Back in March I took a semi-spontaneous trip up to Lake Placid for a few days with Brian and his family!  Which is quite an adventure tale in itself... Let's just say it involved a lot of Jenga, related Jenga-block towers, a little hockey, a lot of snow, pushing a car out of that lot of snow, cozy fireplaces, good food, great people, and tons of fun! :)

And of course a trip to Lake Placid wouldn't be complete without taking a moment to appreciate the ski jumps.  But this time?  FINALLY went to the top of one! :)  Here are some of the photos I was able to take...

The Easy Street Horse Rescue (remember, I posted about them here?) had their annual Hoof It For Horses this weekend!  There was a 5K run, 10K run, and a 5K walk.  I ran the 5K, Brian and Rob ran the 10K, and Trick came along to be supportive and help out with the time-keeping!  Rob's mom and dad also came - they did the 5K walk!  (It went right past their house, so they just couldn't pass it up...)

It was FREEZING but still lots of fun!  Although, the half way point was a HORRIBLE hill that you had to run up before you could turn around at the top... It was brutal.. but didn't slow me down as much as I thought it would!  I don't remember my exact time but I ended up with a ribbon for 3rd in my age group.  (And yes - DAMN proud of that!)  Brian won the 10K and Rob came in 2nd. 

After we had a little lunch, we headed over to the Rescue so the guys could meet the horses - Trick was most excited about this and he'd been dying to go for a while now.  We spent most of our time with the guys in the pasture - they were all really friendly and just wanted to be pet and scratched, which was sooooo nice.  Here are some photos :)

I have been meaning to post about this for a while now and after having a few requests, I'm FINALLY getting down to it! :)

For those of you who may not know, I was born a country girl.  I grew up on Cedar Ridge Farm in (very) upstate New York.  (For those of you who are Google-happy, our farm is not any of the ones that show up - sorry to disappoint you...)

After my parents graduated, got married, moved away, etc., my mom picked up horseback riding.  Which quickly turned into a hobby for both of my parents. And then subtly translated into a business.  I joined in immediately - my mom rode up until she was 8 months pregnant - I was basically born on a horse.  :)

When we sold our farm and moved away, I always missed having the horses the most.  For some reason, it kind of hit me this past March - almost 14 years later!  (Better late than never, I guess?)  I figured a good way to get back into the swing of things was to see if there was somewhere nearby that I could work/volunteer to just spend some time with horses again and see if this was something I still liked.  (Spoiler alert: it is...)

A little searching helped me find the Easy Street Horse & Barnyard Rescue!  They are a wonderful non-profit organization and I've been having a great time there!  You can check out their website (easystreetrescue.org) to learn all about them and check out the horses that are currently available for adoption.  (Shameless plug - donations are always welcome!!!)  :)

I usually try and get out there once a week and help out with the morning barn chores.  I'm learning lots and loving every minute of it!  

I keep meaning to bring my camera and get a bunch of pictures of everyone but I haven't had a chance yet.  Here are just a few that I managed to grab on my phone!


The grey horse is Celsy, behind him is Ali (the white one), the bay facing me is Argo, and the bay with his butt toward me is Sir.  

Despite his lack of cooperation with this photo, I fell in love with Sir and would LOVE to be able to adopt him.  Although given that my apartment doesn't even allow dogs, I highly doubt they'd appreciate me showing up with a horse...



Here is T (Tonka) and Julian!  T is actually owned by Nina, the woman who runs the rescue, so he's not technically a rescue horse but he helps take care of the new guys!  And I just love Julian, too... :)

While I was taking these photos, we were standing by one of the water tubs and I splashed it at T a little, so naturally he decided to be playful and splash me back.  He splashed back significantly more than "a little"...  I retaliated.  And got water up his nose.  Let the photo shoot begin:

This may be my favorite one of the group:

This is Strawberry Banks - she's a retired race horse and sooooo pretty!  I love her, too.... (Noticing a trend?)

And this is when I met her for the first time!  She let me hug her and closed her eyes :)

There are a few other horses at the barn that I didn't grab any pictures of but I'm sure I'll have more up at some point! :)


I've also decided that I wanted to try riding again!  I joined the Equestrian Club at school and so far I've had 2 riding lessons!  The horse I ride is named Simon - I'm. In. Love.  :)  I don't have any photos of him or any real updates there but I will keep you posted if anything exciting happens!!




Disclaimer: These are all of my own thoughts/opinions.  In writing this, I do not represent the Easy Street Horse & Barnyard Rescue.  I simply volunteer there and adore it!

Please tell me someone picked up on the Psych reference?  Hmm... well I bet Dan did!!

Anyways!  I'm wayyyyy behind on posting so please forgive me as I try to catch up...

Friday, July 27th was College Day at the Saratoga Race Track!  Katie and I decided to take a half day and spend the afternoon enjoying the horses, some good food, and the beautiful summer day.  Added bonus?  College Day means free t-shirts, free admission, and scholarships and prizes between each race - um, OK!

(Unfortunately, we did not win any scholarships... But I won $15 on a horse!)

As you can see, the track was really muddy.  We'd gotten a TON of rain the night before... It was actually looking like it might rain that day, too but we lucked out.

Rob ended up getting out of work early, too and was able to join us, too!

I just really liked this guy... :)

I didn't really take any kind of "vacation" this summer so it was nice to just take a day off, escape the lab, and enjoy the summer...

Rob and I went to down to NYC for the Color Run!  What is the Color Run, you might ask?  According to them, it's the "happiest 5K on the planet!"

Basically?  You wear white, you run 5K, and at the end of ever kilometer, they shower you with colored powder!  (I'm pretty sure it's dyed cornstarch?)  Each kilometer is a different color so by the end, your a pretty little rainbow mess!  And then to top it all off, there is a color celebration at the end!  They have a stage with a DJ and then every 15 minutes they toss out color packets (they gave you each one at the beginning but you could buy/catch/beg for more) and then you all cut lose at once - my all time favorite part for sure. :)

There was over 25,000 runners that day - so many people!!!  They sent you out in groups of a couple hundred - we lucked out and were in the 3rd group so we didn't have to wait around the entire day!

Here are a few photos from the day!