Saddles & Sore Bums

Summer trips to the cabin are always a lot of fun.  I grew up more in the city, and Doug more in the country.  So, going on these kind of trips gives me a better idea of the fun lifestyle he had while growing up. 

So, I'm not totally comfortable around horses yet, but I think they are beautiful and can make for some awesome photos.  I just kept hoping they wouldn't pop the camera out of my hands.

Being pregnant, it didn't seem like going on a bumpy horse ride would be the best for me, so I stayed behind with Daxton.  Doug went on a morning ride with his dad and sister, Dixi.  He took the camera along and I love the pictures he came back with.

Daxton loves being up at the cabin.  Especially when it involves riding four-wheelers and horses with grandma and grandpa.

Duing the summer nights at the cabin, the stars absolutely brilliant.  Doug wanted to capture the rotation of the stars around the North Star.  So, he left his warm bed in the middle of the night and snuck out to find a discrete spot where the horses wouldn't bother the camera.  At night the horses are left to wander around a three acre area to drink and graze as they please.  He found a good spot next to a tree to leave the camera there with the shutter open for about an hour and a half.  As he was sneaking back into the cabin through the pitch black darkness, he passed a horse hiding in a grove of trees.  The horse, not knowing what was walking through the trees, got spooked and jolted away from Doug and through a gate - like literally through the gate, and disappeared into the night.  Luckily, horses like to stay together and he didn't wander too far.  He quickly returned but was nervous crossing back over the wire gate that had been left in shambles.  So Doug quickly removed the gate and the horse scrambled back through to find his buddies. Doug spent the next half hour trying to chase him around to see if he had been wounded, but the spooked horse wanted nothing to do with the a creepy object chasing him through the dark.  After all of that, Doug went to check on the camera and found that it had frozen after about thirty minutes.  This is how the picture turned out.  Pretty cool, don't you think?  And, luckily the horse was just fine.

All in all it was a fun trip.  We love the cabin, the beautiful scenery, and time spent with family.