Saturday Adventuring

My HI2 buddy Nessie and I decided to tackle one of the more lengthy TigerTon quests today. My mount: the handsome Quarter Horse stallion, Vaquero. Along the way, I took some screenshots, so I will be able to illustrate our adventure as I go.

We began the quest by talking to GalaxyLad in the TigerTon library.

He needs help gathering items for his school project, a diorama, because he gets too seasick to travel to other isles himself. Poor kid. Love his shirt, though.

I can imagine most of these items in a diorama, but I'm stumped as to how the jar of olive oil will be of any use. 

We went after the slide rule first. I guess because it sounded the least interesting. The AngleTon mayor was very helpful - she pointed us directly to the general store where we could find it.

Next, we travelled to Dumbbell Isle and asked around until we found MrsWithies, who sold us the olive oil.

I suggested we try finding the cactus next. DryTon's mayor sent us to the cantankerous MrBones who lives on Golden Isle.

I keep catching Nessie when she's blinking. XD

He made us pay $999 for the key to his cabin, in which he told us to look for the mini cactus. It was shut inside his cabinet. Poor little cactus! I'm glad we could rescue it!

Thanks to Nessie, we remembered to return MrBones his key.

To cool down our horses, I suggested we head to the Glacier isles for the fossil next. The mayor sent us to the easternmost part of Ice Cube Isle. We (well, I, at least) dug with abandon, as you can see. It ended up being in that little indent in the the ice ridge just south of where Vaquero is standing.

Next up: the blue dahlia on Leaf Isle. GiddySmurl gave us the directions to look for it by a giant blue flower to the south and east of her house. If you ask me, this flower is more purple than blue!

Our sixth item to find was the bonsai tree from Froli Village on Prairie Isle. Off we went to visit the dwobbits! ZinniaBop had just the tree we needed.

I was gearing up for a lengthy trip into the mountains to find the seventh item, the molybdenum ore, totally forgetting that we only needed 6 items from the list. Good thing one of us was paying attention! Pointless trip avoided, we headed back across Prairie Isle to the dock house...

Our horses are cantering in sync!

...and sailed our way back to TigerTon. GalaxyLad was thrilled.

Even he's not even sure what good the olive oil will be. XD

Quest completed, Nessie suggested we compete in cross country, since it was the bonus arena at the time. (When an arena's the bonus arena, you are guaranteed to make money and gain experience no matter how you place.) I decided to give it a whirl, even though I'd only ever tried cross country once before... with abysmal results. 

Well, I have not magically become any better at cross country over the last year. It was still a disaster: hitting loads of things I wasn't supposed to, never clearing a single jump, going through various flags the wrong direction... Yeah, you get the idea. Nessie and her horses breezed past me by thousands of points every time - she has some serious skills! Ophelia, Galileo, and Ravine each got turns at it, and I think they enjoyed themselves even if we did get last place every time. Okay, I take that back. We beat one other player once... but it was only because she logged out before she finished the course. XD

Needless to say, I will not be a stellar cross country rider on HI2 anytime soon. It was entertaining nevertheless. =)

Christmas Recap

Here it is the last week of January, and we still haven't posted about our Christmas presents. Oh well, better late than never. Without further ado, here we are modeling the new clothes we received for Christmas! 

Coconut Fun Outfit

I love it, especially the shirt! This came with heather gray leggings as well, but I think it looks weird to layer them under the shorts, so I left them off. The only part I don't love is the headband. Even though it looks good in photos, like other AG headbands, it doesn't go on or stay on very well.

School Days Outfit

Yay, not a stitch of pink or purple in sight! Are you sure this is an AG outfit? I really like the shirt and pants. I'm still not crazy about the banana yellow shoes with this, but they are growing on me a bit.

long-sleeved tee and dark skinny jeans

These came from eBay and were made to fit 18" slim dolls like me! I'm especially excited for the pants! They will go with almost everything.

Ruffled Hoodie Outfit

This outfit has been on AG's website for what feels like a very long time. I've long admired the color pallet - you know how I love blues - so when it eventually went on clearance, I made sure that Mom knew. The one drawback to the outfit is the ruffled hoodie itself. It is made so short and small that it looks really awkward when zipped up. So, I guess that zipper is only meant to be for decoration!

PJ's and sleeping bags!

Finally, each of us received a sleeping bag and pillow with matching pajamas! Are we ever ready for sleepovers with our cousins now! In case you can't tell from the photo, Lily's set has owls on them, Bethany's has Scotties, Julie's has horses, and Felicity's has unicorns and stars.

We slept under the Christmas tree on Christmas night. =)

Wow, we are 4 very lucky dolls! Thanks, Mom!

6/6 Wild Stallions, Where Are You?

Well, January is more than half over, and we haven't found any 6/6 wild horses yet on HI2. In fact, we haven't caught any since Anya the Don back on October 5. It's been even longer since we caught a 6/6 stallion - that hasn't happened since Vaquero the AQH back on June 14! We haven't been searching out wilds quite as much as we used to, so I guess it's taking its toll. Still, we do have the flute to summon us a daily wild. Strange...

