MANZANAS galore!

I've been wanting to make caramel apples for a long time, like since Beau and I were dating. But he's allergic to them. So we never have. BUT, Beau just discovered that fresh picked apples don't make his throat close up! It must be some crazy preservatives or pesticides. So I thought it'd be super fun to make caramel apples.


I was in Spanish Fork this week for a riding clinic, and I stopped by my grandpa's house to pick some apples. He died last year, but his house hasn't been sold and the tree still remains. I can remember playing in the backyard in the sprinklers and climbing the apple tree. I also had a lot of imaginary horses but we don't need to go into that.




My grandpa was pretty smart and planted a red apple tree but grafted green apple tree branches into it so the tree produces both kinds of apples.








I invited a couple from the ward over Saturday night for the festivites.. and let me tell you, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory has nothing on us.

Chad and Danielle aren't normally dressed like twins. They had just come back from the BYU v. CSU game.

YAY for having friends in the ward.












I bet you can't tell the difference, so I'll just tell you that the above pictured apples are from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and the one on the right is ours. Maybe we should sell it for $8 like they do.


YUM.

end of summer wrap up

Maybe one day I will have an interesting enough life to say "here's what happened at a really cool event!" and then write about it. But until then, I'll continue with mass picture uploading and captions.

Us at Beau's friend's wedding reception. Dane and Beau went to high school together, and Dane happened to marry a girl from McLean. We got to go to their fancy shmancy reception at the Ritz Carlton. I have never had so many good desserts in my life.

This is also a testament to what humidity will do to your hair.

Reagan and Tyler snuck away for a weekend to go to NYC and the four remaining adults (me, Beau, Grandmama, and Pappy) were in charge. Pretty good ratio. My mom and dad met me at work and I gave any willing participant (Adriel, Brooklee, and Grandmama) a pony ride. Dallyn politely declined.

This is also the same horse that, on my last day, Martha and I put Beau on. He POSTED and knew TWO-POINT and even checked his diagonal! Then Martha set up a jump and we pretty much died laughing at Beau's attempts.

I think we went to the District all of two times this summer. This is one of them.

Same trip.

Adriel cut her hair. But not while we were in charge. I don't think she understands that she did a bad thing.

I love box turtles. When I was younger I would catch one at the beginning of the summer and keep it till September when it was time for my little friends to go hibernate. I would buy worms from the fishing stores and keep them (the turtles, not the worms) in a big pen in my back yard. On the very last day we were in Virginia, as we were getting in the car to go to the airport, this turtle came to say goodbye to me.

MIDDLE GIRL REUNION!

Age order, which clearly has nothing to do with height: Maria, Shawney, Natalie, me, Eliza, Sarah Rose, Anne, Sarah Michelle.

At the taking of this picture, Maria was a few days returned from her mission to Brazil and Eliza had just gotten set apart to go on her mission.


The middle girls are named so because the "big girls" were a few years older than us, and we were the "little girls". But then one day someone (probably Mel) decided that we were getting to be too old to be called little girls, so we became the middle girls.

And that is all! More to come about Beau's game-winning hit in tonight's softball tourney.

And I'm still missing this guy terribly.

ode to Killian

I try not to mention my "horse thing" to people other than family, in attempts to not to not be like this:
Or like these creepy people:

And this one just makes me laugh.
Anyway, most people view horses as being a little girl thing, like my little pony or black beauty.

And sure, a lot of horse people ARE weirdos. Especially in the under 15 category. But I promise, the REAL horse people, the ones that are taken seriously by the horse community, are pretty normal and just have a very consuming hobby.

With that intro, here is my ode to Killian, the most fantastic horse I've ever had the privilege of riding.

Before we returned to Virginia, I'd been searching for a good horse to lease for the summer. Many people who don't have the time or money to keep their horse lease them to others, either on their own farm or they allow the leasee to move the horse to their own farm. Typically, the leasee pays for expenses, but doesn't have to take the risks of actually owning a horse. I was in communication with a few different people, and mostly by luck Killian was the first one I saw. I took him for a trial period, but before I even jumped him I knew that he would be an awesome horse.
Go ahead, make fun of me all you want for getting sappy about a horse.





But I have never felt so strongly that this is what I'm supposed to be doing in life. Horses are my thing.

sarah shaw dickson

Check out this post by my cousin Camilla, in tribute to our grandmother.

I couldn't have said it better.

I have so many fond memories of Gram- goodie bags for the drive home from her house, the annual Easter egg hunt, stories about her dogs, and the Chiquita banana song. :)

(I found this photo from the beach in 2005. Coincidentally, the same house we rented this year!)

We love Gram!

do you think i have pigs in my head?

This is what we did last week!


(Almost) the whooooole Dickson Dynasty familia was in attendance. 52 people in all. Gathered in the best place ever.


The lady who started it all:

Unfortunately, I'm not a very conscientious picture taker. So most of these pictures are credited to other people. Oh well.


Boys playing football!

Also, most of these pictures are of the kiddies. They are just too fun.

Late night beach walks!



Pagie and Everett.




Adriel loved playing in the water with her cousins, or second cousins, whatever my cousin's children would be called.




The babes fought over who got to have the Cabbage Patch doll hair crimper on their face. Brooklee won this one.


9/12 of the great-grandchildren.
Ryder, Adriel, Ellery (3 weeks old!), Dallyn, Brooklee, Sofie, Lucy, Carson, Everett.

And this is what was going on behind the camera:

Can't wait for the next one!

2 weeks from yesterday, camp will be all done. 2 weeks from today, we will fly back to Utah. And 2 weeks from Monday, we will start school.

Hooray.

solitude: day 4

Since Sunday, Beau has been having fun with the family water skiing and lake-ing in Colorado. I'm not able to up and leave camp, especially not this week, since I am taking care of a friends horses while she is away. I've been jealous of the Parks clan the past few days.

Since I spend a lot of time at my friend's barn, I've been staying in her apartment in Purcellville. No babies, no sisters, no parents, no husband = sad face.

And I just finished a bag of chocolate chips I opened Monday night.

But I have gotten a few things done on the life to-do list... bought plane tickets for the trip back to Utah, straightened out our new phone plan. Why is Southwest the only airline that doesn't charge for luggage?? Three cheers for them and their ghetto airplanes.

Oh right, pictures.

Look! All 5 grandkids together with Grandmama.


Playing in the driveway is a daily occurrence.

One of Adriel's favorite things about Smith Circle is seeing various wildlife most days. Not that we're in the middle of the wilderness, but toads, deer, and foxes are pretty cool to a 3 year old.


Not gonna lie, I wasn't even present for this picture. Or the toad one, for that matter. But it's cute nonetheless.

3 more days till Beau's back!!