Picture update

Holden.

5' 8"

Yes, he really is that tall.

Sydney.

And Abraham.

Yes, he really is that tall.

Sydney's first day of college

And a short update for today.  After a long weekend and riding lessons at the barn this morning, Sydney had her first class at Century college.  It's a big week for her.

Good think we packed a lot of sleeping gear in the car for the Ren Fest.

The ride home...

Renaissance Festival update

We were too tired to post this last night (and I went WAY over my data plan allowance on my phone while I was at the Renaissance Festival), so I'll catch up a bit now.

I dropped Sydney off yesterday and only attended the last joust of the day.  Just as I was headed in, Sydney texted me saying that I wouldn't need to save her a seat for the jousting :-)

Yes, she got to ride the first weekend!  She saddled up a big horse named Abraham and looked amazing as she warmed up.  They were giving her some last minute instruction and she was focused on all the new techniques.  There's a lot to learn.

Here she is with Shelby, the lead lady-rider, and all four jousters before the match.
(If viewing on a small screen, you may need to click on the picture to see everyone.)

Warning:  long-winded educational side note coming.  Hope I'm somewhat accurate with my notes.

Neither of us realized that it would be so different to ride these horses.  They're not trained with the same cues as a typical English or Western riding horse.  Many of the important instructions are different, including turning, backing up, and stopping.  Believe it or not, you don't pull back on the reins to stop them!  We'll learn more, but we think that when they guys are jousting in full armor that some of the traditional techniques would not only be hard to do with all that gear on, but could be dangerous.  So to stop the horse, you just shift your weight and lean back in the saddle.  (This technique is taught with other horses as well, but it's usually in addition to pulling on the reins.)  So, when you see a guy hit in the jousting battle, he automatically moves back in the saddle - and the horse slows forward momentum.  Also, it's amazing to watch them - when a rider falls, the horses just STOP.  Good thing as they are so huge.  A typical horse can be 800 to 1200 pounds.  The draft horses they use for jousting are around 1800 to 2200 pounds!

So, there was much fanfare and riding around, then the first jousting pass came.  They guys clashed and the crowd cheered, then the girls rode down the length of the field.  They looked GREAT!  As they were riding back I noticed Abraham was at a large gallop - he was going fast.  Then they got to the end of the field and he didn't want to stop.  He hunched his back and started bucking.  Not big, bucking bronco style, but still, he's a big horse.  So, Sydney hung on for the first three bucks but then the saddle started slipping and she went off to the side - knowing it was the best move as she didn't want to go under him if the saddle slid around.  She hit feet first then onto her butt and bounced back up.  The crowd cheered when she stood, the staff checked to see that she was OK, then they resumed the jousting.

I don't know if I can fully explain, but several things went wrong.  First, Abraham doesn't like the new kid ride that was installed near the far end of the jousting field.  Kids are attached to bungee cords and jump on trampolines so they can "fly" in the air.  The horses don't like it at all.  So, Abraham took the opportunity to run away - FAST - from the big bouncy monster, Sydney didn't have full control, and she was trying to think about the proper instruction to give instead of just reacting with instinct.  She said she was trying to speak his language but had the wrong phrasebook.  Abraham got confused with her cues and he'd had enough.

I must say that Sydney handled it all with an amazing amount of grace and humor.  She knew she had a lot to learn, didn't blame it all on the horse or the bouncy ride.  She smiled, then got back up on Abraham after the match to get further instruction on riding, and on Abraham's hot buttons.

Here's a little video of her ride...

https://youtu.be/cDVYBOz47Dg

Renaissance Festival!!

II didn't get pictures aup from our Montana trip.  That will have to wait. More important things are at hand.

This is Sydney's first day working at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival!!!  We came to talk to them on Thursday and Sydney was SO excited!  Then we had a free day on Friday, and she was half excited, half nervous. This morning (up at 4:30 AM) she was all nerves. This is a big job and it's a lot of work. She was hoping she's up for the challenge.

This weekend she'll be grooming and feeding the horses and learning the routine. She won't be riding today as they didn't have enough time to work with her beforehand. Hopefully she'll be in the saddle next weekend. There are three jousts a day and they have the lady riders do more show stuff  before the first joust. For the other two they want everyone on the horses, riding around, building up the excitement. 

I tagged along with the troupe today and will hang out at the Festival until they pack up. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to post a few pictures.

Here she is, giving people rides on the jousting horses.

 

Art Show 2015

Trying to catch up with a few blogs before we head to Montana.

Both Sydney and Holden took an art class and had a year-end art show.  Here are a few pictures of their best work.

Holden did three paintings this year.

The first one was a car -

The others were the Enterprise and a wonderful road picture that is one of my favorites -

Sydney did three as well.

She did the "star" tree in the upper left and a very detailed pine martin in a tree -

And then the biggest painting she has done to date was a picture she took of her friend, Ada, dressed as a wood elf sitting in a tree.  

There was also paper mache...
Holden did a sun with sunglasses - I love this guy!

 Sydney did a griffin with feathers -

And for the printmaking part of the class, Holden did several sharp objects - a machete thing and two swords crossed - and an adorable cat.

