And so it begins.

We had a great picnic this weekend out on a ranch out in Larkspur. One of Lila's preschool classmates lives with his mom and his grandparents on a beautiful horse ranch, and they were so kind and invited all the preschool kids out for a picnic lunch and horseback riding.

Lila had been looking forward to it all last week, talking about it practically nonstop, and we woke up on Saturday morning excited and ready to get 'er done! Unfortunately, the weather was nasty; cloudy and cold and very windy. We phoned the hosts to see if the picnic was still on, and they said they had decided to cancel because of the weather--it was quite chilly and horses get nervous in very high winds. Lila was SO disappointed---she actually started crying. It was heartbreaking, because she's never cried over something like that before....she's gotten pissy and grumpy when disappointed, but never shed tears. Justin and I felt awful. :( Luckily, we live in Colorado; if you've lived in Colorado for any amount of time, you've heard (and mostly likely said yourself) the adage "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes". Very true for Saturday, thank goodness, as the clouds broke and the sun came out, and we got the call that the picnic was back on! We were just about out the door when the phone rang (to get Lila a new movie as a balm) and thankfully didn't miss it.

Their ranch is just beautiful, and Lila adored riding Sugar, the 19 year old sweetheart Arabian mare. Many of the kids only wanted one or two turns around the ring, but Lila was going to stay on as long as they'd let her, and upon dismounting, immediately asked me when it was her turn again. A horse lover is born! I used to ride when I was younger, so I completely get it. The love affair begins. :)

After riding, we had a picnic of hot dogs, chips, juice, etc. It was a lovely, lovely day.