Spring has sprung...and it's not even spring yet....

It is true! Spring is here...and yes, I am happy with that! I'm glad that the roller coaster of a winter we had is over. We're hoping for a better season next year!

Now that spring is (unofficially) here and the temps are a steady 60 to 70 degrees ( I wonder how long they'll stay that way...), it's time to get back in the saddle. My borrowed horse, Dixie, and I had our first ride on Friday and it went very well! The first horseback ride in the spring is always interesting...some horses have a tendency to act like un-broke fools the first ride and then they remember all of their training the second and go back to being themselves.

This, however, was not the case for Dixie! It was like we never stopped riding last fall--she just picked up right where we left off. I'll take that over getting flung around in the saddle any day!

My horse, Buckshot, will be next. I have a feeling he won't be so compliant since he's technically not trained yet. I'll have to take it slow with him...especially after my fall off of him last October. I DO NOT want to come that close to breaking my hip ever again!

*Sigh* I'll say the one good thing about having barely any snow during the winter is how little snow there is to melt come spring. I can actually enjoy spring this year since we're not drowning in mud like usual!
I know, I know...I may be putting the cart before the horse here...there are still a few months of spring left. April showers bring May flowers they say so we have spring rain to get through yet!

Well, get out there and enjoy this early spring everybody! Soak up the sunshine, plant those flowers, rake that yard (ugh), you know the drill...behold spring cleaning! ;D

When life gives you snow...

Well after a very long weekend the results are in!

The Small 'N' Mighty Racing Team came in 3rd place out of 15 teams!

The trophy we got for 3rd place.

Now...for this part, I suggest you brew yourself a hot cuppa' joe, sit back, and enjoy the ride. As they say "It's a loooong story".

So, if you live in Michigan, you're probably well aware that we just got hit with the snowstorm of the year. Two feet+ of wet and heavy snow fell during the night on Friday and into Saturday morning. Some places were considered to be in a state of emergency due to the heavy snow and power outages.

We arrived in Kalkaska on Friday, just as the snow started to fall, and checked into our motel. I unpacked, dropped the dogs, and went to the driver's meeting. Everything was going well and I just figured "Oh, this is kind of nice...we're going to get all of the snow we've been needing and this race will be great!"

haha Right...

Early Saturday morning I awoke from a fitfull sleep (I had a cold which prevented me from breathing all night...) to find that the motel room was very cold...or in other words, the power was out.

"No biggie", I thought. "They'll get the power on eventually."

I got everything ready and we headed to the race site.

The view from the motel parking lot. I know you can't really tell from this picture but there is 2ft of snow there plus whatever Kalkaska had before the storm.

Or tried to anyway. The motel driveway hadn't been plowed yet so, because my mom's van doesn't have 4-wheel drive (that's something I will never understand), we had to shovel a path through 2ft of snow so we could get out.

My mom eventually flagged down a random guy with a plow on his truck and he helped us get out the rest of the way.

So finally we got on the road and arrived at the race site...only to find out that the race had been cancelled for the day due to too many fallen trees on the trail.

Darn. We didn't do much but sit around all day while they got the fallen trees taken care of. We went back to our motel a few times to check on the status of the electricity but it never came back on. We had to move out and look for a new room.

Needless to say, we didn't find one. At every motel either they were way too expensive, they didn't have power, or they were full.

So, we ended up staying with my cousins for the night. It was so nice to see them! and so nice to be able to take a shower! haha

This morning we, again, headed back to the race site.

To put it plainly, the weather was perfect, the sky was blue, and we had a great, one day race! I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous the trail was. Imagine the most beautiful winter scene you have ever witnessed, then imagine yourself on the back of a dog sled in that scene and you pretty much have imagined the trail today.

In short, it was breath taking. All worth the powerless motel room, shoveling, spinning tires (pretty much every time we parked, we got stuck), blowing snow, and cold fingers in my opinion.

Life is funny that way. It loves to throw you curve balls and if you're not ready for them; you get whacked in the head. You just have to get skilled at catching them and throwing them back. ;)

See? I wasn't kidding when I said the 2012 racing season would go out with a bang!

Over all, it was a good weekend...definitely one that I'll never forget.

Even though this racing season has just ended, I already can't wait for the next one! I think we're gonna have a pretty rockin' team for next year!

So look out 2013, the Small 'N' Mighty Racing Team is gonna take you by storm!