Sunday, June 9, 2013

Relaxing at the Ranch






















We spent Memorial Day down in Texas with some of Dave's college friends and their families. We had unusually gorgeous weather, much cooler than the last few trips to the ranch. The kids did pretty well on the drive, other than a brief episode of possible carsickness from Elizabeth. We had a great weekend relaxing, catching up, and eating way more than we should have!


Elizabeth decided this weekend was a great time to start taking multiple independent steps. She still crawls a lot, but can walk several steps when she feels like it. She liked walking around the hotel room and the ranch patio.


The older kids enjoyed looking for roly-polies and crickets. Several crickets imprisoned in a plastic container with air holes and a bottlecap of water miraculously made it alive through the weekend before they were set free as we were leaving. (Ben, unsurprisingly, is the one in the Hosmer baseball shirt in the photo below.)




Elizabeth comes face to face with a real cow. She was unsure what to think.

Ben spotted this group of cows in the meadow during our drive around the ranch.


Ben went fishing at the regular lake (roost lake) once and the small lake just down from the cabins once. He caught a fish at the roost lake and was very proud!

Heading down to the little lake with Elizabeth in our new baby carrier








Ben's fish:



Ben posing with the fish Calvin caught:



One of the other kids got out the chalk and Elizabeth was fascinated! She scribbled with it for almost an hour and got mad when we took her away so we could have dinner! Since we got home, she has been enjoying drawing on the driveway.








Magna Doodles are some of the best kids' toys! Both Ben & Elizabeth love spending time scribbling (E) & writing/drawing (B) on them. Elizabeth also loved that there were chairs just her size.