Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays from Dakota, Maggie & Ranger. Best wishes for love, peace, joy and success in '09!

Family Thanksgiving

We drove back to Illinois for Thanksgiving last week to visit family. We left our home on Saturday morning and drove to our lake cabin for riding lessons. On Sunday morning, we finished the drive to IL. It's a looong time in the car, but for the first time, Mags was allowed to sit in the front seat, which was sort of a milestone for her. She enjoyed seeing the scenery when she wasn't napping.

After we arrived at my parents, we had a good time visiting with them and my sister's family. Surprisingly, my brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew came for Thanksgiving dinner. How long has it been since we were all together at Thanksgiving? I wish I could remember. Uncle Bob and his wife, Kate, were there, and my step-sister Jan ate with us, too.

Then we all drove down to Aunt Patsy's and Uncle Bob's for dessert. Our three cousins (Vicky, Pat and Dona) were there with their spouses (Demir and Shelly) and children (Erik and Andrew). Dona had made eight beautiful pies (gooseberry, apple/currant/pecan, cherry, pumpkin, pear tart, etc.) so Mags got to try a couple of different kinds. It was really fun catching up with everyone.

My sister, Susu, is showing us her good side in this photo:



Her son, Brodie, is lounging in Uncle Bob's favorite chair:



You know...there are a lot of men named Bob in my family. My dad is named Bob, I have two uncles named Bob, and my cousin, Kim, married a Bob. But...do you think I could get a picture with three of the four Bob's at the same time? Heck no.

In this photo, Uncle Bob Lantz is seated at the far end of the table. My handsome brother, Eric, is standing by the fridge, Curt and Gary are on the far side, Uncle Chuck is on the near side and Demir is at the closest end:



My dad, Bob, is standing in the kitchen by his niece, Dona, and his sister, Patsy. BTW, it was amazing how much my cousins Vicky and Dona now look like their mother. Wish I had gotten a shot of the three of them together. They've probably always resembled each other closely, but as a child, I just didn't pay attention.



Finally, Uncle Bob Decker is seated at the kid's table with his lovely wife, Kate:



We had a great time catching up and remembering stories of things we all did as kids. I wrote down some of the stories to put in a scrapbook. Now...to get the photos to go along with the stories. Might take another visit back home.

On Friday, we left IL, but we got a few good pictures of Mags with her grandparents.





And...here's a three generation shot:



As you can tell by the big smiles, we all had a great time! Then we were off to Joplin to visit Gary's sister, Kelly, and her new husband, Trey. On Saturday, we stopped by to see Gary's mom. Then it was back to the lake cabin for more riding lessons. And...finally home on Sunday. It's good to be home!

Elk Win!

Gary and Wade Nicolas just returned from Weare's Outfitters in Montana after a week of climbing mountains searching for the ever elusive elk. The weather was cold, rainy, foggy and generally not conducive to finding big game. The boys finally saw one young buck on the last day of their hunt, but he was too far away to track. The boys came home tired and discouraged.



















Personally, I can't say I'm all that sad about the outcome. The freezer is already full. And...where would we hang another Rudy? I say let the elk grow for another year!

BTW, photos courtesy of Wade.

The Baby Horse

There are many interesting features of boarding our horses out at Bar-K-R Ranch (www.cuttinghorse.net). One of the sagas that we've been watching since the beginning of the year is the pregnancy of Sky, the birth of her foal, and watching how Sky and the foal interact.

Sky has been a very loving and protective mama. Yet she allows her foal to interact with people, a mini-mule, other mares and the geldings. She's always watchful, but does not interfere. I can learn a lot from her.

Now, it is time for the foal to be weaned. They've been placed in the the lower barn in adjoining stalls. At first, they were both anxious but seem to have settled down into being happy to be near each other. The foal is almost as big as Sky now.


It is almost time for the foal to go on to her new owner. I wonder if I'll be as graceful as Sky has been. Will Sky miss her foal terribly? Will Sky be ready for the next time she's a Mom? Perhaps these are lessons to prepare me for when Mags gains her independence. Will I be sad? Will I miss her terribly? Nah...who are we kidding?!! We'll both be ready. ;)

Fall Foliage at Lake Texoma

Just had to share some of the beautiful fall foliage pictures from our cabin at Lake Texoma.



