A Busy Friday

 Last night while waiting for our company to arrive the moon was just a small slice of orange in the sky.

I still remember looking up when the boys were young and remarking, "look at the moon." only to hear young 4 year old Ben say, "Philip broke it." Philip had the reputation of breaking everything but we were not going to blame the broken moon on him so I had a little explaining to do with that one. Our company arrived shortly after 10:00 pm and both couples drove in about the same time. I sent Mark up to meet the couple staying in the apartment while I drove over to the barn to meet the couple staying there. We didn't get to bed until way late. I was worried about getting up in time to get the biscuits baked so set my phone as an alarm and put that on our head board. I wasn't worried about getting up we are always up by 5:00 anyway.  That is until this morning. I opened my eyes and thought something is strange, it is light outside. It was 5:38 am. I JUMPED out of bed, turned the oven on and started throwing ingredients out of the fridge. Somehow, some way the food was ready to take over by 6:30 am. Diane had arrived at 6:27 and was wondering why I was late but it turned out she also overslept not waking until 5:40 am then when Joan arrived we found she too had overslept. We still had breakfast ready by 6:45 am but didn't actually start the meal until a few minutes later as all of our guests were busy visiting with each other. The barn was noisy this morning. There was plenty of food for everyone,.

Joan and Diane made mom and Karin a plate then once everyone was done here, took the leftovers for her kids and the family staying at her house. From there the leftovers (there still was plenty) went to Rachel's house as she was hosting a retreat of all the teenage second cousins. Thankful we all live close. Diane and Joan left for church as both were working in the kitchen today. Yesterday Diane told me they had 14 women cutting up fruit for over 3 hours. Well today they had to make 900 lunches. The church lunchroom isn't big enough to hold everyone that was there today so once the lunch room was full they started feeding people in other rooms and got everyone fed.

Diane sent the pictures below of filling the lunch boxes.

Below are the tables ready for the lunch.

After lunch everyone went back to the sanctuary.

Mom and I were able to watch on-line. It was really beautiful listening to the singing. I needed to tease Legacy and she is starting to show but is a maiden mare and would not stand. Evan was sure showing off for her.

Below is Legacy who just happens to be a Valiant daughter.

I needed to go in and start the dinner for the barn tonight. Anna is hosting the Messner reunion and I was providing the first supper meal. Once that was cooking I went out to watch Sarah give pony rides to all of the little cousins and friends that were here for the reunion or just because it was a nice day.

If interested in seeing all of those pictures click HERE.

Phil took Kensley and Taegan the end of the year award ceremony and both ended up with trophies. Taegan was the MVP of the team and Kensely was Most Improved.

Mark helped get the dinner over to the barn then I came back here, took a shower and laid down to just rest a bit and fell sound asleep not waking until almost 8:00 pm. 

I got up to work on the blog and instead watched the rest of the historical video on Ceaser and the Roman empire Mark was watching. I was just ready to climb into bed when Joan called telling me they heard horses running and neighing. She went out looking on her 4 wheeler with Berlica while I took the golf cart up to check the paddocks and was shocked to find the Thoroughbred mare's paddock gate open and those two mares gone. By this time it is after 10:00 pm, pitch dark outside and the rest of the horses are all as calm as can be just standing at the bales munching. Joan went to search the cabin field while I called Mike to let him know the mares were gone only to find out HE MOVED THEM over to the cabin field. What a relief! Joan had parked the 4 wheeler on the main drive and walked to the cabin to search without disturbing the airbnb guests staying int he cabin. Those guests were outside enjoying a campfire so no harm done. Now I can finish this day by climbing into bed for the night.