Appreciate the Adventure

How to train your bite sized paddler

Posted on 07/29/2016 by ashleekiser

How can winter drag on for months and months, but summer pass in the blink of an eye? We are absolutely summer time people, and spend every possible moment of summer in the water. I’d intended to chronicle all of our summer time exploits, but it seems like one adventure has barely ended before we’re off to the next grand adventure!

Ian turned four going into this summer, which has opened so many new possibilities for his adventuring options. Having a fully potty trained little boy with stronger listening skills and deft
muscle control has upped his abilities on the river. He’s managed to fit in four Hiwassee runs, so far, and no longer finds it exciting. The river was new and exciting again on his first trip, but the next two trips couldn’t hold his attention long enough to keep him awake. Two trips in a row found Ian sleeping from Big Bend down to Three Chutes, where an angry boy woke up after the wave slapped him in the face. He would drift off again until the top wave of Devil’s Shoals. More angry wake-up. A spectacular thunderstorm caught us on Ian’s last Hiwassee run, so we had some driving rain to keep him awake for once.

We’re slowly stepping up the difficulty for Ian on the water this year. He’s probably ready for a harder challenge than we’ve presented him with so far, but I’m hesitant to push him too far. When schooling a green horse over fences, you always want to present them with enough of a challenge that they’re progressing and improving, but not so much that you overface them and damage their confidence. That’s when they learn to refuse and duck-out through a line of jumps. I don’t want Ian to learn to refuse. He has such an infectious enthusiasm for all things related to water right now, so I’m happy to let him come to us to ask for more, rather than us begging him to step it up.

One of the steps we’ve let him make this summer is to get on the Nantahala. Brinn spent a great deal of his childhood on this river, and felt it would be a natural step up for Ian. We’ve only hit the Nanty once, so far, and made Ian stay in a raft for his first trip down. It was love at first descent. Ian is happy to tell anyone who asks that the Nanty is his favorite river so far. The only problem we ran into on that trip came at the tail end. Brinn and Wes decided to run Nantahala Falls (aka Lesser Wesser) in our duckie. When they carried the duckie back up river to get in above the falls, Ian thought they were taking the duckie up for him. He was distraught that his Daddy was going down without him. I guess our next discussion will be to determine if Ian is ready to take on the chill of the Nanty while sitting down low in his funyak…

Posted in Ian, paddling | Tagged Hiwassee River, Ian, Nantahala River, summertime, white water kayaking, white water rafting | Leave a comment

Return to Spring Creek

Posted on 04/05/2016 by ashleekiser

So it’s been more than ten years since I’ve been down lower Spring Creek in a kayak…at least through the “big” section. Now keep in mind that “big” to me, is a nice relaxing float to Brinn. The last time I ran this section of Spring in a kayak, I was a first year graduate student back in the fall of 2005! I still had a C-to-C roll and a plastic paddle. Some runs, like Jett to Lilly on Clear Creek, give you a generous warm up stretch of friendly class II rapids to ease you into the trip, but not Spring Creek. You can choose to walk around the 30 foot waterfall that starts the trip (or superman over it out of a raft, another story for another time), but then your first real rapid quickly approaches in the form of a decent sized ledge.From there, you have just enough time to catch your breath and then realize that you’ve reached Meat Grinder.

Brinn thinks I read too much into the names of rapids. Come on, with names like Broken Nose, the Grunch, Hell Hole, and Godzilla, how do you not pee your pants? Back in ’05, Brinn decided I could not refer to Meat Grinder by its given name. He declared that I had to call it Pink Fluffy Bunny. Guess what: I still walked around it. This rapid just scares the bejesus out of me! Fast forward in time– Christmas Eve 2014: Brinn says, “hey, your mom is here with Ian, want to go rafting after work?” Ashlee: “Sure, come on Ben, you should come too. It’s easier than the Ocoee.” Spoiler: it was not easier that day.

But then last week it started raining…and the rain rain rain came down down down and the flood flood flood came up up up… Friday found the creek at a friendly level just below one foot. The ranch (MSR) volunteered to keep Ian for the afternoon so we could catch an evening paddle after work. So Brinn and I loaded boats and headed off to set up shuttle.

