Ack! It's Been Over a Month since I blogged!!

I can't believe it!  Well, yes I can.  We started school for the year and got in several weeks.  Hosting a crafting weekend at our church, then attended a scrapbooking retreat.  Grandma took us to Branson for 3 days, then we were home for a week before visiting friends in Wyoming.  Now we are back, staying home and getting lots of school done, not to mention getting into the routine of all of our activities: 4H, choir, confirmation class.

Between the crafting weekend and my retreat I got a lot of pages scrapbooked:  29 pages and 46 at the retreat!  Just this morning, I got them all arranged in their respective books along with the others I had put together and hadn't filed in their binders.  I am happy to report that I put 45 pages (give or take) in each of the kids' albums.  YEAH!  Basically I have Christmas pictures left to put in their books and 2008 is HISTORY (at least in the kids' albums).  I am one happy camper.

I have lots of pictures to post from Branson and from Wyoming, but that will have to wait because I have church council in a couple hours and choir tomorrow afternoon.  Keep checking back.  I promise I will post some pictures soon.

Wyoming on Horseback!!

After a delicious breakfast skillet of sausage, potatoes and scrambled eggs with Green Chili Mix, we are ready to head out to move cattle into higher pastures. We were short a few horses for all of us, so a couple of our kids doubled up with a couple of us or with Ranchwife's kids. A few minutes after this photo was taken, Middle Cowgirl's horse scared up a rattlesnake about 6 feet in front of me. DIDN'T LIKE THAT MUCH! Hate Rattlesnakes! It was scared and went into a hole. Thank goodness!
After we moved through the meadows, we pushed some of the pairs of cattle up over a saddle into a higher pasture. I was thankful for surefooted ranch horses to handle the things that I am not experienced at (on horseback).

A view of one of the higher parts of the ranch.
Oldest daughter with Littlelest Cowgirl
Son and Youngest Daughter

Once again after riding for 3 hours or so, the kids decided to cool off by making their diversion again and splashing up a storm.

Once the work was done, we started a campfire and the kids enjoyed hot dogs.

The adults enjoyed adults beverages and a couple of grassfed steaks (cooked to perfection by the Rancher, aided by a flashlight to test for doneness). We finished off the evening with campfire smores for all. That was a great way to end our all-to-quickly-over visit to our dear friends in Wyoming.

Hope you enjoyed our quick pictorial essay of the trip to Wyoming. I can't wait to get the photos into a scrapbook so I can enjoy them again.

Wyoming Trip

So that Ranchwife won't disown me, as I promised her that I would post these to my blog, without further adue (sp?), I am finally posting some photos from early August and our trip to visit them at their 7,000 acre ranch in Wyoming.



Shot going through the Sandhills of Nebraska, nearing the Pine Ridge.



We made it to Wyoming. After taking this picture we turned around and shot one of the Nebraska sign, so we didn't have to stop on the way back.

The guys starting the morning, visiting over a cup of Joe on the deck.

All of the munchkins (well almost all of them). There were our three, Ranchwife's three and four of the our friend's six. They range in age from 3-11 here. The under 1 year old and the other 11 year old weren't present for the picture. That's a lot of kids, but they sure had fun. My son enjoyed having more boys around and our friend's only girl sure enjoyed having more girls around.

Rancher and my hubby brought in two cows that had recently calved and so our kids got in on a little branding (something that we don't have to do where we live). We had to laugh as we asked our oldest daughter "Are you ready?" She responded, "Yes!" and we asked asked again, "Are you ready?" and she said yes. Then Ranchwife started branding and the calf started moving......She wasn't quite ready for that...... but it gave all of us grownups a good laugh anyway.

Look for more photos in upcoming posts.