Not Hibernating Yet

...Just in case you were wondering.

Olivia and I spent a week in Ooooooooklahoma visiting my sister Rebecca and celebrating her (fill-in-the-blank) birthday by helping her paint/redecorate her house. Lots of fun. Also drove over to Arkansas to see my sister Marilyn, and enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner with her son, Frankie. Frankie has the coolest car ever. It's a red '68 Chevelle that sits low and has big, fat rear tires.

Something I noticed there in Oklahoma (besides the towers with tornado sirens on top of them) was the wind. It's always blowing. Then there's the 85 degree heat that's hanging around still in October. Not that I don't enjoy wind and heat. Just not in October. I'm a Pacific Northwest mole at heart, and love the crisp, dark fall weather we have. One thing I didn't see there was traffic. Lots of nice roads, but no traffic. And after everyone comes to a complete stop at the stop signs, they wave to everyone in the intersection, on the outside chance that they know each other. Y'all know what I'm talkin' about if yer from OK.

While we were there, I called up Ashley at Silver Wind Stables at Windy Meadow Farm and arranged for Olivia to ride a horse--for the first time. I figured that would be a good thing to do in Oklahoma, seeings how they've got a fair number of horse ranches around. Ashley runs the place and gives riding lessons as well as trail rides to green city folk like us.

Here's Olivia riding Rocky with Miss Ashley leading the way:

Notice the red dirt. Lots of brick homes in Oklahoma.

And here's Olivia leading Rocky back to the barn:

Guess who wants a pony for Christmas?