Bliss!

That's the word that describes my morning right now!

Husband and Baby are upstairs sleeping, so I have the WHOLE quiet downstairs to myself to enjoy my coffee before it gets cold (I'm a pro at cold coffee) and actually write this blog post.

Ahh...

We had a wonderful weekend with my family. My sister's boyfriend had his Junior Piano Recital and it was amazing. Hands down the best piano playing I've seen... ever. He did this awesome duet type thing with his teacher, and it gave me goosebumps.

There was another kid that sang and was equally amazing. He sang Italian, Latin, German (my fav), French, and then English. That cannot be easy at all!

I really commend both of them, and I'm so lucky that we were able to go up as a family to see it.

All that amazingness meant that M, Shannon and I got to take our first ever overnight roadtrip with the family to New Hampshire and Maine.

We were very excited to get going. At least, I was.

The drive down was rather uneventful.

As was documented in this video!

We got there just in time to change and enjoy the amazingness that was the recital, and afterwards we checked into our hotel.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn, in Kittery. We got bedbugs.

Sigh

We enjoyed hanging out the rest of the night with my family. My Parents, Mimmie, and Grandparents were able to all come up. We really had a GREAT time.

Sunday morning we hit the ground running, and met up for breakfast by 9.

We ate at this UH-MAZING little resturant called The Golden Egg. It was delicious, and such a cute little place. If you're ever in Portsmouth, NH, I'd highly recommend stopping there to eat.

We had a little bit of a wait, and my Grandpa doesn't particulary look amused about it. His friend the armrest, however, seemed to be enjoying things.

After breakfast, we all went our seperate ways. M and I decided to explore the area a little bit. Portsmouth is such an adorable town. Its full of history, old buildings, and great shopping.

Sadly I did not partake in much shopping, except when we went to The Kittery Trading Post.

First we had to do a diaper change, so we stopped at Great Island Common, which was a huge park right on the water. It had a couple small football/soccer fields, a picnic area, a HUGE playground, a cemetary, and some beautiful views.

It was super windy.

Old Naval Prison. It looked like such a huge place, and I wanted to go explore it, but it was on the Navy Yard and we just didn't have time. It looks epic though.

After that we hit up the Kittery Trading Post to indulge our outdoorsy side before starting the trip home.

This bull moose was HUGE! I was in shock. I've never seen a moose in real life, so I'm always taken back when I see one that's stuffed. Everybody says that they are huge creatures, but everybody says that my horse is a huge creature, and she doesn't have a THING on this sucker!

We got started on the trip home after this excursion (we got Shannon the CUTEST stuffed moose) and it was pretty uneventful.

I nursed Shannon for the first time in public with a cover on at Applebees, and I thought M was going to have a total meltdown. It was a little tricky, and I had to do some fighting with the cover and my clothes but in the end Shannon ate, we ate, and life was good. We got some funny stares, but I just smiled at everybody and nobody said anything. Unlike the lady in the parking lot at breakfast, but I digress.

Other than that, the ride home was pretty boring.

*This video contains a bit of foul language... you've been warned*

And just so everybody knows, the rest stop in Williston (heading North) has free coffee.

Shannon entertained us with her pooping skills when we stopped to pee, and feed her. That kid really puts her heart and soul into all her poops, and she really makes it known. It cracks me up everytime. Possibly because I'm immature. I also laugh hysterically when she farts.

We got home safe and sound and agreed that we'd had a fantastic weekend.

On the equine side of life... Willow had her first outing on the lunge line on Friday afternoon and she was a superstar. She didn't even offer a buck, or sillyness. She just put her head down and went to work. She ran around higgledy piggledy for a bit, which was expected because she hasn't been worked in forever and has no muscle to help balance herself, but I moreso wanted to get an idea of what her attitude was going to be. I was very very pleased with her. She was very businesslike and didn't even have any issues when somebody was shooting back at the sandpits behind the barn. She threw her head up and kind of stopped, but when I clucked to her she went right forward again and didn't bother with it again.

Next time I'm putting a bridle on her though, as she pulled a little bit and if push came to shove, I didn't have much control at all.

M is on leave from now until he leaves for school (with the exception of Thursday, he has to give a PT test), so hopefully he'll be able to get some video of her when I work her tomorrow.

Excuse my outfit... but yea, she's a pretty big mare.

After seeing what a solid mare she was on the line, I'm even more excited to get her going!

I ran out to Walker's to get a few things that I needed. I sold the majority of my stuff last year, to help make rent, so now I need to fill some of the gaps in my collection.

Oh darn.

There are just a few things left to get for her, like a flash attachment, leathers and irons for the saddle that B is letting me use, a girth, and probably a set of side reins. I'm trying to break M into all these expenses slowly. He's still green. ;-)

I'm going to see if he'll spring for a nice new dressage coat for my birthday in June.

Hear that M? I hope you read this... love you!

I also got a new pair of boots, since Lucca ever so wonderfully peed all over my CUSTOM Ariat half-chaps. I decided since I needed a new pair of tall boots anyways, and sales were happening, I should just get a pair of those. I happily picked up a pair of Dublins on serious sale. I managed to keep the whole trip under $200, and was pretty proud of myself.  

The cat also was kind enough to pee on my nice running shoes... I'm beginning to hate her.

The other thing that I did for Willow, was get her supplements ordered.

Finally.

It's only been almost a month.

I was shocked at the prices of everything, as she needs a joint supplement and a digestive aid. I finally broke down and investigated the SmartPak website.

The angels started to sing.

Smartpak's are awesome. You can read the whole idea of them on the website, but holy savings.

I put Willow on B-L Pellets for her joint supplement, and SmartDigest for her digestive aid, and I'm pretty happy with my choices. I also want to keep researching flaxseed, as it's supposed to be kind of an all in one supplement. Its an anti-inflammatory, digestive aid, and provides a lot of Omega-3s so her coat will be all sparkly as well. There are some mixed reviews about it, so I want to research it indepth before I add them to her feed regimen. She has a very delicate digestive system, so I'm research anything that goes into her mouth to the nth degree. It's a bit pathetic.

Anyways, SmartPak is saving me about $70 a month, and they have auto-delivery so if you have a hubby like M, who likes to plan, and know excatly what things cost and when they are going to cost him, it's perfection.

That and $30/month for two supplements auto-delivered to my doorstep, preportioned and prepackaged works for me. Even when we move, I don't have to worry about the new barn misfeeding her.

I'm also a control freak.

This post has been long enough for certain, so I'm off to clean some tack, then the family is off on an adventure to Costco (my least favorite place in the world), and possibly a haircut!

Have a great day folks!