sweet rewards

Mary has been working on something for months now.  It was a very big goal, and was not one that was easy to obtain.  It had to do with working through some internal things, and learning to conquer her mind.

In order for her to reach her big goal, she had to take small steps.  For each step she accomplished, we set up a reward.  The bigger the step, the bigger the reward.

A few rewards were getting 2 pieces of jewelry, getting her nails done (the real deal), getting a snow cone, swimming, and so on.

Mary finally hit her goal a few weeks ago, and her big reward (chosen by her) was to ride a horse.

So, I checked around, and found someone in our ward that was more than willing to let Mary ride her horse.  She invited Sam as well.

They learned to how to get the horse to come to them, brush the horse, put on the saddle, and then ride it.

I knew my kids would enjoy the experience, but I had no idea they would LOVE it.  I think the word passion would be adequate to describe what I saw written all over Mary and Sam.

LOVE this picture of my little Heber cowboy with the gorgeous Timp. in the background.

Mary was allowed to ride the horse completely alone and in charge of the reins.  She grinned and grinned and grinned.

Luke and William came along as well. 
William wanted nothing to do with the horse.  He kept saying that he just wanted to ride a bull.  ha!  Someone loved the rodeo, especially the bull riding. He enjoyed cheering his older siblings on though.

Luke just wanted to play in the water.  He threw his binky in there, in hopes of me putting him in there to get it out.  No such luck.  Sorry Lukie.

The morning was a huge success.  Mary and Sam talked about it the entire way home, and both are begging for riding lessons.  hhhmmm, how far away is Christmas???