Bear Lake 2010

This weekend we got to take our annual trip to Bear Lake/Pickleville. Friday night we spent at the one and only PICKLEVILLE PLAYHOUSE!!

Friday we got to see the show "Bandito rides again." I honestly think that my kids are two of Bandito's biggest fans. (even as I am writing this the kids are laughing saying "I wanna see Bandito) They laughed just as hard as all the adults even they didn't get half of the jokes. Ella's favorite part of the show was when the hero and heroine were playing the air guitar and singing to each other. Although most of the kids in the crowd weren't sure about him, Elena's favorite part of the show was the big pink bunny. (you have to see it) She thought it was hilarious when Bandito shot the bunny. What can I say my kids are morbid!

Saturday we got to go to beach. It was so much fun! We made two pretty awesome sand castles and spent a little time in the water. Check out these pics of our time at the beach.

I don't have any pics from Saturday night, but we got to eat dinner with Dave's family and go see the show "Crazy about you." For never seeing the show before, I couldn't believe how many of the songs I knew! Some of them included "I've got rhythm" and "Someone to watch over me." Who knew!! Ella LOVED this show!! It was full of dancing and Ella was glued to the stage. She even got a poster for the show to hang up in her room.

Here's to another fun weekend at Bear Lake. WE'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

OUR Peewee Princess

This year we decided that it would be fun to let Ella do the Queen Contest at the County Fair. Here at our fair the youngest age group is from 3 to 6 years old. I was a little nervous that Ella was going to be to shy to talk in front of people, so practiced as much as possible. (considering we decided to the contest a week before!) We borrowed an old mare that my nephew rides for Ella to ride and we were set!

Well... the horsemanship part of the contest didn't go quite as we had planned. Ella did great warming up the horse in the arena. I asked her if she wanted me to help her walk in to start her pattern, but she wanted to do it herself. Her horse walked into the arena, saw that it was empty and started loping straight across the arena. Before we knew it the horse switched directions and started RUNNING toward the gate. When she turned around she threw Ella sideways. LUCKILY Ella held onto the horn for dear life. The scene that unfolded before my eyes was a horse running straight for me with Ella holding the horn, both legs on one side of the horse, and visions of her falling flashing before my eyes! I guess she is stronger than I ever thought because she held on long enough me to stop the horse. We caught our breath, threw Ella back on the horse, and I lead Ella through her pattern. I don't think the judges were very impressed with the symmetry of my figure 8, but I did it anyway. When we got around to the judges, Ella was still crying, but she managed to answer all of the judges questions.

The morning Ella got up bright and early to go and have her personal interview with the judges. They asked her: What does the American flag look like? What cartoon character would you be? What color is your horse? and What breed is your horse? Of course I wasn't able to go in the room with her, so I'm not sure how she did, but she acted very confident.

Later that night she got to do her Presence and Composure, along with her "Speech." For their speech the Peewee Princesses were supposed to tell their name, their parents names, and something about their horse. Watch the video, I think she did a great job.

The following week I got to witness personally how much Ella's confidence grew just from those few days in the contest. Ella sold tickets for the rodeo and the fair BBQ and talked to everyone who bought a ticket. She even sat at the drug store for a few hours and sold tickets to total strangers. She did great!

When it was all said and done she got 3rd place in ticket sales (not bad for a 5-year-old when she was competing against the big girls!) and she won Speech! Of all of the things for her to win, she won the competition where she had to stand in front of a large group of people and talk!!! I was sooo proud! She might not have won a sash or a crown, or even the title but she made us proud. She will ALWAYS be

OUR PEEWEE PRINCESS!!

Congratulations Ella!! We love you!!