Saturday, August 1, 2009

Me-Pa Ranch

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Kali was gone for ten days to Worldview Academy in North Carolina. We bought our property while she was gone and didn't tell her anything about it. She got home late at night. The next day, once everyone was awake, we went to lunch in town. Afterwards, we just started driving around. We didn't tell her where we were going. I can't believe we were able to keep it a secret that long!
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Mark pulled the car up to this gate and I asked Kali to get out and open the gate for us. She asked whose property it was, and why were we going to drive our car in there. I just asked her again to open the gate.
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As we drove the car in past Kali, she asked me if it was our land. I told her yes and you should have seen her face! We drove to the back of the lot, motioning for Kali to follow us. When we got up to the barn, Mark told her to go on in and check it out.
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Kali loved the barn and asked what we needed the barn for, what were we going to put in it. Mark told her we had thought about putting some horses in it.
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We looked around the property and explained what we invisioned it becoming. Mark showed her where we want to put in a pond, where the storage building would go, and where we would store the tractor.
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Then we got back into the car for our second part of the surprise. We headed out of town aways to this home. We knew this particular horse was for sale and were interested in him.

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Meet Rascal. This is Kali's horse. We spent quite a bit of time getting to know him.
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Kali loved him right away, but was really surprised when Rascal sneezed right into her face!
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Isn't Rascal beautiful?
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I am so all about the eye closeups - lol!
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Kali got to ride Rascal around the yard. She learned how to knee steer him - and I'm sure it's called something else official - that's just what I call it :).
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Every time they slowed down, Rascal wanted to eat grass!
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Yeah, I'm all about the feet shots, too - lol!
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One happy girl!
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New best buddies!
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It was so hot we decided to give Rascal a shower afterwards. He loved the water!
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It was a great day! Kali was so surprised and I still can't believe we pulled it off without her finding out!
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We have since found another horse - another paint - for Mark. His name is Gus and you don't get to see any pictures of Gus because Mark didn't think to take any :) - love you, honey! And we are looking for one more so Jason will have a horse to ride as well. We are hoping Jason and Bobbie will be wanting to come out to ride sometimes - if Jason can get her on a horse :O). And, we are still looking for a miniature donkey for me to play with. I don't ride because of my vertigo, but I sure could spend some time loving on a cute little mini donkey!
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These last 4 shots were taken by Mike - thanks, Mike! He spent allllll day yesterday with Mark, sinking fence posts to separate pasture areas. Here you can see the storage building we had put in, and the horse trailer Mark found us.
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It takes a lot of fence posts to do what we need done.
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A nice straight fence line.
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And, Mark on his red tractor! He will be using this to mow all the pasture land (no more little lawn tractor mowing for 3 1/2 hours - yay!), and to pull the fencing tight. I'll post more photos as we go along. Angie, hope there were plenty of Rascal shots for you :O). Maybe we can get a shot or two of Gus sometime :). Mark has always wanted to have a ranch with horses since he was a little boy. We decided to name the ranch after his mom and dad, in appreciation for all they did for us over the years. Our kids called them Mema and Papa, thus the name: Me-Pa Ranch :).
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Over at I ♥ Faces, they are celebrating summer. Go on over and check out everyone's cool summer shots.

23 comments:

Caseybumpinalong said...

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful horse, and what an amazing day for Kali (and mom, I bet). I bet she'll remember this special day for the rest of her life. I remember when my first pony was delivered to our house like it was yesterday.

Sarah said...

What a wonderful surprise!

Yelena R. said...

What a cool surprise! She looks so happy to have the horse :)

Unknown said...

Such a fun day : ) I love that. Kaishon and Naji took a few riding lessons this summer. I have to do a post about that soon! : )

K said...

Congrats on your new home and your new horses!!! Great photos...your daughter is clearly thrilled! Good luck finding your miniature donkey...those things are just about the cutest little animals ever.

Shannon said...

What a BEAUTIFUL horse! GREAT pics!

Foursons said...

Wow, that's quite the surprise! Love the story in photos, great post!

the monkeys' mama said...

Wow! what a wonderful summer surprise. She will definitely NEVER forget this summer!

Patti H said...

beautiful photos

Juanita Harris said...

Wow! What an amazing summer! I just love the photos of Kali & the horse. The photos are all beautiful and the story is awesome!

Unknown said...

How incredibly fun! What a blessing it will all be! (PS. I have an Outrigger Island shirt, too... and still singing the songs!)

Emily said...

Wow, what a wonderful surprise to come home to. That would definitely make my daughter's summer...and Rascal..she would love him. He is beautiful.

Unknown said...

i love the close up eye shots!

puna said...

awww...my daughter is a HUGE horse fan. She has been riding all summer and she would love this, really!

DonnaS said...

Very neat surprise and I love the story that went along with your photos!

The Foster Home said...

I miss riding so much.

Great pictures, beautiful horse. Your daughter looks so happy and looks like she just had a great time.

MOO said...

gorgeous horse!!

Rebecca said...

beautiful shots! my kids would be in heaven. i agree.. beautiful horse and beautiful pictures too!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comment, fellow HS'er! My kids would trade festivals for a horse though....

What a neat surprise for her, have fun.

Shelly said...

What a Great Post! Thanks for the comment over on my Summer in photos post also!

The horse is beautiful!

Sonya said...

What a beautiful horse. Lauren loves horses she calls them "neigh neighs" Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such a wonderful comment!

Anonymous said...

Your daughter is SOOO lucky! Is it bad that I'm a grown woman with four munchkins and I'm jealous of her surprise? lol. Great photos. Thanks for sharing and making some us turn a tad green with envy.

MaddyChristine Hope-Brokopp said...

I LOVED how you surprised her.



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