Meanwhile, back at the Ranch

During our visit with Jake’s fam on our way to Utah, we visited the Ranch (where J. grew up working and loving) to help with branding the calves.

With so many pics to catch up on, I thought this could use a separate post. So, here all this fun.

Poor Pepper, looking on with such longing. She could hardly contain her excitement with all these here cows! She’s definitely got the natural cattle dog spirit in her, but just not quite ready. 

Hannah and this cutie pie below were instant friends. She was so sweet and told Hannah lots of stories!

Nothing like a great day to get ya tuckered out!

 

 

Farewell Texas, Hello Utah

I want to shout for joy that our moving month of May is behind us!! We survived, y’all. It’s quite remarkable in my mind, so hurrah!  I might be overly dramatic about the whole thing, so I’ll spare everyone details of all that silly stress and almost losing a mattress on the highway. *Picture king size mattress flapping in the wind like a sail on the back of a trailer.* Really. Can next time please be better?!

Once we were finally on our way… things went smoothly and I still am sending up prayers of gratitude about it. We were packed & loaded as heavy as possible with our “necessities” in truck & trailer and drove 24 hours with our little sweetie and precious dog. Farewell Texas!

Both traveled fairly well, actually. Over the weekend prior to this, Hannah’s mouth decided to wage war against her and pop four molars all at once (great timing, yeah?), so the poor thing fought a fever the whole way. It sort of worked out in our favor, though I hate to say that, but she was really more out of it than fussy.

Yet as y’all parents know, there’s an instant stress button that gets hit when babies don’t feel well, right? And what’s up with refusing naps? (Another stress button! Zing!) Wouldn’t a nice bumpy truck soothe anyone to sleep? Gosh, I felt like I could sleep for a week straight. Here’s a moment when sleep finally won. (I was sorely tempted to buy Benedryl to help her sleep.. but I felt so torn about it, reading mixed opinions online… hmmm.)

Side note: I fear the day (approaching sooner than I want to admit) when we have to say good-bye to the binky! I try to limit it to sleeping time and car rides (all right, sometimes during church to keep her quiet…). It was pretty much a constant comfort on this trip. (Other tricks for traveling with a toddler? TONS of books, new noisy toys, stickers and movies. Oh and singing The Wheels on the Bus one hundred times.)

We passed a bazillion (honestly, at LEAST a thousand) wind mills along the way (now I can’t even think where it was) which I found super cool.  

We did break up the trip with little stops for gas or food which really helped. As well as stopping for a fun few days resting & visiting Jake’s family in the quaint Rangely, CO (below).

Lunch stop at the cute, old mining town of Trinidad, Colorado.

Hello Rangely! I don’t think Hannah was a fan of the bobcat, but thanks for offering Grampa! 🙂

Quick funny story. We wanted to go for a swim at the local rec center and even checked the hours to make sure they were open. After getting everything ready and hauling everyone over there, we found locked doors. Sad! So, we filled up the jetted tub and took Hannah for a “swim” anyway.

What? This is the swimming pool??

C’mon Mom, if I have to swim in the bathtub, at least get me a suit that fits!

Hello Utah! Our final leg of our journey, a final pit stop in Heber for lunch. Yay for Utah grass, people! I’m sorry Houston, but your grass there is awful. Not barefoot worthy at all. Not to mention chiggers. And fire ants.

It feels great to be back.