Buckeye Parade, Shriners, Horse Show, and Piano...

We did another parade (Buckey Pioneer Days) out in Buckeye last weekend. It was a little dissapointing because it was sooo small. But, we still had fun. Kailey dressed up in our pioneer dress and David dressed up like a cowboy and they drove Magic and walked the baby...

Of course, us girls had fun with pictures...again!

This is my "crazy" but very loved stallion, Warrior...he did so good in the parade and I was REALLY proud of him!!!!!

The camel in the back of this picture brings up a very interesting (and rather frightening) topic! At the staging area, there was a group of people next to us called the Shriners. You may have heard of them. They, along with the Masons, are known for helping hospitals and charity work. While at the parade, we noticed that there was some strange signing going on between them and there was a lot of Middle Eastern influence in their entry...i.e., camels, men dressed like Arabs, etc. When we got home, my mom and I both thought that they reminded us of some sort of cult...so we looked them up on Google. We found some horrifying videos of the way that the candidates are ushered into the group. It is definitely a cult, with some very, very satanic, devil worshipping rituals that go on. When a candidate goes to be accepted, they are greeted "in the name of Allah" and something about "by the holy temple at Mecca" that I don't remember exactly. There is one video of a man claiming that Lucifer is pure, virtuous, wholesome, and something else(???). It was also said that only 2% of the money raised actually goes to charity work. Remember, this is all what I read when I looked it up...I don't know any of this as fact! But, it was enough to make us really leery of anything to do with Shriners or Masons. Anyone else know anything about these groups???

This weekend is the Touch of Class Miniature Horse Show out at WestWorld in Scottsadale...I am so excited! It is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Saturday afternoon I also have the biggest piano competition of the year (Celebration of Music), and I am pretty nervous. We will be at the show, so I will have to get all "fancy" in our friend's barn so we can drive to the competition and then go back to the show, change into jeans again, and stay the rest of the evening at the show!!! Last year, at Celebration, one of the competitiors had to leave early because he was going to the 89.5 KBAQ radio station to record for the radio! These kids are good and it is really stiff competition. Last year, I didn't place, and so my very competitive personality is not wanting to go back again this year and "fail" again. I am also in the Senior High division instead of the Junior High division like last year...so this is the top of the difficulty level. I'm scared....ha ha ha! We'll see...

College??? and hiking....again!

So...lately, I have been in a bit of a quandry. I had always kind of had it decided that I was going to go to college for a major in music and become a piano teacher. Recently, it has seemed that things have been pointing towards me becoming a midwife instead. It happened because my mom and I were talking about how much I love foaling out the horses, and then I mentioned how much I would love to be a vet. One problem...it's really hard to be a vet and raise a family! She looked at me and said, "What about being a midwife?" I was like, "Oh...yeah!" So now I'm all confused about where to go to college because I do not want to give up my piano, but it will be really crazy going for a nursing degree, and doing music at the same time! I would love prayer for all this because I am kind of having a hard time thinking through it all... The other whole aspect is the financial side...my grandparents may help if I went to Hillsdale, but it is in Michigan, and my mom doesn't want me going out of state because she is afraid that I will marry someone and never come back to Arizona!!! We had some good laughs at her over that statement...

On a lighter note, we went hiking again on Sunday...this time in the rain! We were going to go Saturday, but things got crazy, and so we postponed it until Sunday. Sunday morning dawned...cloudy and pouring! I was still dying to go, and so me and Dad, Tyler, Sadie, David, and Noah went. We got soaked, but had a blast and found a really pretty spring back in the mountains. Everything was SO GREEN and beautiful.

Here is the spring...there was a little waterfall that was so pretty!

On the way back down the mountain, we were so hungry that all we could talk about was food. And when we got back to the truck, the lightning started so bad that we had to drive all the way back home before we could grill the hamburgers. It was a little frustrating, but we still had fun.

Music, New Foal, Hiking...

The beginning of this week was an eventful one! First, we had a lot of fun on Sunday. When we were driving down our road to go to church, the clouds were down really low on the Whitetank Mountains, and so the girls started saying, "Let's go hiking later!"

At church, Tyler, Anna, and I played a neat version of Come Thou Fount for communion...here's the video

So after church, we got the Ronsick boys, and Tyler, Sadie & Zane and we went out to the mountains. We had a lot of fun, and hiked for about one and a half hours. When we got back, we grilled hamburgers. Down a little ways, there was a group of people camping, and we heard the words, "Nature talk." So, most of the kids crept around and listened...the "talk" was done by evolutionists. You can imaging the comments from some of the more enthusiastic kids when they came back - David & Jessie, for example! We had a great time, and hopefully are going out to hike the long trail this Saturday! Here are some pictures....

The sky on the way up was gorgeous!

All ready to go...

Starting out...

We conquered the mountain...

And back at camp...tired!

Also, Morning FINALLY had her baby! Monday night...little boy, and all is well! He is tiny, tiny, and so cute.