Wednesday, June 29, 2011

24 Hours of Fun

This visit actually happened a couple of days before the "Ozzie Incident".

Have I mentioned that I love my summer break?  One of the main reasons is that it allows me to do a few spur of the moment things that I really enjoy!  And there is nothing I enjoy more than a visit with Maddie (and her mom and dad)!  So I journeyed over for a quick but great trip. I left here late one morning and left for home around lunch the next  day! We can really pack a lot of important things in a short amount of time!

We eat yummy popsicles!

 We have a tea party!


Mom puts on a cute CD and we rock out on the trampoline!


We play dress up and do push ups with Dad.  It's more fun when you just hop on his back!


We go to the library and get more books for the summer reading program.

We venture to the park to play and feed the turtles. (Have I mentioned that I love these curls)?



The visit was over before I knew it!  We are going  to get her for a couple of days this week before her mom and dad join us for the 4th.  We can't wait!!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

You Had to Be There

Our plans for Saturday included catching up on some yardwork.  Although we did get a few things done, our plans changed around lunch when we received a call from Lindsey.  Lindsey and Maddie were headed to town when one of their neighbors stopped by to say that Ozzie, their wonderful donkey, was out and had been quite busy.  He had been in one neighbor's garage and in another's garden, among other places.  Josh was in clinicals, so Lindsey loaded Maddie up and they headed off to round up Ozzie.   After chasing him in and out of neighbor's yards and up and down the road, she accepted defeat and realized she needed help! (They live in the country, and many of these neighbors are 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart.) Let me add that she was able to chase him up the driveway of a neighbor that just happened to have an open gate to their pasture.  Ozzie darted through the gate, she hopped out of the car and shut him in.  All of their friends were out of pocket, so she called her dad and we headed off  to round up this sweet little critter and bring him home.  She also called Josh at the hospital.  He is not suppose to have calls, but she told them that it was "somewhat of an emergency."

 If you look up the definition of a donkey in the dictionary, it says "obstinate and stubborn."  Let me assure you that Ozzie was all that and more!

If you think he looks all sweet and innocent, please think again!


Lindsey was chosen to go out first with the bucket of sweet feed and the rope.  Ozzie doesn't like men, so Reed and Josh waited for her to work her magic!


This actually took a few minutes. I was beginning to wonder what Plan B was....





I didn't get a picture of it, but Lindsey actually got the rope around his neck and then the rodeo was on!





Josh arrives to help!


Ozzie thinks it will be a great idea to wrap himself around the tree!


Hartley, the neighbor's son comes to help out! His dad comes to help, too!


Maddie and I watch from a safe distance and play with the neighbor's dogs.

 


Finally, it appears they have the upper hand on ole' Ozzie.  Looks can be deceiving.  The fun was only beginning.



Check out those teeth.  Reed's jeans were wet where Ozzie kept trying to bite him.


Securing the rope for the walk home. The walk was only about 1/4 a mile.  Sounds simple right?



Lindsey and the super nice neighbor that offered his pasture and help



Time to head home!



This cracks me up!  Check out Lindsey's switch!


Ozzie decides he's really not into this!




Reed sends Lindsey back for the truck, as cars speed by.  I can only imagine what these people thought. 


Ozzie doesn't really care to wait for the truck!



The plan was to tie him to the back of truck, so he would have to walk.  That may sound cruel, but at this point it was either that or a shotgun!


And they're off again!



Notice that the truck was on both sides of the road.  Ozzie couldn't make up his mind where he wanted to walk!


 Finally, they head up the driveway!


Pop and Maddie having a little chat after the adventure was over!



You really did have to be there to fully understand how hilarious this was!  It was also lots of hard work.  However, even if it meant traveling all the way across the state, we got to see Maddie, so it was well worth it!  After Ozzie was safely home, Lindsey and Josh rode around to all of the neighbors to apologize.  Everyone was real nice, except for the guy with the garden......Oops! 

I have a feeling we'll be talking about this for years!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Another Fun Visit

Ok-This post is a couple of weeks old.  Somehow, I forgot to post it!

Our short visit with Maddie has ended.  Once again we had more fun than we could have possible imagined!  She is growing and changing so much!  She is talking up a storm, and is so independent!  We treasure our time with her.  As soon as we leave her we start counting down to the next visit. We really didn't do anything special, yet every second we spend with her is priceless!

We spent lots of time swimming-This is our neighbor's sweet niece Caroline.


We ate lots of popsicles!

We picked up lots of sticks!


We managed to go down the hill a few times.



Now she wants to carry it back up the hill by herself.

She helped feed Papa's fish.


We took some apples to another neighbor's horses.


And boy were they happy!


We made a quick trip to the park.


And we played with a little fuzzy caterpillar....



She gives Gus a big hug and says, "I sorry" after drawing on him with sidewalk chalk....


We can't wait until our next visit!