AT Update

Have not updated in awhile - but we have been busy little hikers during this month. In our last post, we mentioned that we had started at Springer Mountain. Since then, we have done Blood Mountain, Hawk Mountain, and today Sassafras Mountain. We have now hiked a total of 38 miles! Today's hike was one of the most difficult - 3.8 miles virtually straight up. Sarah was strong for the whole hike, and kept her senior citizen parents going by cutting up and making jokes. We were treated to encounters with deer and a box turtle, who had taken up residence in the middle of the access road! Sarah graciously repositioned the turtle to the shoulder - probably extending his life span by at least several days! One of the gaps we came through today was called Horse Gap, so appropriately, we have Sarah's picture in front of the sign.

Wanderlust

Over the past few years, we've made several hikes up Kennesaw Mountain. Last time we did it, we conquered the Big and Little mountains at this site. Since we like hiking, we've been looking for new challenges - and yesterday, decided to tackle the Appalachian Trail here in GA, more specifically, Springer Mountain. We arrived promptly at 9AM, and started our trek. The weather was perfect, and the trail provides natural shading from direct sunlight, as it is shrouded by deep forestation. People along the trail were very friendly - I noticed that it was only a fraction as busy as Kennesaw had been - I'm sure $4 /gallon gas, and the 60 mile distance from Atlanta were contributors to this - which was fine with us. We kept pushing and pushing, not wanting to turn back, more like, "let's just climb this last peak" - until eventually, we were about 7 miles away from our car. The majority of the hike had been DOWN Springer Mountain, and to get back, we ended up hiking 7 miles UP Springer Mountain. Sarah was a trooper, although much of the spring in her step had disappeared by mile 12. We finally made it back to the car, about 5 hours after we'd left it. Tired, but in a good way, and with big dreams of returning, and hopefully scaling all of the GA portion of the trail and into NC. On the way out, we met one of the fellows who maintains the trail. He was kind enough to take our picture - which is attached here.

Mother's Day at a Horse Show

This was a wonderful Mother's Day for Angela ... the whole weekend was spent at a Horse Show with Sarah!
Competition began at 9:30 on Saturday morning so that meant we had to be at the venue at 7:30 in order to get Annie (and Sarah) ready on time. Sarah competed in 4 classes at this show ... and they were big ones! Sarah had a fan club cheering her on Saturday .... her 1st grade teacher, Brooke Wells and her former trainer, Lauren Tedder both came out to cheer Sarah on. It was really great to have such good people in our corner! On this day, her classes each had about 10 girls in them. Sarah did great --- she brought home 2 Fourth place ribbons and 2 Sixth place ribbons. She was the youngest one in the competition so we think she did GREAT!
Sunday the classes were smaller and Sarah did beautifully --- again bringing home 4th, 5th and 6th place ribbons. She even beat her "barn nemesis" in two classes!!!
The most important thing is that Sarah got some more show experience and smiled a whole lot!!!
We will keep you updated as we continue our show season Memorial Day weekend.

Busy Sunday!

This Sunday (and Saturday as well) we spent several hours at the barn. Sarah has been working on her balance while riding. She's gotten really good at riding hands-free, at the trot, and the cantor. If Annie was planning on a leisurely Sunday laying out in the pasture, Sarah dispatched those dreams early, and gave her a seriuos workout!

Go Thrashers!!

Got some free tickets to the hockey game last night. Angela had a prior work committment, so Sarah and I along with a friend and his son, Gavin, took in the game. We have been to several games this year, although these were in the "choice" seats. Sarah was definitely among the loudest of the Thrashers fans. Decked out in "Blueland" attire, she caught the attention of all the fans in our section. When the announcer asked the crowd to "make some noise", Sarah was glad to oblige. This was Gavin's first exposure to hockey, and by night's end, he appeared to be a convert! Only downside was that the Thrashers lost 2-1.

Horsey Stuff

I noticed in reading thru the posts on this blog that I have not mentioned anything about Sarah's bestest friend and number 1 passion - Annie! This picture is from a horse show last summer, just before we purchased Annie. Sarah is very responsible with her friend, takes care of her, grooms her, and rides her just about every chance she gets. Annie has a birthday coming up - her 7th! - and you can bet Sarah has some big plans for that day....

Daddy-Daughter Dance

One of the biggest thrills of living in our neighborhood, is the Annual Daddy-Daughter Dance. This year's dance was this past weekend. The night gives fathers a chance to take their daughters out for a "date" - starting with dinner (Mexican this year) and capping off the evening with a dance at the country club. Sarah and I had a great time - dancing the night away to Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, and some oldies like "YMCA" and "Let's Twist Again - Like We Did Last Summer" - much much fun, leaves us counting down the days until the 2009 event!