Stacking hay

Rancho Mucho Dinero has a hayfield full of freshly cut bales.  The bales sit in the hot July sun ready to be stacked and put away for winter.     Good thing Pop has lots of grand kids to help load and stack hay.  

Each summer we come out to Pop's hayfields and help.  This year the kids are able to do more of the heavy lifting. 

Gabe is especially a lot of help.   He is big enough to do a lot of the loading and throwing of the bales.  It’s the perfect workout for a early July morning.   

The little girls also came out to help.    They mostly sat on the top of the bales and directed traffic.  

Riding back to the barn with all the hay might have been the best part.

These two boys were our rollers.    One on each side.  

It was a fun couple of days getting to help Pop on the ranch and learning some new skills.    Getting to help is always a privilege and I know the boys learned a lot.    I’m sure if you  asked them they would tell you their favorite part was the donuts and hay rides.  

Pop’s horses

Spending time with Pop.    When you spend time with Pop, you are spending time with his horses.   My dad has one place that he wants to be.   Looking through the ears of a horse.    His world is right when he is seated in his saddle and he can see everything between those ears.   Everything makes sense and the only frustration happens to be a stubborn or a wild horse.   He can fix that.   He can ride them down until they aren’t stubborn anymore.   He can teach them which way to go and how to get there.     He takes race track thoroughbreds that run away with you and turns them into polo ponies.   He takes the same horse and teaches them to pack elk.   

His horses are his best friends and they often make him mad but they also understand him.    My dad needs to be moving all the time.    At a fast pace.   He needs the pounding of those hooves and the wind sailing beneath his cowboy hat/polo helmet.   He needs the wild freedom that his horses provide.   Maybe that is why he decided to move to Wyoming?   Wild Wyoming.   A place he could ride his horses for miles and miles, up an down hills, across rivers and through the mountains.   Where he can run wild and free chasing a polo ball with that Don King buckle always in the back of his mind.   I honestly can’t see my dad living anywhere else.   Where else could he be a Cowboy on the Powder River?   Where else could he play 20 chukkers of polo a week?   Where else would his heart be right?

                                     

This is the place he has become the person he always wanted to be.    A Wyoming Cowboy.    A place where his horses and him have competed in hundreds of polo games.   A place where he has raised his horses and his family and kept us all coming back for more. 

                                  

While Pop rides his horses, my boys play football on the polo field.    Just like me, none of them have a passion for Pop’s horses.   I wish we did.   I wish I felt the same way about these creatures as my dad does.  I wish I had his passion for it but God didn’t put that in my heart.   It was something different.    I think at times Pop wishes we would be up there playing with him also but we aren’t.

                                    

                                    

                                      

We still love him and to spend time with him is to be with his horses.  So, we come to the polo field to see him.   We help him clean his stalls.   We even ride with him when we can.    

We love you Pop and your horses.  

                                       

A cabin in the Big Horn Mountains

The cabin in a place cut off from the world and more specifically electronics.   It’s a place to be together and not have to contend with so many other things.   In fact, the boys get so BORED they all go out and chop wood.

They gather around a pile of wood.   Axes cracking and a heated competition going on.     Who can split the most logs, who hits it the hardest.     Isn’t everything a competition when it comes to boys?    I watch Gabe as he shows the younger boys a better technique.   I watch my boys become men.

I think one of our favorite things is watching all the wildlife.   We see elk, moose, and deer.   This past weekend there was about 30 head of elk that were in the meadow up from the cabin.    The boys sat on the front porch with a spotting scope and watched them all.   The babies were really little.   Newborns, I think.   So tiny with spots.

We also saw quite a few moose.    Big, brown moose.

Boys got up early on Saturday morning and hiked up to Trigger lake.   A high mountain lake where the you can see the fish in the glassy water.   A remote place with no people.    It was a beautiful morning for fishing.

And they thankfully brought home breakfast.

Tie Hack

Tie Hack is a beautiful mountain lake near our cabin.  A beautiful mountain lake perfect for exploring.   We have been to this lake many times before but having it so close is surely something special.

Well, we all have to admit Amaya’s least favorite place is the mountains.    She gets up in those mountains and tends to start sneezing and feeling miserable.      It makes me so sad because it happens to be my favorite place.    But....she endures it all for our sake.    She came to visit us this weekend and stayed just long enough to get a good hike and some family time before she was ready to head down the mountain.    I was so happy to have her even if it was just for a few hours.

