America August/September 2010

Last September we were lucky enough to have our cousin Teasha come to visit us at my sister's house. We hadn't seen her since she was about four, so it was so lovely to see her again. Most of the good these pictures were taken by her.

Teasha, James and Evelyn. Soooooo, if you look closely, you will notice that this adorable calf has a different color body and head. Apparently, if a mother's baby dies they take the skin off of it and put it on an orphaned calf and the mother will then nurse it. I think. I may have gotten this a little wrong because I was pretty much trying not to puke.

See this dog? This dog is Stan. He is a vicious Pitt Bull. He's so petrifying that sometimes when the children color on him with markers, he gets up to go and hide. Also, when they sit on him and pretend he's a horse he totally rolls his eyes. And then there were the blood curdling moments when Mary was little and she would hold on to his collar, give herself dead legs and let him drag her around the house and he would just do it while looking at you like, "OMG why are you letting her do this to me????"

Mary riding a HUGE horse all by herself. I had to take a Xanax to watch this. For real. Even though her Uncle Dwight assured me she was safe, and even though said horse is approximately 400 years old...still...I mean....HUGE.

The kids helping to feed the cows. We would literally not see Mary from the time she woke up until dinner. She loved it.
How beautiful is this?

And this? Teasha took these and I think she's needs to do this professionally.

Mary getting ready for her death ride. Or finishing it. Don't ask me. I don't know, I was zonked on Xanax.

If you're wondering where Ben was, he was riding bikes and little cars or inside like a sensible person who does not have a death wish by jumping on giant animals.