Clover & Willow

Scratching Post:

 I was out of town, and Mark made Clover and Willow the cutest scratching post! They were too timid to go by it the first few day, but once they realized what it was, they have loved it ever since.

He did such a great job! Four scratching brushes, and a hanging rope ball to play with.

Story Time:

We did another story time, and this time Willow was in charge of the reading light! 😂 It's seriously like having two toddlers.

It was all fun and games until she wouldn't give it back to me! 😂

First Snow:

We got a lot of snow one night, and I was so excited to take them on a walk in it the next morning! They loved it! They were so funny, but it is so hard to take pictures and videos while I'm trying to wrangle two curious donkeys. We need someone to follow us around with a camera.

Here's an indication of how much it snowed! It was the good powdery kind too!

They were so curious about it!

Willow loved it! She kept sticking her head in as far as it would go, and then come out covered in it.

It came most of the way up Clover's tiny little legs. 😅

Willow would bury her head in it and just keep walking. Every once in a while she'd come up for air. 😂 

Air break!

Willow was so disappointed when it was time to go back in the barn. I felt like the meanest donkey mom!

Water Bucket:

It got really cold in November, so we put a heating thinger in their outside water bucket. Mark had to move the bucket to a new location so he could plug in the heater. He put the bucket down and walked away for a second to get the heater. The girls promptly moved the bucket. I was inside watching them and just cracking up!

You can tell that Willow is the ring leader of the naughty shenanigans.

Clover just joins as back up and moral support.

The Big Green Sled:

I was in the barn feeding everyone dinner one evening. I always feed Reeses first. She is almost 15 years old, and she has earned her place as the queen of the barn. Willow got a touch impatient, and I saw her rearing up a little bit in her stall. The next thing I know, she stared right at me, and jumped the gate! I stood there totally shocked for a second, and then total chaos ensued! She was all smug about it, and just went trotting around inside the barn, thrilled with her new freedom. I wasn't sure if I should chase her, or try to calm Clover down, who was VERY distraught that she was left behind. I was so afraid that Clover would try to jump the gate next, and I knew she was too tiny to make it over. Should I open the gate and let Clover out? Should I try to catch Willow, so she doesn't cause any damage? How do I keep Reeses away from her? It was like a total circus! I caught Willow, and put her back in, but what was gonna keep her from jumping out again? I called Mark, and he was on his way home. I just fed them and hung out in their stall with them until Mark got home to fix things. This is where the big green sled enters the picture. He zip tied the slip to the gate until we could come up with a better solution. It worked like a charm. Willow was all put out that she could no longer put her head over the gate to get treats and scratches from us. Well Willow, whose fault is that?

😂😂😂

I am happy to report that we have a much better solution up now. Mark ordered a cargo net from Amazon that took the place of the sled until we can get a bar welded across. I'm also happy to report that we let the girls out all the time to wander around in the barn now. It will be even better when our house is finished and we aren't storing our stuff in there. They love to roam around in there, and they are pretty good about staying our of trouble as long as we keep and eye on them.

Queen of the Hill:

We were outside fixing the flood lights, and Clover and Willow had a pretty great game of 'Queen of the Hill' going on! They are so fun to watch!

They love the dirt piles. 

Watch Clovers legs when she comes trotting up to the fence. Cutest thing ever! 😁

I can't even handle it when Clover tries to kick Willow. So funny! 😂 She might be little, but she's fierce!

Cute Bracelet:

We bought Clover and Willow a squeaky dog toy, and like most things they were timid of it and wanted nothing to do with it. I went out to their corral one day and found Willow wearing it like a boss. 😂 She hasn't been scared of it since. I went out another time, and she was running around with it on her back leg. 😂

Happy Thanksgiving:

She really is beautiful, even with turkey legs on her head.

Clover wanted a turn with the turkey legs, so we switched it up.

Reeses thought that she might be able to get out of dressing up this year. Not a chance!

The Candy Bucket:

They love to be out in the fresh snow!

We gave the girls a bucket, and it makes for great fun. I hid treats in it to see who would find them first. Clover was the winner!

At least they're good at sharing. 😁

Powdered Sugar:

I came out to the barn to check on things, and someone had powder sugared my donkeys! 😂

Gimme Those:

This is an everyday occurrence. They also untie our shoes! 😂

Donkey Hugs:

Willow adores Mark, and she always gives him hugs. She walks into him and puts her head on his shoulder. It's so sweet! 😍 I finally got one on video. Lately though, she has become a bit of a bully. She doesn't want us giving any attention to Clover, so she will squeeze her way in between us, and practically climb in our laps and sit on us. It's so funny, with a side of annoying! 😅

Sorry for the long post, but clearly I'm obsessed with these sweet girls! If you have an Instagram account, follow The Cozy Corral. I put all this stuff on reels, and it's way more fun to watch it that way.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend in Boise. It's hard for Bailey and Mason to travel during the semester, and with Nora, so Bailey likes to host Thanksgiving at her place. We happily travel there because it means we get a couple days to hang out with Nora. 😄 Everyone pitched in with the food, and it was a yummy dinner! Afterwards we played games, and then ate dessert. So much eating!  