Peer pressure is a tough thing. Thankfully not much of it happens in a marriage, at least not so long as its just the two of us. But through some canoeists in to the mix, and it gets a lot easier to peer pressure your spouse to keep up. Pink Fluffy Bunny came upon us too quickly. Despite Brinn’s decade old demand (there has to be an expiration date on such demands, right?), I could only think of this rapid as Meat Grinder. We pulled over above to scout, and it looked completely different than I last remembered it when Spring Creek was at three foot. I waited and waited for Brinn to offer to help me carry around…and durned if he didn’t! We watched the canoes run the drops and make them look deceptively easy, and Brinn announced it was time to get back in my boat.

You know that feeling you get in the middle of something you thought was going to be really hard? When all of a sudden you realized it wasn’t nearly as hard as you thought it would be? Nope. Didn’t feel that AT ALL through Meat Grinder! Over both drops I just kept thinking “this is so BIG! What am I doing?!?” Then when you complete a challenging task, you usually have that pumped feeling of leftover adrenaline for achieving something tough…nope, didn’t have that either. I did have the “holy crap, I just ran THAT” feeling. But I DID run Meat Grinder cleanly. I didn’t miss my line, flip, stern squirt, or screw up at all through it. I’d like to brag about how I cleaned up and owned this creek…but for one, river karma may come find me to discuss that claim and two, we need to talk more later about the incident that occurred a few rapids down…

After a few days to reflect, I’ve finally realized that I did have fun running Meat Grinder so that I could finally defeat that personal road block. I learned a lot about this trip. Mainly, you can’t paddle a few times over one year and jump back to the level you were doing when you were twenty-five. Muscle memory will get you so far, but your roll doesn’t come right back when you smash into rocks. And you have to keep paddling!

Posted in paddling | Tagged Dagger Mamba, kayaking, Meat Grinder, Spring Creek | Leave a comment

Spring Creek Before Spring

Posted on 03/01/2016 by ashleekiser

Frogs croaked merrily as birds chirped in the afternoon sunshine. Their symphony provided the background music to an early spring concert. Ahead, the quite roar of an upcoming rapid steadily increased, absorbing the sound of water softly lapping the banks. The clean, yet almost pungent smell of mud and creek water blended together for that unique smell that is simply “river.” Smoke from a nearby wood fire curled lazily across the surface of the water, enhancing the river smells while leaving behind a taste reminiscent of past campfires.

The unseasonably warm air permeated everywhere, neglecting nothing with its friendly embrace. Water splashing over rocks jumped up with a cool kiss and a reminder that winter persists yet. Sunlight filtered through the leafless trees and formed a dappled pattern across the surface of the water in some places, with a blinding reflection in others.Through the dazzling light around another bend in the river, four whitetail deer came into focus.

The whitetail stood together in the creek, an assortment of does with one fawn, drinking from the creek shallows. Water dripped from their muzzles as they stared back. Our cur dog vibrated with excitement, yet made no noise or offered to dive in. We met the soft gazes and marveled at the curious intellect studying our invasion of their afternoon tea. After some time, the herd finally picked their way across the shallow current and began their trek up the steep bank, leaving us once again to meander down the water with only the fish for company.

Posted in paddling | Tagged kayaking, paddling, springtime, whitetail deer | Leave a comment

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Posted on 02/18/2016 by ashleekiser

As 2015 faded into 2016, Interstate 75 faded from Tennessee into Georgia, and then into Florida. The Vols received a bowl bid to Tampa Bay’s Outback Bowl, which is conveniently within driving distance of both Orlando and the beach. Because Florida is a long, long drive, and ballgames are a long event for little boys to sit through, Ian’s Grandpoppa decided that we would leave a day early in order to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom.

Ian lately has been obsessing over Planes. Both the film and toys. For Christmas he received the film on DVD (in anticipation of a 9 hour Florida drive) and a few of the toys. Surprisingly Drip and not Dusty has become Ian’s favorite character. We started coaching Ian a few weeks before the trip. Mainly during the opening of Planes, Planes: Fire and Rescue, and Cars. We would ask Ian about the castle and if he would like to visit it someday. When we entered the Magic Kingdom, the first thing Ian focused on was the castle in the background. Then he grew so excited he was almost vibrating. Now, every time we watch a Disney movie, Ian excitedly shares with everyone “I’ve been to that castle!”

