This is definitely not one of those times that we're going to look back later and think, " I wish I had appreciated that more" or "I wish I had worked less and played more"...we had a crazy, busy, ultra fun weekend! We started it off by taking Grace and Mr. Dan's daughter, Jacqueline, to Armand Bayou Nature Center for an evening Prairie Hayride.
We had a ton of fun exploring and seeing all of the sights...
...a turtle...
deer...and we saw a lot more than this...
...and leave it to Squeezy to ask lots of questions...Mark, the Center Director, was our guide so we really lucked out - it was very apparent that the guy really knew his stuff!
I don't ever remember ever having this much fun at a poddy stop :)
Big ol' ham
Mark said this is what all of the Houston area used to look like...wow!
...some Ibis...
...and a different variety of birds...all of the old war planes were flying over headed to Ellington Field for the Air Show the next day...
The prairie is not only made up of lots of different grasses, but also lots of flowers...the girls had a big time picking these to carry home...
It was a beautiful evening...cool, a full moon, no bugs biting...
Armand Bayou in the distance, at sunset
After the hayride, we headed back to civilization and went to Gracie's school Homecoming...of course they had no interest at all in the game...they just wanted to play on the swings and the monkey bars, but we did manage to fill their bellies with hotdogs first...
Homecoming Court...
We didn't stay till the end, but when we left, our bustlin' Broncos were behind on the scoreboard... :(
Saturday morning, Mom & I went to Tom Bass Park in Pearland for the Walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech. Gracie has a friend, JD, that was diagnosed with this at the age of two and his Mom, Heather, is a good friend of mine, so we decided to show our support for the cause and their amazing family...Jack & Gracie went to her riding lesson with Mrs. Lauren and she rode Trashy! She was very excited about that!
This is Heather getting her face painted...
I loved this little puppy dog face...
but Camille, JD's sister, and I decided we would be kitties...
Can't miss our "bucket of sunshine" yellow shirts! JD decided he would keep his "HERO" shirt on though...
Our walk was around a pretty lake filled with ducks...
Mom & I...catching our breath...been a while since we've hit the trails!
but they rewarded us big with some yummy cake...Yippee!
On Sunday, Jack & Mr. Dan finished our wash rack for the horses and Mom, Grace & I went to the grocery store to prepare for the week...but that afternnon, we decided to do something none of us had ever done before...attend a real polo match! I have always wanted to do this and we finally checked it off our wish list...The Houston Polo Club is just behind Memorial Park, so it's lush and green and very pretty.
They bring in some of the team's horses in huge trailers pulled by eighteen wheelers!
I guess because of the movie "Pretty Woman", I always thought there would be lots of snooty patooties, but we didn't encounter much of that at all...we were there early enough to secure a box seat front and center, so Grace was able to see everything well...even a stray ball...but we'll see that later...
The teams coming in for introductions...each team has four players and there are three refs (one announcing in the box and the two here walking in front)
They play six chukkers that are 7 minutes long each with a halftime divot stomp after the third chukker. Plus, the players change horses after each chukker, so everything is very quick-paced. It's amazing the upper body strength these guys must have...
Gracie loved watching...
...and between chukkers when horses were being switched, she read us "The Story of Jesus".
We had a ton of fun exploring and seeing all of the sights...
...a turtle...
deer...and we saw a lot more than this...
...and leave it to Squeezy to ask lots of questions...Mark, the Center Director, was our guide so we really lucked out - it was very apparent that the guy really knew his stuff!
I don't ever remember ever having this much fun at a poddy stop :)
Big ol' ham
Mark said this is what all of the Houston area used to look like...wow!
...some Ibis...
...and a different variety of birds...all of the old war planes were flying over headed to Ellington Field for the Air Show the next day...
The prairie is not only made up of lots of different grasses, but also lots of flowers...the girls had a big time picking these to carry home...
It was a beautiful evening...cool, a full moon, no bugs biting...
Armand Bayou in the distance, at sunset
After the hayride, we headed back to civilization and went to Gracie's school Homecoming...of course they had no interest at all in the game...they just wanted to play on the swings and the monkey bars, but we did manage to fill their bellies with hotdogs first...
Homecoming Court...
We didn't stay till the end, but when we left, our bustlin' Broncos were behind on the scoreboard... :(
Saturday morning, Mom & I went to Tom Bass Park in Pearland for the Walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech. Gracie has a friend, JD, that was diagnosed with this at the age of two and his Mom, Heather, is a good friend of mine, so we decided to show our support for the cause and their amazing family...Jack & Gracie went to her riding lesson with Mrs. Lauren and she rode Trashy! She was very excited about that!
This is Heather getting her face painted...
I loved this little puppy dog face...
but Camille, JD's sister, and I decided we would be kitties...
Can't miss our "bucket of sunshine" yellow shirts! JD decided he would keep his "HERO" shirt on though...
Our walk was around a pretty lake filled with ducks...
Mom & I...catching our breath...been a while since we've hit the trails!
but they rewarded us big with some yummy cake...Yippee!
On Sunday, Jack & Mr. Dan finished our wash rack for the horses and Mom, Grace & I went to the grocery store to prepare for the week...but that afternnon, we decided to do something none of us had ever done before...attend a real polo match! I have always wanted to do this and we finally checked it off our wish list...The Houston Polo Club is just behind Memorial Park, so it's lush and green and very pretty.
They bring in some of the team's horses in huge trailers pulled by eighteen wheelers!
I guess because of the movie "Pretty Woman", I always thought there would be lots of snooty patooties, but we didn't encounter much of that at all...we were there early enough to secure a box seat front and center, so Grace was able to see everything well...even a stray ball...but we'll see that later...
The teams coming in for introductions...each team has four players and there are three refs (one announcing in the box and the two here walking in front)
They play six chukkers that are 7 minutes long each with a halftime divot stomp after the third chukker. Plus, the players change horses after each chukker, so everything is very quick-paced. It's amazing the upper body strength these guys must have...
Gracie loved watching...
...and between chukkers when horses were being switched, she read us "The Story of Jesus".
This poor guy's horse was stung by a mallet and had to go for doctor's care...
I wish I could describe all of the action and back and forth watching, but this is one of those things you really have to experience...
The trophy and bottles of tequila for the team winners~
For the divot stomp, there were a lot of members that brought their puppies...this Brittany Spaniel and Great Dane named Romeo were greeting one another...
With champagne flowing, we set out to find us some divots to turn over...
found one!
Gracie making sure she hadn't found a "steaming" divot!
Of course, she had to find and pet Romeo! She said, "He's almost as big as those horses, Daddy!"
An out-of-bounds ball...there had been several others that were hurriedly scooped up by more seasoned attendee children, but NOT this one!
This dog named Turbo visited Gracie a bunch ...
Thundering down the field for the winning shot -
I wish my barn was this organized and clean...
Their quaint little field office...
We looked around at their Club House and took some shots of our girl...
...and now, closing out our very full weekend, she's having a hard time staying awake!
Have a good week - looking forward to our Halloween weekend! Stay tuned...
