Just the 3 of Us!

On Zack's first weekend off in what felt like too long, we packed up our stuff, and headed down to the ranch, for our first family ranch trip! It would be the only time we had ever been to the ranch without family or friends and as much as we love the tradition of a "full ranch house", we certainly needed some relaxing family time, just the 3 of us! Oh, well, I guess 4 if you include Sir Charles : ).

Bekah watching us load up the car, I think she knew she was headed off to a special place!

After a restful ranch sleep, Bekah put on her pink boots, cowboy dress and even her TWO sets of binoculars to get ready for some ranch exploring!

She decided the old wagon on the porch would be the best way to get some good sightseeing done:

As the trail ride began, she wasn't too sure about the bumpiness,

But soon got the hang of it!

( She asked that we lay a blue rug over the inside of the wagon so as not to get rust on her cowgirl dress)

Daddy led the way.

We had to take pit stops to explore the cool rocks,

( I love this far away pic of her, she looks so happy , confident and right where she wants to be!)

and the vegitation:

When she had decided that every rock had been uncovered,

we said the magic words, "deer" and "horsey" and asked her if she wanted to go seem them! This would be the face anytime we said those two words, she was so happily obsessed! The three words for the weekend were, "neigh! ( for the horse), dee! ( deer!) and then, as always, "ba!" ( for ball)

So as promised, we loaded her up on the mule, and headed out to find some "dee!"

Guess I never took pics of the "dee", but those moo cows sure were ready for their close ups!

Lot's of "mooing" was done by Bekah, but, all the while, with a strong grip on daddy, it sure was scarier from those animal books at home!

Next stop, the horses!

"Neigh!" She said confidently, until we got too close for comfort! She was interested, but didn't want to get to close! Try putting her down in a 10 foot radius of that horse, and she will show you what a real monkey she can be, the way she will hang on!

More than the animals, Bekah just really wanted to ride that mule, she could have ridden all day!

Her confidence grew when she saw the roping calf patiently waiting for her visit,

I was surprised she wanted to touch it after seeing the other real animals, but guess she can spot a faux moo cow when she sees it!

Another word we like to use is, "hot!" She uses it when she eats and wants me to blow on something for her. Well, good for her, she transfered the meaning to even the hot gril on the truck! Here you really can see her opening up her mouth to say, "hot!"

No matter how cool the animals were, it was the paiger free daddy time that we loved the most!

We felt so lucky and loved to get all of his attention for a whole weekend! Teehee, I promise she loved it, maybe she started thinking about that darn paiger or something, just as I took the picture!

We loved the pool time, where we continued to show our obsession of the "ba!"

Back in April , gramommy was playing with Bekah and her little nativity scene. She had told Bekah who Baby Jesus was, and had said his name over and over, and when Bekah picked up the Baby Jesus this time, a few months later, she instantly said, "Jee!" I can't believe that she remembered!

I have always loved the ranch, but it wasn't until this weekend where I fully came to appreciate it and realize how it can help me and my family to relax better than any other place in the world!! I could even sense that in Bekah, and heck, probably even Charlie!