Like Ian, Brinn had never been to a Disney park before. Unlike Ian, Brinn couldn’t see the point in getting too excited about another theme park. Walking in through the main gates converted Brinn to believing the Magic Kingdom just might be the most magical place on earth.

So here were our favorites from the Magic Kingdom:

Grandpoppa: The Dole Whips

Google or Pinterest this culinary delight’s name, and you’ll find about 3 million mom blogs bemoaning the fact that they can’t quite get the copy cat recipe to come out as good as Disney’s, and that the Magic Kingdom is the only place on the planet that serves them. While Ian and I rode Aladdin’s magic carpet for the third or fourth time, I sent Joy a picture of Ian grinning and pulling the lever to make our “carpter” go up higher. Instead of admiring my cute kid and sending a complementary response message about he cute he is, she laid down explicit instructions for heading straight to the Tiki Hut upon our departure. She demanded that we try a Dole Whip before we do anything else. After an initial bout of skepticism over an overpriced glorified ice cream, Grandpoppa quickly changed his mind and has now entered into an understanding with mom bloggers. He has declared that he will be spending his retirement in learning to make the perfect Dole Whip.

Ashlee: Pirates of the Carribbean

My favorite Disney movies of all time. And they were based on a ride! I was super pumped about the ride, but I did find that I was a bit anxious to see if the ride would measure up to expectation. Short answer: yes, it absolutely did. Like Joy explained, the ride itself was not all that exciting, but the attention Disney put into every last detail was breathtaking.

Brinn: Buzz LightYear

This ride definitely did not exist when I last visited Disney as a seven year old. The student
worker in my office recommended that we use one of our fast passes for it, and boy was Ryan dead on with this recommendation. It’s a ride where you get to shoot aliens with laser beams. Did Disney know we were bringing Brinn?

Ian: the train

Another current obsession of Ian’s are trains. He still doesn’t show much interest in
watching Shining Time Station, but he sure does know the names for all the trains in Sodor. He’ll ask me to read his Thomas the Train book (thanks Joy, really, I love books that whistle at me the whole time I’m trying to read) for hours at a time. Ian absolutely loved riding the train all the way around the Magic Kingdom and seeing everything the park offered. The train would be Ian’s favorite ride anywhere he went right now. But Ian did laugh and shout and shoot on Buzz LightYear, he ran all the way to the top, and back to the bottom of the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, he very seriously followed every goofy command of our tour guide on the jungle cruise, and he dragged me back to the line for the magic carpets over and over.

Surprisingly none of us were struck with materialism during our day at the Magic Kingdom, and only two of us made requests for purchases: Grandpoppa requested two more Dole Whips (the first one was just to determine if he liked them, the second to cool down, and the third to finally sit back and enjoy one) and Ian requested first a stroller (his poor little legs were just too worn out) and a green Micky Mouse balloon. While we waited around the balloon lady, she had to first help several children in line ahead of Ian. A little girl requested a green balloon. Poor Ian was nearly sick with apprehension. He was so worried about that little girl getting his green balloon. Fortunately, the wise balloon lady selected a green balloon from the other side of her mass of balloons, and saved the one closest to Ian for him. At the time, $12 seemed astronomical for a balloon, but that balloon is still holding air, 50 days later!

Unfortunately our first family Disney trip did not end with the big firework display after dark. Even with the stroller, Ian’s energy had fully depleted. We made the collective decision to end on a good note, and made mental notes for planning a longer stay at Disney when Ian’s a little bit older. Ian dragged himself back to the truck with Grandpoppa, and didn’t even make it back to highway before he conked out completely. After such a busy day, I thought he would be hungry enough to wake up for some dinner after a 45 minute nap during our drive. Ian did wake up just long enough to fight with me about why I would not let him take his balloon into Applebee’s, and then he slipped back into oblivion.

Our day at Disney was brief, but utterly magical.

