July 2010 - Trip to MT/WY - The Ranch

DRIVE TO THE FAMILY RANCH IN MONTANA:

This Summer went by so fast and I'm sure it was because it was so jammed packed with all sorts of fun stuff we did. July was full of fun!!!! The beginning of July we went to Ron's family reunion at his late grandparents' Ranch in Montana: over the Forth of July. We stopped in Idaho Falls for a bite to eat and then we played by the falls. Those falls are so beautiful. We then stopped and camped in this campground near Dillon, Montana. It was dark when we got there. Lori and the kids slept in the car (they were too tired to climb outside). Brian and Ron slept outside under a picnic shelter. Despite the shelter, they ended up getting wet in the rain. The kids and Lori stayed dry, but slept sitting up. It was not the best accommodations, but it was cheap (free), extremely convenient, and there was no risk of being so comfortable that we might accidentally sleep in. By the way, in the morning when we got up about 5am, as we were leaving, our headlights hit a reflection in the bushes where we saw... Well, the picture speaks for itself. Oops! :)



THE RANCH:

When we finally got to the Ranch it was cold. When we left Salt Lake it was in the high 90s and when we got to Montana it was in the 60s. Grandpa Tolman's home is so fun, there is so much to do there. Lacey had lots of fun playing with her cousins. One of the highlights the kids look forward to is Ron's cousin Todd tells such great stories. He has the kids eating out of his hands they are mesmerized by him. On the Fourth we had a home-brewed firework show over the pond, which is always a blast. Ron went to bed early because he was starting to come down with something. Poor thing. (that was just the beginning of the sickness on this trip).



On a side note here are some fun thing the kids did. Riley was in heaven because he got to play on a tractor again. I know he doesn't look like he is having fun, I promise he is. He is good at hiding his excitement when he is ecstatic about something. He also had fun on the four wheelers. Lacey had fun on them too. Uncle Brian made the mistake of taking Lacey and her cousins on some rides on the 4 wheelers. The problem was they didn't let him stop and when he did they begged him to go again. Those kids have Brian wrapped because he gave in to them a lot. Riley was mesmerized by the buffaloes that live next door.



It was decided that Grandpa and Grandma's headstones were not stout enough to last for eternity, so the boys got a big rock for a new headstone . It was quite the project, but everybody had fun.



On Sunday, Sam went with us on an attempt to go to church. The church is some 30 minutes away via dirt roads. We started out with good intentions, but about half way there we realized we were going to be at least 30 minutes late. So instead, we put on one of those scripture story podcasts from radio.lds.org. We were on dirt roads, in the mountains, with 4WD, and a couple of hours to spare. We took a detour and ended up on a mountain and got the car really dirty. Let me explain it was a very wet June so there were some big mud puddles, especially this one we found that Sam was determined to get through. It took him a few tries but he finally made it through. We had mud everywhere, even inside the car. WOW he made a mess but it was so fun the kids were loving it. I hope you enjoy the videos of us going though the mud puddle and might I add Ron was in pure heaven, he is a kid at heart and loves puddles the more muddy they are the better. Later on that day Brian, Ron, and Lori took the Four-wheelers out on a dirt road and Brian took us to some really cool old buildings he knew about. In these buildings there were so many cool old furnishings and and there were old cars, tractors and car parts in the yard. One of the cool things we saw was a tree growing up through the middle of the steering wheel. Inside one of the houses, we scared a cow who was in there exploring, who then scared us. We somehow didn't expect to find a cow inside an abandoned home. I don't know who was more scared the cow or us. It freaked us out and the poor cow didn't know what to do because we were blocking the only exit. Well he did finally escape and we were all ok. Our country cousins would have either laughed at us or scoffed at us I'm sure. Perhaps both. :)