My Dad

This one is dedicated to my dad. He is the most AMAZING man I know. He has always been and continues to be such a hard worker. All my life he has worked by day a banker and then by night a rancher. It never fails, every night he comes home and goes down stairs to watch the news and every night he can been seen nodding off in the rocking chair. I can't say I blame him, that's a lot of hard work!! He has the best personality and I love how outgoing he is. I still find it so intriguing that he has so many secret frat stories and even a supposed frat handshake. Sometimes I wish he wasn't so stubborn but I can't expect the guy to be perfect all the time. Oh, and I wish he didn't eat so many toothpicks. That's got to be bad for his insides. :) Now that I'm older I appreciate all the "dad" lectures and his tough love approach to parenting. I used to think my Dad knew everything. Now that I'm a clueless mom, my belief is confirmed. Somehow he does know everything and just what to say and how to do things right. He is the most patient man I know and would do ANYTHING for our family, seriously anything! Not to mention he turns to mush around the little girls and they both LOVE their Papa Don.

We actually rode these horses last month but I really wanted to save it for a fathers day post.
The big-huge-tall brown horse's name is Pizza. I don't know why. It just always has been. The girls rode this same horse a couple years ago. He's a really good horse. Buddy is the lightest colored of the 3 horses. This year he was in the "dog house" as my dad said. I guess he hasn't been very nice lately. Definitely not 3 year old ride-able. Allie is the new horse this year and we all fell in love. He is the darkest and smallest of the horses and by far the most mellow.

Apparently Billy has inferiority issues around the horses. He does not like them at all! He was growling at them and if you were to zoom into this picture his teeth were even showing. MEOW!!! (oh wait, that's the wrong kind of animal but somehow woof isn't dramatic enough. haha)
Kailee is a natural. She was actually the one who had been begging to go horse riding for months.
Kels took a little warming up before she was really ready to ride. She had to watch Kailee first to know that it was ok and maybe even fun. Then she was addicted.
This is one of my ALL TIME favorite pictures EVER! Check out Allie's head resting on Brittany's shoulder for the picture. "Say cheese everyone...or, um... grain!"
This is Kelsie's mad face. I think I had just told her we were about done riding...
These were Kelsie's exact words in that moment: "I yuv you, pizza. You my best friend evoh!"
So there's a pretty good reason why neither my mom or me are in any of the above pictures. Its called horrible hay fever and allergies! The consequences of sneezing ALL DAY just aren't worth it sometimes.

On the flip side, the picture below is one of my favorites ever. Its me & my dad in 1979.
And again in summer of 1982...We lived 'in town' (aka: not on the ranch). Every now and then my dad would bring a horse to our house. Yep, this was in our front yard and I believe I was maybe 6 or 7 years old.Here is the proof. Even with working nonstop he always made time for us. I love this picture because I can just imagine what happened. See the news papers on the floor... They probably took second to Brittany & I and the 50 books we picked out for him to read to us.I love you so much Dad! Thanks for being the very best dad a kid could ever ask for!!!