Posted in Family, Ian | Tagged busy life, Children, Disney, Dole Whip, Ian, Joy, little boys, the Magic Kingdom, trains | Leave a comment

December Birthdays…

Posted on 01/27/2016 by ashleekiser

A lifetime of Christmas birthdays have taught me to not approach a birthday with too much enthusiasm. Brinn begins his birthday celebrations on June 1st and carries on with his revelry until the 30th. He’s never had to experience the disappointment that Capricorns suffer every year.

As an adult, I get it. As a money conscious adult with many loved ones to shop for, I really get it. As a child, I did not get it. Why did my brother get a load of presents every August and December, while I only get the same load as him in December?
How do you explain to a 10 year old that friends will not be attending her birthday party because the roads are frozen over? The weather more often than not screws over any Christmas baby’s plans.
What do you do for inexpensive entertainment with 20 or more people when it’s 20 degrees out, possibly sleeting? Summer babies just invite their pals to the back yard for a cookout and lounging around in lawn chairs. December babies?
Sweets are kind of overrated at this point. We’ve all stuffed ourselves silly with desserts from the dinners on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, candy from our stockings, the dessert table at the work/school/club functions, and then there’s always leftovers. By the time we make it around to December 27th, no ones particularly feeling the need to ingest more heartburn inducing sugar.
Clean up: our living room has a tree in it, baby Jesus and Santa smile from every shelf, the refrigerator is full of leftovers, and we just ripped apart enough paper to kill a few acres of the rainforest. But now we have just one day to perform a massive redecorating miracle and prepare Pinterest worthy party food.

And Brinn wonders why I struggle to share his enthusiasm for birthday bashes. But this year things finally turned around for this child of Epiphany. The weather reached 70 degrees on December 27th and the sun came out –all at the same time! So for the first in my 32 years, we actually had a bbq on my birthday! You have no idea how exciting it can be to sit on the deck to eat a hamburger on your day of birth, unless you were born near the winter solstice.

So while the grilled food and outdoor socializing were fabulous, December still has the shortest days of the year. With daylight fading quickly, I still needed an indoor activity for my 32nd birthday party. Enter paint. What better way to repaint a room than lure friends to your home with promises of free food. But painting with brushes would be too pedestrian for a celebration, so we improvised. Paint filled water balloons would have been great, but another December woe is finding water balloons on the shelves. So we had to settle for regular balloons, which do not explode when coliding with drywall. So we improvised and hung paint filled balloons up…and took turns shooting them the b.b. gun!

Hope your Decembers found you as warm and filled with hamburger as ours.

Posted in Family, Friends, Holidays | Tagged birthday bashes, Christmas babies, December birthdays | Leave a comment

Through the Chimney

Posted on 01/20/2016 by ashleekiser

As a three year old, Ian understood a good deal more about the holiday season, and thus exhibited a greater deal of excitement for Christmas as it approached. While it was an absolute whirlwind of activity, I have to say that was our best Christmas yet.

We began with a fun trip to the lake for our yearly cabin Christmas party for my mom’s side of the family. Nana bought Ian his first hot wheels track, which kept him incredibly busy, especially once Charlie arrived. Friends make everything so much more fun. Ian picked out a dump truck to give Charlie for Christmas (because Ian firmly believes that everyone on the planet should have a toy dump truck) and Kathryn ended up getting Ian a new bulldozer and dump truck set, so the boys were able to scoop up and haul hot wheels trucks from the end of the track back to the beginning.

Our next stop on the Christmas carousel took us back to our favorite stand by, Rock City.
Charlie joined us with his mom and Gangee for a beautiful evening through the lights in the Enchanted garden.

We didn’t get the opportunity to visit a tree farm for Christmas ’15, but Ian selected a beautiful Fraser fir from Food Lion and provided extensive help in decorating it. But then we set up a small tree in Ian’s room, at his request, and he began “borrowing” ornaments from
the big tree to decorate his small tree… which created quite a few bare places on the big tree. While we decorated the tree, and strung lights going down the horse
fence, and set various decorations around the house, Ian and I discussed Santa. I firmly believe children should believe in Santa. This may have resulted from the extrordinary efforts my mom had to go to in order to keep my belief system in place.

