Friday, October 19, 2018

Grandpa Great's Ranch

It has been the longest time since I have been able to go to my Grandpa's house and just play. Without having hay to put up or cows to brand. Unfortunately that is about the only time we make it up there. I really need to get up there and see him more often. Anyway, my Dad, Shantel, and Melissa and I  planned a day to go up and just play with our families. It was wonderful.

We woke and quickly ate breakfast and got ready to go to the ranch. We stopped off in Morgan to pick up my Dad and finished our trip up to Lyman, Wyoming. We were the first to arrive. My Grandpa had a raccoon get through his back door a little while ago, and so he had ordered a door in from Ogden and was going to put it on. My dad helped him do that while the kids were playing on the tire swing and in the tree and on the old tractor. While Jason was on the tractor, he said, "being a farmer is fun." He truly loves all things farms and ranch. On the way up he said his favorite animal is a cow, and I actually think that could be true. 



















The door ended up being an inch short (even though the people making the door were the ones who measured it) and so they ended up cutting a small piece of wood to screw onto the bottom to make it a little longer. Eventually they got the door on, and about that time everyone else showed up. Shantel brought food for lunch and as the kids were playing we made lunch before we got going on too many other fun things.

After lunch we went down to the barn where my grandpa had brought in some horses for the kids to ride. It was such a fun experience. My dad and grandpa showed the kids how to comb the horse and how to put on a saddle. They even got to feed the horse a little pellet out of their hands and they thought it was so great. One time while Camille was walking over with Melissa to ride a horse, she saw the horse pooping and mesmerized with disgust. Melissa said, "it is okay, everyone poops. It is natural." And Camille replied, "Yeah, but it is still really yucky." When I heard her say that it just made me chuckle.








































After riding horses my dad built a little hay fort for the kids to play in. They thought it was so great. They were climbing to the top of the hay stack and climbing back down and playing in the fort that eventually turned into a tunnel. It was a blast. I was surprised that Jason climbed up to the very top of the hay stack all by himself without any coercion. He usually tends to be on the safer side...he must be growing up. I am going to have to watch him a little closer now. The first time Camille was climbing back down the hay stack she actually fell off from almost the top. She landed straight on her head. She was pretty shocked, but my ever optimistic Camille just hopped up and said, "It is a good thing this soft straw was here to land on." I was worried she wouldn't climb back up the hay stack but she still went up and played the rest of the time. By the end of playing on the haystack I don't know if I had ever seen so much hay stuck inside of clothes and down diapers. It was a sign of a good time at the hay stack.




















We went back down to the house and my dad and grandpa gave the kiddos a ride in the tractors. Jason and Camille both love tractors. So they got to drive the tractors all around the back field. Then when they came back in my dad gave them a ride in the tractor bucket.

 


It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. I felt like it was just my childhood wrapped up one day. I was glad I could share that with my kids and let them be on the ranch. I hope to get up more often and spend time with my wonderful grandpa out on the ranch.

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