The Ranch

Saturday my parents invited me (well I kind of invited myself) to take a road trip with them up to their property, or "the ranch" as my dad calls it, on Acord mountain near Fish Lake. Emily and I were not doing anything because Russell was down in Las Vegas doing a couple clinicals in the ER, so we decided to go. We had a fun ride up being entertained by Emily the whole way. We looked for cows or "moos" as she calls them, colored, read books, and just listened to her jabber away. My dad was busy driving so he couldn't turn around to talk to Emily and that made her all sorts of annoyed. She kept yelling "PAPA! PAPA! PAPA!" until my dad would turn and glance at her then she would say something in little kid gibberish, point to the picture in her book, or tell him to look at the "moos." My dad would say okay and she would be happy again until she found something else interesting to show Papa. It was so funny. After taking the Gooseberry exit on I-70 after Salina, we made our way up the Coal Mine Road to the ranch.

My parents own 40 acres on the top of a hill and as you can see from the two pictures above, their view from each side of the hill is amazing! It is just raw land right now but they plan to build a gazebo (similar to the one on the Red Hill or Sugar Loaf), trailer parking pads, and a cabin. We went up to kind of scout out the property to decide were to put these things. This summer my dad wants to build a better road to the property in order to get their camp trailer up there and start on these projects.

Emily had a blast riding the four-wheeler with Papa and she especially loved playing in the dirt. Camping is going to be so fun this year because she will be able to run and play on her own and I won't be too worried about trying to keep her clean.

On our way home, we stopped at my Grandpa Morwood's grave in Salina because we were in the area and because we will not be able to over Memorial Day weekend because we are going the Hole-in-the-Rock (I'm so excited!). I can't believe my grandpa has been gone for almost 14 years! I still remember the day my grandpa died because it was the first time I had ever seen my dad cry. I just remember my dad coming home from the hospital and all of us kids hugging him as he was crying. I was still pretty young so I don't have a lot of vivid memories of my grandpa but I know he was a great man that was respected by everyone he knew as an honest and fair man. There have been many times that when people hear my maiden name, they ask me if Peanuts was my grandpa and when I say yes they tell me what a great man he was. It is awesome to hear the stories because I was too young to know them. I only hope that people will say the same nice things about me when I have passed on.

After leaving the cemetery, we stopped to talk to my dad's cousin, Kim Gates, and his kids. I found out that my cousin has started his own taxidermy business and he does a really great job. So if any one is looking for a taxidermist, let me know because his work is amazing! Anyway, while talking to them, Emily had to go to the bathroom so I went to put her shoes on and when I picked up her shoe, there was a tick on it!! AHHH! I know, I hate them too. So we killed it and then we were itching all the way home because we knew we had ticks crawling all over us! Oh it gives me the willies just thinking about it. Luckily, after checking myself and Emily when we got home, we did not have any more ticks on us. Thank goodness!!!

It was a really fun trip (minus the part about the tick) and it was nice to get away. I am definitely looking forward to all of the camping trips we have planned for this summer.