Our summer has been flying by. Baseball/softball has been taking up so much time that we rarely have time on the weekends to do anything fun as a family. The house needs work*, the lawn needs mowing and the garage needs de-junking. However, for Father's Day, we decided to go to the local water park for the afternoon. It was a great success. So, the kids expressed interest in heading to a nearby (sort of) bike trail for some more family fun today. Viv had a long nap, so by the time she woke up and we got the bikes loaded and ready to go, it was getting close to late afternoon. It was near 90 degrees and the threat of pop-up showers was looming. We figured we'd beat whatever rain was headed our way as the sky was clear as crystal as we drove. Once we got to the trail and were nearing the turn-around point, a call came from Jeff, who was at the house. He said it was raining hard and lightning. We made the decision to turn around right there and head back to the truck. We didn't make it. We still had about a mile to go when it started to rain. The kids and Eric were on bikes, Viv was in the trailer behind Eric's bike and I was on roller blades. By the way, roller blades have little traction on wet pavement. It didn't just rain, it poured. There was lightning and thunder that is a whole lot louder outside - or at least that's what I told Ally as she began sobbing as she was trying to see and steer her bike toward the parking lot. The girl gets very nervous when storms hit, anyway, so she was really not having any fun at all. We made it back to the truck and loaded everyone in. It was quite the rush and will live fondly in my memory as a fun, yet unpredictable, Schreiber family outing!!

*Of course there's always things to fix/build/maintain in this house. The latest project was not necessarily planned. The fridge we brought with us from Georgia via Wisconsin did not fit in the space allotted due to the location of the cupboards built around the existing fridge. We put our nice, spacious fridge in the garage for overflow. The fridge that was in the house started to freeze food that got pushed past the midway point and then began freezing fruits and veggies in the crispers. After deciding to re-do the cupboards instead of buying a $1000+ NEW fridge, when we had a perfectly good one already, the renovations began. Let's just say that the man who built this house has been cussed out numerous times amidst the projects attempted here. I think it has come down to more of a shake-your-head-and-find-the-humor, acceptance. Eric knows what's in store when he starts tearing apart cupboards, walls, floors, etc. Jeff, on the other hand, hasn't accepted the haphazard ways of the builder. He will. We all have. Needless to say, the cupboards had to be rebuilt and will still not fit correctly. I could give a flying fig newton, but my anal retentive husband and dear friend are still bothered by the non-flush cupboards. Hey, it holds shit and won't fall on my head......I'm happy.

Last weekend, Max's baseball team camped near where they were playing their tournament. As of Thursday of that week, the weather was looking good- warm, dry and clear skies......not how it actually turned out, which was rainy and overcast. You'll see how the boys adapted in the last pictures.

Even though this season isn't as successful as we would have liked, the boys have fun together and continue to learn.

After a loss in their first game, they came back to beat the next team 16-0! There was a lot of smiles, hollering and thumbs up - as "J-Rod" is demonstrating here.

What do you do when there's more mud than grass beneath your feet? You spread the joy, baby. We found mud caked in the boy's ears, noses and eyes. I can only imagine there was caked mud in other places, too..........ew.

Sweet Moonie Moonpie.......................
Another loss for our large horsey family. Eric got word that Moonie passed away. We were lucky enough to know him. He kept us company while Georgie was being trained by the Soehnlen family. Moonie was with them since their daughter was young. Ally loves Vanilla, but had recently expressed interest in getting Moonie back. Vanilla doesn't play well with others(horses) and it would be nice to be able to put all our horses together without incident. Al took it hard. So did I. Our hearts go out to the Soehnlen family - we know all too well how gut-wrenching the loss of a loved horse can be. Thank you, Moonie, for being gentle with us newbies. You will be greatly missed.

Here are some of the horses. Mark's nephew put up two paddocks and a round pen (for evil pony). He did a lot of work to prepare for us to come. There are awesome trails around his house and we took advantage of them. I went on two different rides. One on Uno (Wright's horse) and one of my own George Monkey. Uno ran me into a tree which left a bruise (in his defense, the flies were horrible and he was pretty irritated). George trailed like a champion!! He was smooth and listened very, very well. We hadn't ridden him since we got him back from the trainer, so it was a crapshoot as far as how he'd do. I was so proud!! I was also proud of Ally for cowgirling up. As we were saddling up all the horses, one got too close to her pony, Vanilla(aka Evil Pony). She called out-we call it her war cry- and kicked at the other horse, while Al was on her. It scared Ally...understandably. She didn't want to go on the ride after that. Abby convinced her that Vanilla would be better behaved on the trail, so she finally agreed after tears shed. Vanilla DID do much better on the ride and Al had a great time. I truly understand her fear. I was afraid on George, with him being a still green horse, who likes to spook easily. I'm very proud of my little cowgirl!

Our set-up. Kinda looks like David and Goliath if David was actually a rusted, redneck, duct taped horse trailer. I have to say that it's nice camping with the Wrights since without them, half of us wouldn't have a place to sleep!! Eric, Viv and I were in ours, while Al bunked with Abby and Megan and the boys also reaped the benefits of lush living.

* On the way to Linton, Dawn drove the suburban with the 3rd trailer behind us. I decided I would have to learn how to do it, too, so I drove on the way home. The first 100 miles or so made me nervous, but after awhile, it got easier. If you are in Ohio and come upon a blue turd, make way, because it might just be me trying to maneuver our own trailer!!

If you look closely, you can see the toad Ally put in the truck. Poor traumatized toad.

Also traumatized? THIS toad. Viv was out of control with them. She kept picking them up and chasing them. The only reason she was able to catch them was the fact that they were so worn out from spending all that time in the truck............

Memorial Day Weekend
Our friends, the Wright's, invited us to Linton, IN to camp on family property for the weekend. I was hesitant to take Viv on a 6 hr. trek to camp. I decided we couldn't always decide NOT to do things because it's challenging with a baby, so we went for it. We hauled 10 horses in three trailers for a total of 8 hours. Even though we got in at 2 am and didn't get to sleep until 3, the fun was yet to be had. Namely, sleeping.............
Did you notice Ally playing in the fire?? Fabulous chaperoning, guys!!

Viv was a maniac!!!! (as always) She didn't mind a bit, all the water in her face as each kid took her down the water slide.

Ticks, ticks and more ticks. All told, our family ended up with 13 ticks pulled off of us throughout the weekend. And that's just the ones we have found. This was one that we pulled off the dog.

What more could a little girl want?? I have candy (pilfered illegally, of course), sun, dirt, horse shit, dogs, water....heaven.

SUMMER FUN!


Since Viv is drawn to the serious hazards of the yard...horses, pond, electric fence, etc. we had to start investing in some age appropriate activities. The kiddie pool proved to be just as much a draw to the older kids as it was to the baby!




She LOVES the swing!!!! Please do not look too closely at the swing, itself. I got this at a garage sale when Ally was 6 months old. It has sat, forgotten, in the garage and moved to 4 different houses since then. It's ugly, the ropes are ratty and pokey and it's faded, but functional!!!

We made a trip to West Lafayette, IN last weekend where we had a blast with all the cousins and my siblings. I had my hands full with Viv, so picture taking took a back seat. However, since Max was unable to go with us, I got him some fried (sour cream and onion) crickets at the zoo. I told my sister he'd eat them, but she was skeptical. Here you go, Meleah.

Yummmmmmm.........