The special stake conference we had yesterday with Jeffrey R Holland was great!  The talks were so inspirational and wonderful.  I loved all of it. Jeffrey R Holland is a funny guy!  I laughed so much.  But before he was over, he became very stern.  I can’t remember his exact words, but the general message was, young people (teenagers), if you leave the church, you WILL regret it.  He said it more than once. 

After church, we had a picnic in front of the Temple.  The girls loved the picnic, and I admit it was pretty nice, even though I sat on the wet ground and had a wet behind the rest of the day!

We took the older kids horseback riding with Melissa and Brad yesterday afternoon.  The girls LOVED it.  Well.  Kalyn loved it.  Keali put up with it.  The horse we rode was Cash.  She was very gentle, though I believe she was totally over us after about 5 minutes!

Kalyn kept saying, “Faster, Melissa!  Faster!”  Melissa was quite adamant that this was as fast as Cash was going to go!

After a while, Melissa rode with Kalyn and they went a bit faster. 

As soon as they picked up speed, Kalyn began laughing and didn’t stop until the horse did!  It was a beautiful  sound.

This is a beautiful girl!

Awwwww.  Keali.  She agreed to ride the horse.

Here are Melissa and Heath trying to talk her into staying on the horse for more than 3 seconds.

And here is Melissa getting Keali off the horse—after about 10 seconds.

Heath took this picture, and then while showing it to me said, “Look!  I took a picture of you.”  I’ll let you imagine how long he stayed in trouble for that little joke.

This was taken after Heath and Keali came to a financial arrangement.  Heath would give her $2 if she would ride with him.  She finally was talked into it.

She didn’t ever really fall in love with it, but she was very happy about her day’s earnings!

There was a slight disagreement in the middle of the ride.  Heath claimed to promise Keali two doll hairs.  She was pretty sure it was two dollars.  I sided with Keali and she got her money.

I don’t think anyone thought I would get on the horse, but despite being woefully incapable, I love horses…even though I was worried I would break Cash’s back.

Kalyn and Melissa running (or rather walking very fast).

She loved it.  I’m still waiting for her to ask for a horse.  She won’t get one, but I can appreciate the love for the animal!

This evening, we had yet another t-ball game.  Keali reverted to needing to be dragged to each and every base.  Kalyn had to hit off the tee, but did pretty well.  Keali was a bit of a DIVA.  I don’t know what the best course of action is.  Do we continue to have her play (i.e. stand/sit on the field crying) and teach her that you follow through, or do we take her out since she isn’t totally into it and won’t be able to make it through the tournaments (Heath won’t be able to run bases with her)?  I’m torn.  I think we will probably keep her in there, but I guess we will see how it all turns out.