On the bus ride home from second grade one December day, a bully told me that Santa was not real. When I arrived home, I shared this new found information with Momma. She was furious. Of course Santa is real. Why would this other child tell me such lies? The next day during Spelling, the school secretary buzzed my teacher’s intercom to ask me to come to the office. A summons to the office will terrify any child, but as a perpetual people pleaser, I couldn’t even imagine how terrible it would be. I stressed the entire way down the hallway, just to arrive to a beautiful flower display. The card with my floral delivery explained that Santa wanted to bring me flowers himself, but he was so busy preparing his toys and flight plan for Christmas Eve that he just didn’t have a spare moment to get away, so he asked the florist to help me out. Santa is real, y’all. And he uses Wicks Florist.

So as I follow in the family tradition of deception, I explained to Ian all about how Santa would come down our chimney, climb out of our wood stove, fill up our stockings, and leave presents for him under the tree. For two weeks Ian would look at me, then at our wood stove in disbelief. On Christmas morning, he looked at the size of his train table, then back at the pipe on our wood stove, and announced that Santa must have built it after he brought it through the stove.

Ian’s Granddaddy and Grandbobbie arrived on Christmas Eve. They came in for a tenderloin dinner complete with Yorkshire pudding and wassail, and helped Ian hang his stocking. We set out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa, and even left the stove door open to give Santa easier access to the living room. As soon as Ian went to bed, we started cramming his stocking full of goodies while Brinn and his dad went to work assembling Ian’s big present: a train table. It’s a go
od thing Brinn had the foresight to assemble it before Ian woke. I can’t imagine how much longer this confusing process would’ve lasted with a three year old helper.

For once in his life, Ian did not wake up at 5:00 am, so I had to help him out on
Christmas day. I leaned over and whispered in his ear, “It’s Christmas. Do you think Santa ca–?” Ian bolted out of bed and took off for the living room. I pointed out his new packages in the tree, wrapped with a different paper than we used, that must be for Santa. I’d hoped to put the train table off for last, because once he set eyes on it, I knew he’d be reluctant to leave it for anything else. After a quick scan around the living room, Ian bolted for the white sheet with the giant red bow and ripped the sheet away. And indeed, I had to beg to get him to leave it periodically throughout the day to open his additional presents.

After Ian finally unwrapped all of his gifts, we loaded up and headed over to the ranch. Our Christmas breakfast tradition continues. The MSR boys and I prepped and baked about 6 dozen cinnamon rolls a few days earlier, so we settled into yummy iced goodness for breakfast and admired each other’s new gifts while Ian packed in a pillow fight with Ben. Then it was back to the house to wait for Grandpoppa to arrive so we could spend the rest of the day lazing around the house and watching Ian enjoy his new toys.

Each year Ian becomes more fun, and increases his understanding. He delighted in selecting and purchasing small gifts from the dollar tree using dollars he earned doing extra chores around the house for a few weeks. He sometimes helped carry up a few extra pieces of dry laundry that I just couldn’t fit in the basket, he carried the ash bucket out to the garden to dump a few times, and he even helped carry groceries in. Out of all the gifts he selected, I think he was most excited about the pizza pan he got for his Aunt Joy.

We broke down quickly this year with birthday and travel plans taking place soon after Christmas. The morning after Christmas began the process of repacking ornaments and decorations, and removing the tree. Ian’s fa
ce just fell when he learned that I planned to throw his beautiful Christmas tree out in our fire pit. He couldn’
t understand why we would put him through the horror of burning his beloved tree. After some carefully worded promises about putting up a new tree NEXT Christmas, he finally negotiated decorating for Valentine’s Day in exchange for disposing of the tree.

Posted in Family, Friends, Holidays, Ian | Tagged Children, Christmas, cinnamon rolls, Ian, little boys, train table | Leave a comment

Purple Palooza!

Posted on 10/29/2015 by ashleekiser

From Pipi Longstocking to a walking whoopee cushions, and even a deck of cards: the basketball arena concourse of the basketball arena, known affectionately as “the Hoop,” contained an assortment of characters Tuesday night. TTU and the surrounding community have some fantastic community events year round, but it seems like all of my favorite events take place right around this time of year. Purple Palooza is high up on my list of favorites.

