Goodbye, Baby

Sad news in the Likes family. Yesterday our family horse had to be put down. He was 33 years old. My mom has had him for the last 27 years. I grew up riding horses and taking lessons but did not ride him until I had been riding for about 7 years. The reason for this was because he was a whole lot of horse to handle. Even into old age he was quite a power house and full of spirit. He was also a talented horse who rode in parades and in shows doing English pleasure, jumping, and my personal favorite- dressage. I even got to learn a little dressage on him before I stopped riding. I don't know if God takes our pets into heaven but I hope he does and I hope that Baby is now grazing into the big pasture in the sky and getting lots of carrots and sugar cubes!

Baby

1976-2009

R.I.P.

Sugar Loaf

A few weeks ago my Welsh friend Catrin asked me if I wanted to hike up Sugar Loaf with her and her boyfriend's mom. I am not much of a hiker but I figured I would go just to spend time with the crazy Welshcake. Sugar Loaf is not huge and is more of a large hill than a mountain but the hike was challenging and the resulting view was amazing! Here are some pics...

Celebrating Our New House

At the end of May Matt and I traveled home to Arizona in hopes of buying a house. I got to go for four whole weeks and Matt came for two. I went a week ahead of him to start the house shopping process with our favorite realtor, Matt's dad. We saw many nice houses and put offers in on a few but finally decided on one that I saw the very first day. It was one that Matt's dad found. He suggested we look at even though I was convinced it was out of our price range. When I first saw it I thought Matt would like it even though the house was outdated and needed a lot of love. I didn't think it was a big deal that is was stuck in the 70's because Matt and I did some work to our first house and really enjoyed it. So we put an offer in on it and after a little wheelin' and dealin' by our talented realtor we got it for a good price. As of today the house is officially ours and we just finished up a bottle of champagne in celebration. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the house. Its a 3 bedroom burnt adobe house with great mountain views and in a fantastic area of town. We have been having tons of fun over the last month planning all the things we want to do it when we move back to Arizona someday. Thanks and praise be to God who is the giver of all good things!