We hiked down to the river where we could get our toes wet (some of us anyway).

There is something magical about being in this place where time doesn’t matter and you are surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation. Where you can be play and be creative without any judgement.     A place where the distractions of the world are put aside even for just a little while and getting to do that with my favorite people makes it all even better.  

This all girls hike was extra special for me.    I needed some time away from all things boy and just spend time with the girls.   We did things like play with each other’s hair and talk about clothes and food.  We did some Yoga stretches and admired the flowers.   We laughed about a family we saw hiking with a baby.    The dad was carrying so much stuff in his hands he couldn’t have been having fun and the mom....she was carrying the baby and looking very, very tired.   Only moms understand that look.    Megan and I looked at each other and just laughed.   We had been that mom once.      

Megan....there isn’t anyone I would rather be with on the mountain.    I love you!!

An afternoon with Pop

Pop needed a little help on all his projects.    The grass was long, the groom didn't show up, and he needed a little help at the rent house.   Good thing I have some children that would tag along and offer some help!!

The boys in Pops tractor at the rent house

 Grooming for Pop

 Pop, we had a really fun day with you!!

A special spot

Many years ago I discovered a walking trail near Grammy's house.   A hidden gem just 1 block away where you could walk down into a valley and was completely surrounded by the beauty of Wyoming.  A place hidden in the trees with little bridges to cross, islands to explore, and logs to cross.    

Every year, I can not wait to get down to this special place.  A place where the world is left behind and I just walk and explore and see God's beauty.    As I think about this place I realized that each year it changes and grows with me.    

The first year I came to this place Gabriel was 2.    He and I would walk alone just a little way down the trail crossing the bridges every so slowly so we could throw in rocks and toss a rope into the river so he could catch crabs like in "Deadliest Catch".  Bridger would run ahead of us and wonder why we were so slow.    He always stayed close and loved exploring the river yet he wanted to run.  Owen would stay home with Grammy as she rocked him in her rocking chair because he was to little to come with us.

As the boys grew, every time we came to Grammy and Gramps we would go on an adventure to our secret trail.   We would load up on sticks and would take our time each time we went.   I remember one year the boys found a sand pit along the trail.    We stayed for an hour digging and digging looking for a golden nugget buried deep in the soil.    

Amaya grew to love our walks also.  She loved tagging along behind the boys, jumping the river and exploring the little islands we would find. She would laugh and laugh when Owen would fall in and his shoes would make a squishy sound all the way home.

Then, I remember pushing Eli's stroller up and down the hills.   Over the years the wash outs would make the hills steeper and steeper and one afternoon I couldn't quite get the stroller up the steepest hill.   So, Amaya had to hold Eli while I pushed the stroller first and ran back down to grab Eli.   She was always my helper.

Soon it became time for Eli to run on the trail and as Eli became faster and faster, Bridger became slower.   He would stay closer to us and wouldn't jump across the river as fast but he never stopped loving our special trail.

Now,  Mocha and I walk the trail every morning.   I get up early so I can get her out of the house before she wakes everyone up running and jumping on all the beds.    Mocha runs and runs.  She jumps up and over the banks and smells every part of the trail looking for birds.  She catches a scent and stops....starring at it and deciding what to do before she runs head first into it as fast as she can.   When we first came down to the trail she ran so far and so fast she kept crashing into the banks and misjudging the jumps over the river.   I kept telling her to slow down but I don't think she could help herself.

And the boys?    They still walk the trail.....without their mom.   They take Mocha on their own and walk her and I wonder if the remember all the hours that we spent together in this place....growing bigger every single year.

Ice cream and The Bighorns

After Owen's big catch we had to celebrate.  A little ice cream was in order.

While we are fishing and enjoying ice cream you might be wondering what our little princess is doing.     And I would love to show you....yet none of the pictures with be with us.  They will all be with her new family.  Her other family who does girl things.  A "new mom" and new sisters.  A house that is filled with pink tutus and dolls and everything girls.   I would just say that it seems to be girl heaven and Grace is enjoying every single moment.   

Looks like Grace's new family loved a day in the Big Horns....especially Gma.