As work ended Tuesday, I picked Ian up from preschool and we were off to meet up with friends for a quick dinner. This is our 3rd purple palooza, so we’ve established a bit of a tradition of a pre-palooza happy meal. This year Ian had friends his own age to share his evening with. I’m not sure if he was more excited about french fries, trick or treating, or seeing Meredith and Riley. I’m pretty sure Meredith and Riley win.

Our group headed to the Hoop together for an evening of fun. The athletics-marketing
department hosts this fun event every year, and does an amazing job of putting it on. The basic concept is this: vendors (all of our athletic programs, local businesses, university clubs and offices, etc.) set up tables around the concourse, kids walk around the concourse and stop at each table to trick-or-treat. After kids trick or treat, they enter the basketball arena floor and obtain signatures from the men and women’s basketball players, then watch the teams perform. All of this kicks off basketball season for the Golden Eagles.

My favorite parts about Purple Palooza:

It’s warm and dry. October can have fickle weather. This year it’s supposed to rain on Halloween. Last year it snowed. The Hoop has a roof and climate control.
It’s well-lit. There’s no stumbling around in the dark to strangers’ houses to ask for potentially suspect candy.
It’s free. This helps all parents out at a time of year when kids are asking for money to get a pumpkin at school, or to go to a corn maze with friends.
It has a clear path to follow, and is so well ran that it’s hard to lose your kid(s).
It keeps kids coming to a university. This is an important one for me. I want Ian to be completely at home on college campuses so he never has any reason to question his future which involve higher education.
It gives kids an opportunity to interact on a personal level with division 1 athletes. Talk about motivation and making goals seem obtainable.
It gives athletes an opportunity to gain fans and support system throughout the community.
Ian has an absolute blast and enjoys going.

Posted in Friends, Holidays, Ian | Tagged basketball, basketball season, Halloween, Ian, Tech Yeah, Tennessee Tech, trick-or-treat | Leave a comment

So about these ponies…

Posted on 10/26/2015 by ashleekiser

So Sam and Badger have lived with us for about 7 months now. During this time, they’ve largely had a pretty cushy existence that involved occasionally carrying Ian around for 15-20 minutes at a time, and one birthday party. Until recently, it’s been hard to make the time to get out with the ponies regularly. As I’ve failed to make it a priority, Ian’s interest has waned, and he less frequently requests to go out and play with his ponies. But I finally started riding again last week. Isn’t it funny how as soon as a parent tries to do anything alone, all of a sudden her child is dying to do the same thing?

Since I’ve been making more of an effort to ride Reggie, Ian has likewise been making an effort to stop me from sneaking out the door without him. So last week, Ian and I made a trip to Lowe’s and he helped me purchase all the necessary equipment to set up some cross ties. While Reggie is easy enough to tie up to whatever surface is handy, it’s becoming a challenge to keep an eye on her while she’s tied and keep a pony tied without Ian turning the pony loose (not always on accident). While I picked out large eye bolts, Ian picked out little ones; I select large snaps for Reggie’s halter, and Ian picked out which little ones (he really prefers “little” to “small”) he wants for the ponies halters. We took it all home, cut some cheap rope to length, burned the ends, screwed in the bolts, and tied up the ropes with quick release knots. Now we’re in business.

A few times, I’ve tried to sneak out of the house to get a head start so I can ride Reggie for a little while before Ian joins me. Usually I have about a 15 minute window before he realizes that he’s been left in the house (or backyard), and I hear his cowboy boots clomping down the stairs as he yells “Ian’s coming to help you, Mama!” And then he runs to the gate, swings it open, and comes clomping out to me, when he’ll say “Ian wants to ride his pony.” This is about the time my ride ends. (Note: preschool is trying hard to teach Ian to use 1st person pronouns. He’s not really a big fan yet.)

