FIRSTS

recently jeriah has had some experiences he's never had before. he's never been dressed up as anything but himself before, he's never ridden a horse before, and he's never been swimming before. all these things have been documented for bribery, blackmail, and pride.

so, grandma brought home a bunch of bob the builder things from her boss, one of them being this outfit. grandma put it all on jeriah first, and he promptly wanted it taken off. then he asked to have it put back on after grandma left, and promptly wanted it off again. well, being the terrible mom that i am, i had to get a picture of him dressed in this outfit, so i made him wear it until i ran all the way upstairs, grabbed the camera, ran downstairs, turned the camera on, took off the lens cap, waited for the flash to come up, aimed and focused on him, then finally took a picture. it must have lasted an eternity to him. taylor saw this picture and said, "poor boy."

we recently went and visited with cameron and sarah in redmond, oregon. we took our time getting over there and on the way we stopped for a little bit at a few places. one place we stopped at was where you could see wild horses, though we didn't know it before we went there. i don't remember the name of it now, but there was a herd of horses right next to the road with this pregnant mare who was really curious about us. taylor and jeriah walked out to her to take some pictures and she had a good time posing for him. this is one of my favorites he took. then, of course, taylor had to document that jeriah was out there too, watching the horses.

then we stopped at crooked creek bridge, where there is this 300 foot deep canyon in the middle of flat land for miles. you don't even see it until you are on top of it. the canyon is beautiful and green and looks like it's from another world. it was brown and dry on all the flat land, and the canyon was green and lush. on our way back to the car, jeriah had to stop and read the interpretive stand.

finally we made it to cameron and sarah's place. their home is gorgeous and it was hard for me not to covet. we had a dinner with them, and then played some ping pong for a little bit. i actually was pretty good as long as there wasn't any funny stuff going on. the next morning i was really looking forward to because it was time to play with sarah's horses. we got out there with jeriah in tow and got hershey saddled up. then sarah told me to get on. well, i was a little skeptical about me getting on because i'm not as thin as i was and it was an older saddle, and well, i was afraid of breaking it. she assured me it was fine and so i started to get on. i got my foot in the stirrup and pulled... something snapped and the saddle fell with me onto the ground. it's laughable now, but i was sure embarrassed at the time. sarah inspected the saddle and figured out that one of the buckles that holds the girth on was worn and it slipped out. nothing broke. she then went to get another one that would work. in the meantime, taylor put jeriah on hershey bareback. we had a lot of fun with jeriah and hershey. i rode for a little bit, and then jeriah and i rode together. then jeriah rode by himself. i was so proud!! he's my little cowboy.