We took our regular summer visit to De Smet a few weeks ago, and, as always, had a great time. Even though it was HOT, we were still there for several hours.
As always, the kittens were a huge hit!
Here the children have organized them by color.
And in the schoolhouse. Although Z wouldn't let me take his picture, he did a great job of answering the teacher's questions, reading out loud, and showing off his knowledge of all things Little House.
Back to organizing the kittens. It was so hot they just kept sleeping even when the kids picked them up and moved them around.
Z and Eden had an adventure with the smaller horses this time. They went for a ride -- Eden in the little carriage pulled by a miniature horse of some kind, and Z riding on the horse in the picture below. His horse was tied to the back of the carriage. When they got out quite a ways, they switched -- Eden got on the horse and Z got in the carriage. I could see that the lady helping them was trying to get the carriage turned around to head back in my direction, but the little horse clearly didn't want to back up or turn around. It was tossing its head and then started rearing a little bit and making trouble. I was getting concerned, especially since the horse Eden was sitting on was tied to the carriage. I started walking quickly out towards them and broke into a run when I saw the lady had clearly lost control of the little horse and Z jumped out of the carriage. About three seconds later the horse reared up, fell down on its side, and flipped the carriage over! By that time I was there and I grabbed Eden off the big horse and told Z to run to the barn and get someone to help. All's well that ends well (to quote Pa), and no one was hurt. However, I hope they get a more experienced horse wrangler next time they go for a ride!
Eden kept insisting on petting this horse (the one she was sitting on when the carriage fell over) and kept saying, "This horse saved my life!"
