Playgrounds and Horses....

As Anna gets older, we have really enjoyed each new adventure with her. She is now, as I said in the previous post, really stretching her new found Independence. We have been frequenting playgrounds a lot more now that she can walk up the stairs and go down the slide by herself. We went to the private school playground that is across the street from our house (which rocks!..no pun intended ) and took some pictures with Granny's camera before I had to take it back the next day.

It looks like she was flying down that slide...she was actually still! The wind was blowing really hard and she was laughing!

Having fun riding the see-saw horses.

Down the slide on her belly backwards, smiling at mommy.

Okay, she LOVES rocks. She picked them up and yelled "rocks!," and Stephen captured this picture which does just that. I LOVE IT!

Here she is, giving me her rocks.

On another note, we went to my parent's house last Saturday and had dinner since we were not going to be spending Easter Sunday with them, and Anna got the chance to ride a horse. My dad has bred and broken Quarter horses as long as I can remember, and it really is a labor of love. I think he always wanted my brothers and I to share in his love of horses, but he has never said it and never forced it onto us and unfortunately we just aren't into horses as much as he is. After dinner, Dad asked if I would want him to saddle up Gabby (the calmest horse to ever live ) and see if Anna would want to ride with him. I was all about it, cause really, I just wanted to see what she would do. She is fairly wimpy about some things, so I was just curious if she would actually get on the thing. Plus, I knew it would make him happy if she was into it.

So he saddled Gabby up and we spent some time petting her before I actually handed Anna over to dad. She was a little skeptical at first, but once she was on the horse and knew she was with J-Paw, things were great. They rode for a minute, (he just walked Gabby ) and then I let Anna get down, so she could watch J-Paw run the horse. After that, he rode back over to us and I asked her if she wanted to ride again. She said, yes, and lifted up her hands to go to J-Paw. Dad beamed, and gave her a kiss and said, "You don't know how happy that makes me baby." I think more than anything, just the fact that she wasn't scared made him happy. And it made me happy too. Hope you have a great week and enjoy the pics.

Checking out the horse, while T-Ma pets her. Not too sure...

Giving her a pat. Nice and soft....not too scary.

Having a good time with J-Paw

Second ride, much more comfortable sitting on the saddle, and holding the horn.