Waiting for dinner!

Cutting the turkey!

Dinner time!
Lysa-Mason-Sawyer-Amanda-Tricia-Mark-Taylor

Blurry picture, but this one has Bailey and Nora in it too. 

Nora slept through dinner, but when she woke up, she got to try sweet potatoes for the first time. It was a Cannon sibling effort to feed this cutie. It makes me happy that so many people love little Nora.

Sawyer and Amanda with Nora.
We all had to take turns with her.

My baby and my baby's baby! 😊

Cutest little turkey!

We love being her Grams and pops soooooo much!

The next day we went to a very intense BSU game. Every time Mark and I have been there to watch them on the blue, the games have been so close! Boise got the win for this one!

Boise State vs. Utah State

It was so cold! It was a chore to keep little Nora warm.

Get a load of those blue eyes! 😍

I love her!

Sweetest little face ever!

Mark-Tricia-Bailey-Nora-Mason-Lysa-Taylor-Lance

Such a good game!

We went back to Mason and Bailey's place after the game, had leftovers for lunch, and then headed back to Idaho Falls. A quick, but fun weekend!

November Adventures

I'm not even gonna try to sugar coat this; November sucked! It started off good with our trip to Georgia for the Sky to Summit race, but it tanked shortly after that. A couple days after we got back from Georgia, I had a little rupture in my disc. I would try taking it easy for a couple days, and when I ran, I just tried easy, short ones, but it wasn't getting any better. Then Steph crashed and burned on the Dizzy Horse Preview run, and has to have knee surgery, so she will be out for a minimum of 6 months. Then sweet Taeloni passed away, and now all the other stuff that was going wrong seems like nothing compared to that gut punch. I'm not in a good enough place to even blog about that yet. This has been the coldest, snowiest November I can remember since living in Idaho too. Bitter cold! And to end the month off with the icing on the cake, I am super sick. Ugh! I'm not usually a big complainer, but I'm not one bit sad to see November go away!

With that being said, I didn't do too many adventures this month.

Dizzy Horse Preview Run:

I had big hopes for the Dizzy Horse. I was going to try to make it 50 miles, but now I'm just hoping to be able to make it to the starting line and complete a lap. 😓 But we had a preview run of the course. It was a beautiful, cold, morning, and I wasn't doing much running because my back was not doing very good. The gates weren't open, so we had to climb them. I was super careful, and made it over just fine, but Steph fell, and destroyed her knee. I knew right when we helped her up that it wasn't going to be good by the way her body was shaking. Ugh, surgery at the beginning of December, and she'll be out for 6 months. I'm so bummed for her!

Pretty morning at Sandy Downs!

Great turn out for the preview run! 

Sidewinder/Stinking Springs:

I still had hopes that my back would recover, so Mark and I planned a 8-10 mile training run up Sidewinder, down Stinking Springs, and planned to finish off miles on Wolf Flats. As soon as we finished the 5 mile loop, I knew I had to be done. I was getting zingers through my back, and I knew continuing on would not be good.

The trees at the top of Sidewinder were frozen!

It was a beautiful evening!

We saw so many deer coming down Stinking Springs.

Little Moose:

I needed to do a test run with my back. I needed a nice, easy, consistent run, to see if I could at least make it 10-12 miles. We decided to try Little Moose because Mark and Jenn had never been on it before. We got a little more than we bargained for. So much snow! It was crazy! So, there was actually hardly any running, it wasn't easy, and it mostly consisted of trudging. 😂 We made it 7 miles, and it took forever!

Tricia-Jenn-Mark

I totally want to take them back in the spring, so they can see what the trail is usually like.

Snow up to my knees! And we hadn't even hit the bad part yet.

Great view of the Tetons!

Here's a little example of what our run ended up being like. 😂

Rigby Turkey:

I decided after Little Moose that I would be better off just taking some time off from running to give my back a chance to heal. It would be better to start Dizzy Horse a little out of shape, but with a good back, then to keep trying to train, and end up not even being able to start. But then I had the chance to go run in Rigby and make this great Strava turkey. How could I pass that up!

The Rigby Runners

How fun is this?!?

Women's Runs:

We had our annual IFTR Food Drive Run, where everyone can come (not just women). We loaded the back of Sheila (Amanda's car) with food donations, and then did a nice lap around the river. I love this run each year!

Great turn out for the food drive!

Next, we had our annual turkey trot around downtown.

Turkey Trot!

I missed the run where we spelled JOY because I got super sick out of the blue. Blah! Here's hoping that December ends up being a lot better than November was!