We have caught a few noteworthy wild horses lately, though. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Felicity says if she'd caught this Fjord herself, she'd have had a hard time parting with him. Umber and I (Bethany) were the ones who found him, though, and I put him in the livery. Here's hoping somebody decided they needed this adorable investigator.

Groovy and I caught this blue-eyed Quarter Horse mare. I love the screenshot of her burying her face in the dog's fur. As pretty as she is, I bet she didn't last long in the livery. 

Groovy and I caught this mare only a minute or two after the palomino Quarter Horse. She is gorgeous, isn't she? I haven't been able to give her up yet even though I know I shouldn't keep her... 

Infrared and I caught this Friesian. I have included him in my list because of his goofy screenshot and his fairly rare personality, Isolationist. And I thought Umber the Misanthrope was difficult...

Finally, Julie and Napoleon caught this maximum height Spotted Draft Horse mare this morning. She's beautiful and has a great personality, but wow... what an unfortunate set of stats! XD

That's all of them for now. =)

So anyway, our 6/6 wild stallion dry spell is bound to break soon, right? Maybe my sisters and I should all take a stab at guessing when. Whoever makes the closest guess would be declared the winner. The losers could each have to buy the winner a companion animal for one of her horses or something. Just throwing the idea out there...

Grace Thomas

Meet Grace Thomas, the 2015 Girl of the Year doll from American Girl. As we did last year with Isabelle, we will now report back on how our conversation went when we looked her up online for the first time on January 1. As always, Bethany writes in purple, Felicity in green, Julie in teal, and Lily in blue.

Grace, huh?
Pretty name. 
But yikes, those are some unfortunate bangs.
Oh no, it's Lanie in brunette.

Wasn't once enough?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than enough.
C'mon, you guys. They're not that bad.
*Makes gagging noises.*
If it wasn't for the bangs, she would look a lot like our cousin, Jessica.

Jessica, mom's sister's My American Girl doll

Grace

Wow, I think Grace's hair is a shade darker, but otherwise...
They could be twins!
It looks like their eyebrows are different, and possibly the face mold? Otherwise AG could've gotten away with using the same head and just sticking a different wig on it.
Speaking of the wig, it's going to be a bummer when you finally take the braid out - how will you ever get rid of the kinks?
It won't be easy. 
AG's not exactly going out on a limb, is it?
Nope.
Still no African American.
And brown hair again paired with blue eyes - remember Lindsey and Chrissa?
Oh yeah. Both had dark brown hair and blue eyes, you're right.
I'm confused. Isn't the American girl of the year supposed to be... um... American?
Read the page, Felicity. She takes a trip to Paris.
Oh. So her books take place in France, but she is American?
Just the first of the books, apparently. I read the blurbs about them on the site.
And they involve Grace opening a French baking business. That much I've gathered.
So what do you think of her outfit?
Mmm, it's fine as long as she's not wearing the goofy pink beret. 
I'm sick of pink, myself. 
I like the skirt. I think that black bow is cute.
I don't. It reminds me of Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter. 
Professor Umbridge? How?
This is how:

Ew. 
She has a point there.
Yeah, I'll never look at little black bows the same way again.
Well, I still think it's cute on a doll. 
I agree. I like her gray boots too - I'd totally wear those.
The Paris design on the shirt and the charm bracelet aren't my style - 
I know, right? They scream tourist.
But everything at least goes together.
Much more nicely than some of Isabelle's... one-of-a-kind creations.
For sure. I'm not sorry to see those go!

We will leave you on that... well... sort of happy note. It was about then that somebody changed the subject back to Professor Umbridge, and the conversation only deteriorated from there...

A White New Year

Happy 2015! Wow, that's going to take some getting used to! I typed "2014" back there and had to correct it.

The snow kicked in just in time to give us a white New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. *Sighs* You're a week late, snow, and I am not amused.

Let me take you back to 2014 one last time. As you may recall, we already had decided to add these 3 equines to the herd throughout December:

Airbrush: Bethany's

Tinsel: mine (Julie's)

Mongolian mare: Lily's

We assumed when we caught the Mongolian mare that HI2 was done dishing out tempting wild horses for the year. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

On New Year's Eve, guess who the flute summoned to Petra and me near the Crystal Isle dock house?

Aw, dapples! <3

Oh, goodness. Is he ever cute!

I've already named him "Jolly." It seemed perfect, since he's roly poly, it looks like he's smiling, and his personality is "Agreeable." Maybe I can get my sisters to count him as our January horse so that I can keep him? We'll have to wait and see what the month holds.

Here's another look at his avatar. It's similar to the avatars of the twin white gray New Forest Pony mares, Jess and Dash, and to my cremello leopard Nez stallion, Herbie, but there are some clear differences.

Jolly: white dapples and black hooves

Jessamine: no dapples and brown hooves

Herbie: darker dapples