Nov 1, 2011

The Kolvoord Petting Zoo

A few weekends ago Ella and made the trip up to my sister's. Ella was a huge fan. Jen and Greg have three chickens, two goats, and a quarterhorse at their house. I'm pretty sure Ella thought it was her very own personal petting zoo. She loved seeing all the animals and pretty much wanted to feed them constantly.


Saturday morning we took a trip with Uncle Greg up to the Maine Jump. Crazy on a Saturday, but really fun and Ella did really well considering how loud it was and how many children were there.


Then after a much needed nap, Ella got to go riding! Over the years she has been pretty afraid of horses. She loves them in theory but when she gets next to one of any size she kind of freaks. But that all turned around this year! First she warmed up with a ride on Janie with Auntie Jen. Jen got Janie when she was 12 maybe? Janie is in her 30's I believe, and totally bombproof. She also does tricks...says please, gives kisses and shakes. She's only 14.3, but to Ella that's pretty big and she did awesome. Then we headed over to a barn where Jen keeps another one of her horses. This also happens to be the farm where I grew up going to summer riding camp, so it was very sweet to have my daughter take her very first solo ride here. Jen tacked up Frosty, and away she went. Seriously, to anyone who knows anything about English riding, just look at her form! Perfect :) She's a natural.
Waving to the camera!And if you're wondering if the trip made a lasting impression....well lets just say, at Ella's instance, I've been building, "Jamies" and "Srosties" out of legos for a week. Notice baby riding Janie in the background.
"Jamie needs a blankie because she wears one when she's cold". True."Jamie and Srosty."

1 comment:

Cheryl said...

WOW!!! You sure have been busy blogging! I finally made it down to this post. Really love the pictures of Ella and Jen riding Janie, and Ella riding Frosty the pony. I'm thinking... "Oh no, don't tell me we have another equestrian in the family!" =) Also love the Duplo horsies. Very clever and cute!