August with Emma – At the Ranch (1)
Ok, ok, I admit, I left you all hanging for more than 2 weeks after introducing the lovely and gracious Emma, who returned from MN with Geneva to stay with us for a few weeks. There’s no way around it – I’m simply a bad blogger. But today is the day I remedy all that and fill in the gaps.
To begin, I recall mentioning in my previous post that we were about to take Emma up north for a weekend at the ranch, so here are some pics from that adventure.
The primary reason for the trip was so that Paul, as president of the Carrizo Ranch Owners Association, could “bang the gavel” at the annual meeting on the 14th. That being the case, we drove up after he finished work on Thursday, arriving under the stars. An early walk on Friday morning afforded me the opportunity to appreciate the luxurious green in which our property is enveloped during the summer months. It’s hard to take “enough” pictures of such verdant vistas!
Before Paul left for his meeting, he took the kids on a short hike to show Emma the Cowboy shack, Petroglyph mountain, and of course, the Ontologically Superior Telephone Pole. Here is a preview of those pics (I can post them properly next month!). 🙂
After the hike, there was a cooling off period in the cabin during which Paul left for his meeting, and Efrain showed me all the treasures he had collected on his hike with the big kids. Then we all loaded up in the van and took off on a drive into town. On such a blissful, sun-drenched morning, we simply had to stop at the railroad tracks to enjoy the view and take some epic photos.
In town, we did a little shopping at the IGA (always a fun stop), then drove around town, including surreptitiously spying on Paul at the park where the association was meeting under a big Ramada. That could have been terribly embarrassing if Megan had followed through on her mischievous suggestion that the kids open the van doors and holler at daddy while I drove slowly past. <insert shaking of head here>
Back at the ranch, Megan fixed sandwiches for everyone. Then, because we are weenies and couldn’t handle the heat, and we couldn’t figure out how to hook up the swamp cooler until Paul got home, we got in the van again, ostensibly to give Geneva and Emma some more driving practice, but in reality, we just wanted the air conditioning. Finally back at the ranch, Paul got the cooler hooked up, making it tolerable in the cabin. As is always true in the summertime, the afternoon skies were filled with sumptuous cloudscapes to keep my lens pointed heavenward.  A relaxing evening closed out the day with another gorgeous sunset and of course, the requisite campfire, hot-dogs, and s’mores, before retiring to a cabin that, being windowless, was also airless, stuffy, too warm, and thus offered little in the way of rest. Little, but just enough to renew the strength for a Saturday of adventure!
