Israel Rides

We had another great Sunday. Tim Funk spoke this morning and Mike Kaisner spoke this afternoon. His very first message. He started with Isaiah 55, one of my favorite chapters of the Bible.
After church Israel came home with us. We knew Karin and Nolan were going to go riding at 3:00 so went up to the barn to watch them tack up. First though Israel went over to the paddock and Envy came right up for some attention.

 Israel was petting Envy when Rosalie came over for attention. 

 Rosalie soon insisted it was her turn trying to stick her nose through the gate panels. Ripper wanted to come up but wasn't quick enough. That is him behind Rosalie. 

 Ripper scurried away when Indy arrived to see what was going on.

 Below Israel and Indy were looking at each other. I'm not sure exactly what either were thinking.

 But soon Israel reached up and started stroking her nose too. 

 Ripper ran over to another gate and stuck his head over asking Israel to come pet him. 

 It was pretty funny how each horse stood quietly so Israel could pet his or her nose.  Karin and Nolan had Zalena and Jenis in the barn tacking up. 

 Emma had followed us up to the barn where Karin's dog Studly and Mike's dog Ebby were waiting for the trail ride to start. 

 Israel got to ride first. 

 He was all smiles when Nolan mounted in front so he could go for a ride. 

 Below the dogs are waiting anxiously for the ride to start. They love going on these trail rides. 

 And off they went.

 Valiant came running up to see them off. 

Israel was pretty happy up there on Jenis. After his ride we hopped in the golf cart and followed the horses down some of the trails for a few minutes. We had to quit as we were due to pick up Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley at 3:45 pm for the all church Christmas caroling. We met at church at 4:15 pm and divided up into 3 groups. Most of the young children came with our group. Spark and Rhonda had 4 of their grandchildren with them, Diane and Mike had 2 of their grandchildren, Joan had all of her children and we had 4 of our grandchildren. We sang first at Maria Graham's house. The kids loved that, Maria has an old beagle and he came over for lots of hugs and petting. But that wasn't all Maria handed out Christmas cookies at the end. The second place we sang at was Teen Challenge. Those boys sang with us with all their hearts. From there we walked over to the Veteran's house and then finished up down at the South Side Mission. The children sang Away in the Manger by them selves there and the audience broke out in applause. They really did sing like little angels. Thankfully Faith has a good strong voice. From the mission we headed back to church where a scrumptious dinner was served. Of course our grandchildren pretty much skipped the lasagna, sides and salads and went right for the desserts filling their plates with all kinds of goodies. We ALL had such a great time singing, visiting, playing, eating and playing some more.