I’m constantly amazed how many detail Ian notices and remembers. I haven’t taken Reggie out for a trail ride in months, but yesterday he told me with great description about “the last time” (right now everything is “the last time”) that I took Reggie for a ride down our road, and how I sat on Reggie while she walked down the driveway and out to Fairview. I can’t remember the last time I did this, but Ian does with astonishing clarity. He has also made it his life mission to get his ponies down our driveway to the main road. So yesterday, after finishing my brief ride, I put halters on ponies, gave Badger’s lead to Ian, and gather Sam up for me, and we headed down the driveway. Ian made sure to point out every few steps that he was being a good listener and being very nice to Badger. Badger, while sneaking green bits of grass growing along the ditch line, was probably agreeing to the claims of nicety.

This week is calling for 70-100% chance of rain everyday except for Friday, so I’m not sure how much pony time we’ll be getting in, but I’m sure now that Ian will be asking more. After his bath last night, while wearing his too short pajamas (this kid just won’t quit growing!), he begged me to take him out to feed his ponies some treats. It’s a good thing the grass is dying out, or Ian may cause a founder with all the carrots and cookies we’re going through recently. If you notice a break in the weather, don’t look to hear from us, we’ll be out walking ponies down the driveway.

Posted in Ian, My Critters | Tagged autumn, busy life, Children, cowboy boots, Ian, ponies, Shetlands | Leave a comment

I’ll Ride Again Someday

Posted on 09/22/2015 by ashleekiser

Sam and Badger moved in with us back in March. They were my solution to regain Reggie for myself. Last year, every time I would put on boots to go out and ride, Ian came right behind spouting that he was ready to ride “Ian’s Reggie.” When I saw an ad for two sweet-natured shetlands, I thought this may be my chance to get my horse back but keep Ian interested in riding.

Since Sam and Badger came to stay, we’ve been busy with life, summer heat rolled in, and work life left me tired and not always excited to get the ponies out for Ian to ride. The poor guy has finally got to the point that he rarely asks to ride his ponies since I’ve so frequently turned him down. But now there’s a nice breeze as the seasons begin to change, and I find my old self returning a bit more as I wander outside with a halter and brush every evening.

Ian has been enthusiastic to join me, and come clomping through the gate loudly with his gigantic cowboy boots and his shiny black helmet, but he’s been getting bored quickly. After taking the time to brush and tack up, he only rides for just a lap or two around our field before getting antsy and declaring that he’s done. My mom is the first one to diagnose the problem. She made it seem painfully clear when she pointed out, “When does Ian ever want to sit still? He’s just not a sit-down kind of guy.” And you know what, she’s right! I’ve been encouraging Ian to sit quietly in the tack with a steady leg as I try to prepare his body to work independently of his hands. I’ve been reluctant to give him reins as I don’t want him to balance on his poor ponies’ faces. I’ve also failed give him any physical tasks to accomplish.

So last night, I told Ian I was going out to brush Reggie. He ran behind, tugging his boots on and snatched his helmet off the hook by the backdoor. We took halters out in the field, and he declared that he wanted to brush Sam this time. I buckled Sam’s halter on, tied a knot in Reggie’s rope halter, and we headed up to brush. After tying the two equines a little ways apart, Ian snatched his hoof pick out of his bag (something he’s never asked to use) and informed me that he was going to clean Sam’s feet. I picked up all of Sam’s feet and held them while Ian cleaned. Then I gave him a curry and left him to brush round and round while I cleaned Reggie’s feet. Halfway through Reggie’s first foot, I realized that Ian was quite. Too quiet. Toddler concentrating on something much harder than brushing quiet. I looked up and saw Sam standing alone with no Ian in sight. I quickly dropped Reg’s hoof and spun around, frantically searching for Ian. And I found him. He was about 20 feet away from Sam, holding up Badger’s rear hoof and raking it out with a hoof pick. Did I mention that we didn’t put a halter on Badger and tie him up? Badger may win best pony of the year award.

