and the one below is dd's. We were working on perspective.