Roughin' it at the Ranch

We took our hooligans to Ensign Ranch (near Cle Elem, WA) for a little R and R. Little did we know that there is just no such thing when you have two active toddlers! Luckily we had our trusty live-in babysitter with us (my brother Josh) so all was well.

Josh is so cool!

We were joined at the Ranch by some of our friends from the ward (and we made some new ones too). Ryan Weeks was awesome and put all this little trip together for us so all we had to do was show up. We took turns cooking dinners all of which were delicious! We ate a lot of dutch oven cooked desserts and meals which were so fabulous that those of us without an oven are definitely ready to buy.

Friday we wrestled through 3 or so hours of traffic with my van on "E"! Jon, who was following further behind us had to stop and get some gas in a can just in case. But we made it without a problem around 8 pm and were ready to eat and set up camp. The Barlow's site next to ours became the hub of all activity with a constant fire going. Unfortunately, our sites were on the edge of a mini cliff

"The Cliff of Death". I know you can't tell but this is a serious drop-off!

above a rushing river and I was hysterical the first night worrying that my boys would plummet to their deaths at any moment. Some how we were able to keep all kids away from the cliff side with constant warnings (okay we were yelling and threatening too). This night we ate some yummy salad prepared from my oh-so-healthy little brother then hit the hay. However, I was unable to fall asleep until we heard what sounded like a party of birds screaming into our tent at some ridiculous hour of the morning because that is when it started getting warmer and until then I had been FREEZING even with Kai and Ephraim (who Josh pushed out of his sleeping bag 2 out of the 3 nights) flanking each side! Lucky for me the next night the Martin's left me their sleeping bags.

A parents worst nightmare; all their kids in bed with them...literally!

Saturday we were all up early (even with only having 2 hours of sleep) because that's what happens when you camp...for some reason you wake up at 5 am and think its 9 am, weird. We at a delicious dutch oven egg-thing (yes I am a chef) made by the Weeks. Then we decided to take our older kids horse back riding even though I've been basically black-listed by the entire horse species (a whole lot of not so funny stories). But I watched Dean confidently lead Sam around on a very peaceful white horse so I thought, hey I can do that. So Clay and I met our horse "Frisky" or "Psycho" or something like that and I mounted Clay and grabbed the leads with a very confident air (so that he would have no clue of my secret history) and off we went with commands not to let him eat. Well guess what? All that dang horse wanted to do was eat (my arm, the grass...whatever). He kept trying to gnaw at me and he was very gruffly pushing me toward a pile of hay in the center of the corral (why would they put that there when we weren't allowed to let them eat it!?). Trying not to let Clay see my irritation and fear I stupidly told him to give the "nice horsey" a pat; bad idea! He patted the horse and he started to buck!! So we that's when we decided that 15 minutes was to long with this beast so we headed back. Clay wanting to get off promptly started to climb off then "Crazy" really bucked this time; I could see flash backs to my first ride and hurriedly handed off the reigns to the ranch hand and grabbed my baby and ran (well we didn't really run that would be undignified and wimpy, we kind of scampered).

Thanks to everyone who helped with our kids!


After lunch we decided to go canoeing and try out the massive slip n' slide. The canoeing was fun (at least for the boys) and the slip n' slide was a blast!!

This huge slip n' slide was awesome! Eph loved it, he kept saying more through blue lip and chattering teeth. Clay thought it was okay too for a few rounds.

I was basically paranoid the whole time we were canoeing because I had Kai in the Bjorn. Jon made me think of a "plan of action" in case we flipped...he was just a paranoid!

Jon enjoyed borrowing all the bikes that people brought!


Sunday we went to church and of course all children from our camp were totally out of control. Natalie said her son through a pencil and almost hit someone and all the rest of our kids were running around and screaming like they had never been to church before; which is probably the only reason people were smiling at us was they thought we were investigators! Oh well. After Sacrament (yeah we could only handle one hour) we went back and it was FREEZING cold. So we all played a little ultimate Frisbee which my little brother totally dominated (to be fair he is only 19 and has no job (full time) or kids so he can work out constantly). I also actually kind of learned how to throw a football (don't laugh I didn't grow up in the States).




Yes, we know this isn't exactly roughing it...but us adults needed a break!!



Us girls decided to attempt cards one night until SOMEONE ( I won't name names) spilled her hot cocoa all over the cards (sorry Natalie, hope your cards are okay). But we had a blast and I was laughing until it hurt.


Monday mainly consisted of getting packed out and leaving. Josh and I headed out in the van hoping to get home quickly. One look at the traffic and we started to have unpleasant memory flashes so we decided (it was mutual I swear) to go the "back way" since I have navigation. Well the back way turned out to be a scenic route through the whole state of Washington taking us a whopping 5 1/2 hours (instead of the 1 hr 45 min it took Jon going the "trafficky way"). Josh and I were miserable but Jon was cheery when we got home having already unloaded his car, mowed the lawns, and cleaned his car. Ah, adventure!