After I steered Ian back towards brushing Sam, I attempted once more to clean Reggie’s feet. Moving more quickly this time, I rushed through two feet, then heard Ian’s voice barking orders: “No, Dominick! That is Ian’s! Stop it! Stop it! Put it back!” This time I abandoned Reggie to go and take a three year old’s grooming tote away from…a donkey. Dominick was up to his old antics, and failing to find my grooming tote (which was safely in the tack room of the horse trailer, out of his reach) he zeroed in on Ian’s equipment. After picking up Ian’s scattered brushes, chasing down the donkey, and taking the tote away from the donkey, Ian and I both got back to grooming. Despite our eventful grooming session, Ian was no where ready to turn Sam loose and be finished with his pony. At this point, Ian announced he wanted to take his pony for a walk. This means that Reggie and I tried to keep up as Ian drug Sam all over the field at a trot.

I’m finally beginning to realize that my equine interactions are going to be different for the next several years, and never have I had as much appreciation as I should have for the years my mom dealt with doubling while I constantly demanded “bounce, Stormy, bounce!”

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It was Perfect

Posted on 09/03/2015 by ashleekiser

After turning off the river, and paddling up into the creek that runs behind the campground, Ian jumped out of his funyak and quietly remarked, “It was perfect.” How right a three-year-old can be sometimes.

It’s been hard to keep up with chronicling the events of our small family over the last year because Ian has grown so big and become so capable that we find ourselves so busy out living life to the fullest. This summer has flown by in a blur of kayaking, camping, riding ponies, cook outs with friends, roll practice, a river cleanup, farming, and on and on and on.

Of all of our summer events, I am most excited about Ian’s shared excitement for learning to kayak with us. While he’s had his little Fun1 out during roll practice (that’s another story) he’s still not ready to solo his own way through rapids. We began the summer by taking Ian and friends back down the Hiwassee river in our 13 foot self bailing Aire raft. This boat is a work horse on the Ocoee, the Hiwassee’s class IV sister river. On the class II Hiwassee, our raft is a full on barge. The shallow rocky Hiwassee, while slow and forgiving for kayaking, is also boring and snaggy for rafting. Our indication that Ian was ready to step it up came along about mid July. While surfing in the rapid above lunch stop, Ian sat on the side of boat and concentrated more on his applesauce than the rapid. This is when we realized that he may be getting a little bored.

Ian moved from the raft to our 2 man inflatable kayak with Brinn. Now he is much closer to the water, and the rapids all feel much bigger to him. He also graduated out of his first infant life vest and moved into his first whitewater pfd.

Last weekend we went down on our biggest river trip of the summer. All of the Andersons (David, Anne, Amy, Paul, Phoenix, and Charlie) the Siscos (Brad, Al, Meredith, and Riley), Joe and Sheila (some relief parents from the ranch), and two of the ranch boys who have spent the summer learning the basics to get ready for their first kayaking trip. I’ve written about the Andersons before, as they are such an important family to us now, and to Brinn’s past. They were his first teachers on the river. The Siscos live in middle TN fairly close to us. Brad helped my paddling at a time when my confidence was at an all time, and his wife Al is one of the sweetest kindest people I know. Joe and Sheila are just entering into the paddling world since their relief son, Zach, has decided to become a kayaker.

We spent the weekend camping at the Hiwassee Outfitters, and Ian has never had more fun. Friday night he had Meredith and Riley to play with, who can dish it just as well as they can take it. Ian absolutely loves having friends who go as hard as he does. Saturday morning his buddy Charlie joined the fun as we prepared to head up to the put in. Then neighboring campers delivered bad news: the generators at the dam were not working. There may not be any water release. After a three hour drive the night before, 4 young children, and 3 teens who were all excited to go down, this was the last news we wanted to hear. A trip to rent boats from Webb’s store soon reassured us that though one generator was indeed not functioning, the river would have a partial release.

Partial release on the Hiwassee means that the water is shallower but the drops are higher. The wave trains calm down but the holes are bigger. Brad took a stand up paddler board (SUP) and led our group down, finding rocks along the way, while four funyaks and four kayaks spaced out behind him. We had some swimmers, we had some moments stuck on rocks, but we mostly had fun. We drank gatorade and ate dried coconut at lunch stop in the muggy August weather, chilled by the spray from the rapids we had run, but warmed by the conversation of good company. You’re right Ian, it was perfect.

Posted in Friends, Ian, paddling | Tagged funyak, Hiwassee River, kayak | Leave a comment