This isn't a picture of the fall foliage as much as it's a picture of my beautiful daughter, Magpie.





And here is our beautiful German Shorthair Pointer, Shiner Bock, enjoying the afternoon.



And...finally, the view of the lake (and a sailboat - BONUS!) from our tree swing:



What a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon...sitting on the tree swing, reading a book, enjoying the fall foliage and conversing with my daughter. Life IS good.

Halloween 2008

In order to protect the Goodman house this past Halloween, we let Mags have her first high school party. We made a pumpkin cake, witch finger breadsticks, witch hat cookies and ordered pizza for her soiree. They carved pumpkins, put on costumes and went out to terrorize the little kids. Can you believe that most of these kids had never carved a pumpkin???


















Our strategy worked. The kids all had a great time (even Bruiser wanted to join the party), and none of the pumpkins got smashed, our house didn't get egged, and we were not T-P'ed.

Fort Worth Zoo Photo Safari - 10/25/08

Rhonda Boswell found a photo safari at the zoo in Fort Worth. The first session featured the FWZ's two tigers (Malaysian and White Bengal) so Rhonda, Mags and I signed up.

We had to be at the zoo by 8:45 so it meant getting Mags up early on a Saturday (no small feat). We made it to the zoo pretty close to on-time and headed to the Asian Falls exhibit.

The tigers had just finished their breakfast and were quite active (for big cats). We spent about an hour taking picture after picture.

Below is the Malaysian:















And the White Bengal:



We were released from the tiger area at 10:00 a.m. and were able to walk around the rest of the zoo. Below is a picture of Rhonda and me (taken by Mags, the budding young photographer):



The lions were out, and the female had four of her cubs out playing:



After the Texas Wilds exhibit, Rhonda wanted to go see the elephants. We also saw the rhinos and hippos. While at the giraffe exhibit, the baby giraffe saw a squirrel and wanted to play. Not sure what the squirrel did, but suddenly the baby giraffe with its gangly legs splayed out ran back to his mama:



Maggie and I had the best time at the zoo with Rhonda. Maggie chattered about how much fun she had all the way up to the lake. I think we have found a new hobby. In fact, I see a nice camera/lens purchase in our near future!

Seatons Invade Texoma

We invited the Seaton family (Matt, Sandy, Taylor, Avery and Emma) to Lake Texoma for the weekend October 18, 2008. They arrived around noon, and we had lunch. Then we went down to the dock for a boat ride, fishing and fossil hunting.

While Sandy, Bec and the girls went fossil hunting, Taylor caught a turtle, and Matt caught a sunfish.


The boys and Mags went up to the cabin for target practice with the pellet guns, and the girls joined up to cheer them on.












The parents cleaned up, Mags helped with dinner for the kids, and the adults left for the Boot Scootin' Ball out at Bar-K-R Ranch. The arena was transformed into a party barn. They had packed the sand down until it was hard as concrete, added tables, decorations, a dance floor, and a silent/live auction. We ate BBQ, drank margaritas and danced. Gary bid on and won the Dirk Nowitzki jersey.



Matt wore his grandfather's boots, which were really cool (but tiny).

On Sunday, we ate breakfast and then all went out to the ranch again. Mags saddled up Dakota while Avery, Emmy and Bec went out to the pasture to get Ranger. After both horses, were saddled up, we decided to borrow Star, too. Avery, Sandy and Bec went to the isolation pasture to collect her.

While Star was being saddled, Emmy was riding Ranger and Taylor rode Dakota. Both were led around. After Emmy and Taylor finished, Avery hopped on Ranger, Mags hopped on Dakota, and Sandy rode Star. After everyone was comfortable with their steeds, we took them off the lead ropes. They walked out to the mare pasture and rode around. Avery took a tumble off Ranger when she tried to canter, and Star reared up with Sandy a couple of times. No one was hurt, but I bet they were both a little stiff and sore on Monday morning.

Mags and Dakota raced Gary (in the car) from the beginning of the driveway back up to the arena. Dakota won!

While we were all riding, Taylor, Emmy, Matt and Gary played football.

After riding, we went back to the cabin, had lunch and packed up to head back to reality. It was a great weekend, and we can't wait to do it all again!