At the Ranch...

the boys

sammy talking to a grasshopper! one of his, and the youger kids favorite activities that keeps them occupied for hours! playing with grasshoppers!!

Victoria

the loft we slept in (and i got bit)

my stylish son :) He's wearing a glove that he found at the ranch, and hasn't taken off since! He's in his swimming trunks again, and is wearing some wool socks I bought before we left for the kids because they get leg aches a lot, he apparently thought they were cool...he wore them the whole time we were there!

Alemu driving four wheeler for the first time by himself

We went to my mom and dads ranch last weekend...what an interesting time!! My dad leases out his land for cows to graze and this time they were in our camping site. They relieved themselves throughout our campsite...gross!! Well we got that cleaned up as good as we could, but the cows refused to stay away!! They are SO curious that they continued to come to our campsite even though we scared them away with four wheelers...you would think they would be afraid after being chased with strange, loud, wild machines! There were a few bulls in the mix that were being very aggressive to the females...moaning loudly with thick snot running down their faces, and the look of desire in their eyes!! One morning at 5am. I got up because of a spider had bitten me...needing to go to the bathroom badly, and not wanting to wake my mom and dad in the motor home to use their toilet, I decided to take a quick run behind the shop...not a good idea! As I was about to end my visit to the back of the shop, I heard the loud moaning of that love hungry bull!! It came around the side of the shop and we locked eyes...but only briefly... for I was not going to wait to see what he thought of ME! I jolted around and ran as fast as my legs could take me and I could here the bulls hoofs thumping fast behind me...I didn't know if he was heading after me or running away, but I wasn't about to turn around and find out!! I got back into the shop with my heart pounding and adrenalin rushing, laughing to myself thinking...that was interesting!! Then I looked down at my arm that had been bitten by a spider noticing it growing in width and getting quite red, I hoped it wasn't a black widow that had bit me or some other highly venomous spider.

Well...my spider bite did get nice and swollen, red, sore, and itched, but seems to be getting better now, I thank the Lord!!

The kids enjoyed themselves, but not so much that first night, we had bought two small 2 person tents for the oldest four to sleep in, 2 in each tent. The first night we stayed in the tents, but I had a hard time sleeping worrying about the kids, cows roaming around and knowing that certain animals could be lurking around, bears, cougars, both had been seen on the ranch before. Alemu said he couldn't sleep good either, and they all woke up a little damp from dew. So the next night we stayed in the shop on the loft that Eric and dad had built that day. (that is where I got bit at night in my sleep!!) We did quite a bit of things, took walks...of course I had to find a tick on ME, I hate ticks and that was the only one we saw all weekend ....we went fishing, rode four wheelers, and had a picnic at the top of the mountain!! All in all it was interesting, fun, and a relaxing (somewhat) weekend!!