Our Day at Grandma MJ's Farm!

Last Wednesday, we had an eye appt for mommy (annual diabetic retinopathy check-up), so afterward we stopped at grandma's house since it was closer. Mommy's eyes were fully dilated and it was a very sunny day, so she was having a really hard time keeping her eyes open with all the painful sunlight. It was just barely bearable with both pairs of sunglasses on. The great news was that doctors said my eyes looked great, and there was no sign of damage! They went as far as to say that I had the healthiest eyes they had seen all day! Thank You Jesus!!

When we got to grandma's, she was still at work. We took some carrots out to the horses. They love some yummy carrots! First we fed the treats to the full size horses, Maverick, Mable, and Amber. Then we fed the ponies, Jake and Savannah. And then we fed the minis (miniature horses), Valentine, Honey, and her baby Rocketman. He is getting so big now, he is a year old, no longer a foal.

Later after grandma got home, we were sitting out on the deck looking at the horses, and we noticed that was some kind of animal on the far side of the fence. We kept looking and watching, and we noticed the white, brown and black colors just like Rocket. So we all went out to see if it was him. And it was! He had squeezed through the fence and gotten outside the fence! Oh no! So grandma went around one side and we went around the other to try and coax him out and catch him before he got away. He and his mother, Honey were whinnying and upset at being apart.

That was the one thing that kept Rocket from running away...he wanted to stop and munch the green grass, and most of all, he is desperate to be with his mother...he gets really upset about being separated from her. He wouldn't let us catch him! He is kind of like a teenager now, he was acting out and throwing a little man fit! He wouldn't let grandma put his halter on. All of the sudden he bolted off, and grandma yelled for us to open the gate so he would run in to get close to his mama again. And he did! So JD helped mommy open the gate and let Rocket in, and then close the gate again to close him in. He was so proud to help save the day! He was our hero!

Then Rocket still wouldn't let grandma halter him or catch him. It took a long time, but she finally got him after 30 -45 minutes or so. Then grandma walked him around the corral on the lead. JD asked if he could walk him on the lead too. So grandma taught him the right way to do it, and let him try. And JD did a great job! It was a lot of fun :) Mommy was sad she didn't have her camera.

After all the horsie drama, JD HAD to go over and run around in the arena. He trots and gallops around and makes horse sounds and pretends to be a horse himself! It is super cute. While we were in the arena we looked at the tiny pieces of gravel in the arena, and all the little weeds and plants around the edges, and the coolest thing was these teeny tiny helicopters we found!! We recently found helicopter seed pods in the church parking lot, and they were cool to watch spinning around and around! And these tiny ones in the arena were less than half the size! But they still spun around just as well! So we kept some in JD's Ranger Rick bug container. We are gonna look online to see exactly what type of local tree these two types of helicopters came from.

JD was eager to continue our nature walk, and bug hunt. So we took the dogs out into the back yard and searched for bugs to catch in the bug container so we could look at it with the magnifier on the top. We stayed away from the bees and wasps, and talked about how for the most part those bugs will leave us alone if we leave them alone. They will only bother us or attack us if they feel threatened. We didn't get any ants, and we soon began to realize how difficult bug catching really was. We had a hard time getting the bugs into this little cylinder container. It was cool, thanks to Chick-fil-a! Had little breathing holes in it and a magnifying glass top to look at the bugs close up. JD says it is a "bugs eye view." Haha! Thats my yummy boy for you :)

Finally we did catch a bug and close the container without smashing any of its body parts (this worried me) and we had no idea what kind of bug it was. We didn't know the name of it, and we looked it up online and saw a picture of the same bug. It looked like a daddy long legs, with those long delicate spindly legs, and had wings. It is called a Mosquito Hawk. It was flying around, landing on the grass and when we placed the bug container on top of it the bug climber up the side allowing us to close the lid safely.

This was an adventure for us! It was so refreshing and fun to spend the day outside and enjoy the nature that God created, and just enjoy the fresh air! We love going to grandma's house! She loves us and cooks for us, and we like to help her with the animals. They are a lot of fun to play with. Thanks Grandma MJ!! We love you <3