Good Times on the Ranch

As Andrew reported in his last blog, we thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting with friends and family over the last few weeks. We caught up with our friend Ron in New Orleans and toured the amazing city with him. After that we made our way to Dallas and had lots of fun with all our Texas cousins. On our way out we got to stay with my highschool friend Kerry and her family in Ft. Worth. After Ft. Worth we made our way up north to the small town of Canadian, Texas where Andrew's family owns a ranch in Lipscomb County. Andrew's cousin Chaz and his wife Lori and their adorable daughter Milly live on the ranch in the same house that Andrew's mom grew up in. We visit the ranch regularly, usually about once per year, but we never stay on the ranch, (the last time Andrew stayed on the ranch was easily over 20 years ago when he spent a summer helping his uncle on the ranch). Usually when we visit we generally stay in town which is about 20 miles away which makes our visits shorter, but this year because we were in the camper we got to share "3 squares" (meals -as Chaz called them) with our cousins, we also got to experience feeding the cattle and even got to drive out to the Locus Grove fire department where Chaz volunteers on a call that ended up being taken care of by the time we got there, so Chaz didn't need to go off to fight any fires, that day. Overall, the time on the ranch was relaxing and rejuvenating. We had wonderful meals, a fun backyard fire, woke to the sound of roosters and greeted each moment we stepped outside by the cutest dogs we have ever met (we are hoping to adopt one of these puppies too when the time comes!). The weather was unseasonably warm and clear while we were there too, which allowed us to get outside and take walks, shoot the bow and arrow and swing over the pond on the rope swing. We all agreed that we truly loved the time on the ranch and can't wait for the next time we get to go back, and hopefully our time will allow us to drive again so that we can stay on the ranch again and take it all in once more. 

              The camper fits right in on the ranch!

The girls loved the ranch just as much as Andrew and I, if not more. Siena is determined to get a Mars & Quigly puppy (and we are going to do our best to make that happen) and Nadia loved her tractor ride with Chaz, getting pushed on the rope swing and of course playing with Cousin Milly! 

Here are their highlights of the time on the ranch as well... 

FROM NADIA: 

I went to our family ranch in Canadian, Texas. It was fun, I played with my cousin Milly. We also went on the rope swing over the pond and Chaz and Daddy pushed Siena and me. Lori made such good breakfast every morning for us. We went to a museum and there was a display of the Water’s family, what I thought was so cool about it is that it is all about my grandma’s (Baba) family. We went to feed the cattle and we got to hand feed the cows their tongues felt  like sand paper. On the last day we went on the tractor and we went on the front of it.:) I'd like to go back there again it was so fun. On the drive to New Mexico it was snowy on the mountain in our campground there was no one else there but on the other side we built snowman. Next stop SKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                     Nadia on the rope swing

FROM SIENA: 

On the ranch we had a lot of fun and this blog post is to tell you about all the fun we had. When we got to the ranch we saw Chaz and Lori and Milly, Nadia and my third cousin (I think). They got a new dog her name is Mars they also have a dog that was there before and his name is Quigly. He and Mars are Australian Shepherds they are so fun. The night we arrived we had dinner at the Cattle Exchange it is a nice restaurant and we go there every time we visit the ranch. The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise NOT. I slept in pretty late, then we had breakfast and then we fed the cows which was fun then we saw the fire station beacause Chaz is a volunteer fireman. The next day we went to see Holleen and Jerry they had lots of animals they even had peacocks then we went to a museum that had a display of our grandma Baba’s family, unfortunately we were not on the display :( but it was still cool. The morning we had to leave we got to ride in a plow in the front of the tractor which was fun, then we left. 

THE END :)

                           Siena with Mars & Quigly