Oak View Stables Horse Show

Today Mollie Grace and two of the girls that did show camp with her this week, Miller and Delaney, participated in a horse show at Oak View Stables.  They competed in the beginner walk, trot, cavalletti (little rails that the horse steps over) division.  We met Meredith and her horses at the show at 7:30 a.m.  Mollie Grace road Meredith's horse Road Less Traveled (Trav).  

Tying her number on -- 117.

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 Warming up.

 I wore the wrong shoes!

 Before you begin the pattern around the arena you have to trot a big circle.  Mollie Grace has been worried for three days that she would forget to circle.  She did it, though!

 The first two classes involved the riders walking/trotting through a course individually.

 During the third class, all the riders were in the arena together walking, trotting, and reversing direction as directed by the judges.

 Waiting for the results.

 Mollie Grace got sixth in the first walk/trot/cavaletti class and sixth in the final class where everyone was in the ring.  She got third in the two walk/trot/cavaletti class because she was much more successful at getting Trav to trot. 

 Miller won Grand Champion in the class.  Delaney competed in two divisions and won lots of second place ribbons.

Ready to unsaddle.  We were done by about 10:30 a.m.

This Week

 Annie has been designing clothes for herself and her dolls.

 Tuesday we met the Mayfields at the Children's Museum to play in the spray park and playground.

 On Tuesday I told Brooke I wasn't thinking about school until August 1.  The very next morning Annie pulled out her new Kindergarten workbook ready to "do school."

 Wednesday night Ben had his final soccer game for the summer series.  The team they were playing only had 4 players show up.  It's supposed to be 5 v 5.  The other Predator team was short a player so we sent one player to them and they played 4 v 4 with no subs.  Ben, Ryan, Anthony, and Aiden played amazing together beating Memphis FC 15-5.  I was so excited watching them play and texting John that I forgot to take any pics.  I doubt Annie and Mollie Grace know who won the game.  This is what they did.

 Wednesday - Friday 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mollie Grace went to Horse Show Prep Camp. These are some pics that Meredith posted.

 Mollie Grace and Miller on Trav and Birdie.

 There were just four girls doing the horse show prep -- Olivia, Miller, Mollie Grace and Delaney.

 Olivia and Mollie Grace.

 There were some little girls there as well for beginner camp that got rained out last week.  Mollie Grace is helping her clean a horse's hoof.

July Cont

The week after Topsail we our church hosted Backyard Bible Club, Ben attended a Battlebot Robotics camp (no pics), and played in a couple of soccer games.

 She wore her princess dress to pick up Ben from Battlebot camp.  Notice the rubber boots.  It poured Monday and Tuesday due to tropical system moving through.

 You can see soccer happening in the background but Mollie Grace and Annie were focused on tying grass into Annie's hair.

 Saturday Ben went to a birthday party from 11-1 and we all went to a birthday party from 2-4:30.

Topsail

 On the way down to Topsail Sunday we had a blowout on the trailer.  Thankfully it was before Mobile and I-10.

Traditional first view of the water pic.

 John caught this crab.

 Campbell Lake (a.k.a. Flower Nose Lake)

 We bought this bike trailer to carry our gear down to the beach but it was also good for riding Annie on long trips.

Our trailer site by the lake.

 John is the monkey in the monkey in the middle.

 Ben convinced me to walk with him the condos WAY down the beach.  Just a little smudge behind him.  According to my phone we walked 1 1/4 miles ONE way!

 We're there!

 And now we have to turn around and walk ALL the back!

 Mollie Grace dug this hole while we were gone.

Filling in the hole before we left because the sea turtles can get trapped in them.

As always happens with Mollie Grace she made friends at the pool and at the beach.  There are a couple of extra little girls in this picture.

 

 Ben convinced John, Jim, and MV to walk to the condos in the other direction.

 

 The beach totally changed on Thursday because of the storm in the gulf.  Thursday afternoon we flew kites.

 We thought Friday was going to be a complete rain out but we got a few hours on the beach in the morning and a quick final trip after the rain in the afternoon.  There was a double red flag because of the storm.

 The storm surge covered the beach.  The only place to stay out of the water was right up by the dunes.

 Mermaid tail by Mollie Grace.

The final ride back from the beach Annie got a head start and beat everyone back to the trailer.