Sydney did several, including a dragon she drew herself, and a heron that made some beautiful prints!

And then there were the ceramics.

Holden did "cube guys".  (The animal in the middle isn't his.)

And Sydney did a blue and white swan dish.

 Finally, we'll leave you with a picture of Sydney and Ada at the show!

A Love letter to Sydney, from Dad

Andy attended the 4th of July horse games with Sydney and put together a short video.  Love this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWOYryM8gUw

Vocal Workshop Performances

Need to catch up on a few more things.  Here are the links to the vocal workshop performances for both Sydney and Holden this year.

Sydney singing "May It Be"
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neg8khcO8Pw
Sydney singing "A Thousand Beautiful Things"
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uux3EG37yN0

Holden singing "Go Rest High On That Mountain"
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGTqf03kbCk
Holden singing "Best Day Of My Life"
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoC4CvNUmsQ

Enjoy!

MN Cars and Coffee

Today Holden and Julia went to Minnesota Cars and Coffee - the best place for a motor-head to get his fix.  Here are a few choice vehicles that were carefully selected by Holden.

Top of the list for the day was the McLaren P1

Lamborghini Gallardo

Alpha Romeo 4C

Very nice Viper paint job

2007 Zimmer Golden Spirit Coupe.  This was an amazing car - a 2007 Mustang GT modified by the Zimmer Motor Car Company in New York. 

Dodge Challenger Hellcat

Ferrari 458 Italia

Jaguar XF110

I loved this car!  I thought it was a Shelby Cobra but now we're not sure.

Mustang Boss 302

Mercedes SLS AMG

Chevy Lowrider

The Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, the Bat Mobile, and the Black Beauty from the Green Hornet

 

And we have to add the T-shirt of the day...

Sydney is Driving!

Here she is!  We've been taking small drives in the Fiat and she's doing a wonderful job!

Sir Benedict

This is Sydney's birthday present from Holden...

His name is Sir Benedict and he's beautiful!  A few of us have been calling him Fabio because everyone is in love with him and he does this little move that shakes that beautiful, tan, mane of his.  (I don't know what else to call it on a rooster.)

We're glad to have him, but the circumstances of his arrival were not pretty.

This was Sydney's flock a few weeks ago.  She had six beautiful laying hens and two little black chicks, "The Twins", that could not be separated.

Unfortunately, something began picking them off and in a few days time she was just down to 3 birds.  She has one of the little black chicks left and two from her original flock.  We've set out a live trap to see what was taking them but haven't caught anything.  The hens needed a little protection.  This is where Sir Benedict comes in.  He instantly took on his role of protector and loves his girls dearly.

No.  We're not hatching chicks.  No, we're not.  Seriously.

Sydney turns 16!

Can you believe it?  Sydney is 16 years old today!  Some of her birthday plans didn't turn out due to unpredictable weather, but here's a snapshot of the wonderful day we had.

Up early - headed into the cities to visit bookshops.  The first stop was the Lyndale Park Rose Garden.  Sydney has always loved roses.  Here is a picture of her in that same garden when she was just over a year old.  Notice the bare feet - that hasn't changed a bit!

And here she is today!

After a beautiful morning outdoors, we headed to some local bookstores as the storms rolled in.  The first stop was, again, an old favorite from when she was small.  It's a children's bookstore called Wild Rumpus and they have animals throughout the entire store.  There's a cat (Booker T.) and a chicken that free-range, and many others (ferret, chinchilla, birds, lizards, etc.) in their comfy little homes, tucked within the book aisles.  When you approach Wild Rumpus you will see a little door (the kid door) inside the bigger door (the adult door) and you can choose how you wish to enter.  Though all of us are over 5 feet tall, we still choose the kid door - even Andy!

       

After this we headed to Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore.  A wonderful place where the used books are piled in boxes on the floor and stacked to the ceiling.

Then we needed lunch.  Off to Sydney's choice, Victor's 1959 Cafe.  It's a little dive in South Minneapolis that has very few seats, is almost always packed, has great Cuban food, and encourages patrons to write on the walls.  A wonderful place!

After yet another bookstore, we headed to our favorite little old-fashioned soda fountain run by a young husband and wife.  As we took a picture out front, Nick, one of their awesome employees, photo-bombed us as he was making fresh waffle cones :-)

We almost always end up asking them to make us something that's not on the menu - and they're happy to create it for us.  I usually ask for a chocolate-cherry soda.  Here's the new creation for today - a chocolate cherry malt.  It took a bit to get it mixed just right and the finished product was a work of art.

From there, we headed home to stream a western from Netflix and put the finishing touches on an almond cake that still needs some chocolate ganache frosting!  So I need to post this and finish that up before the movie ends.

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

Sydney's May 30 Horse Show

Here's Sydney on Sakotah at the Rick-A-Shay Ranch Fun Show.

It was a beautiful day but we had to hold the show indoors as heavy rain had soaked the outdoor arena.

Sydney placed well in each event.  Her favorite is Trail class.  Here she was asking Sakotah to kick a large ball through the pole goalposts.

Flying around the barrel.

And coming at me fast through the poles.

Here she is with Pam, her instructor, after the show.