Some Summer Adventures

After complaining about our lack of activity this summer, I decided to do a couple of cool things with the kids. Since we are usually so home-bound (self-imposed, I might add), we rarely do anything new. This week we had two adventures we have never attempted before. Yee-haw!

First, we took a trip to the beach. Yes, there is a beach in Idaho... at least one. We drove up to Lucky Peak's Sandy Point for the day. It was a week day, so it wasn't too busy, and the weather was surprisingly mild: a nice breeze, plenty of shade and the sun wasn't it's usual overbearing self. The kids LOVED it! They got to build sand castles, go row boating, play in the water and have a picnic. It's definitely something we will adding to our repertoire of activities in the future.

Our second adventure was a short excursion out to the "country" to ride horses at a friend's house. Only my daughter accompanied me on this one. She's becoming interested in horses lately, so I figured she should try out a little horseback riding. She was so excited about going, it was fun to hear her chatter about it.

Upon our arrival on the site, her initial reaction to seeing horses up close for the first time was a little nervous and afraid. "Mom, I didn't know horses were so big!" she said to me. I was so proud of the way she pushed past her fear and got right up on the horse. We rode for about an hour, and somewhere along the way, she built up her courage to hold the reins herself. Then, she really started having fun. I could tell she was relaxing, because she started talking to our friend non-stop about all sorts of things. That's how we can tell when she's comfortable.
It was a great day! Of course, I still have dust in my hair...

I think I'm on a roll, because tonight we're doing something else we've never done. We're going to watch a play at the civic center! With just under two weeks left of summer vacation, it's about time we started our vacation!