Destination...

First stop (after a picnic lunch):
Chile

Africa

The Tropics


Best enjoyed in the company of small children (Emily, Jonathan, Toriana and the not-so-small-anymore Tiana) and their mothers! And all with no more than a 20 mile drive -- no passport needed!! For more pictures see here

Then, next stop VERTICAL RANCH

What a wonderful follow-up trip to the Vertical Ranch. You'll remember we visited here over Memorial Day weekend. Now there is no snow and it was just a beautiful, serene, fellowship and friendship filled weekend. Elaine and I took our kids (and an extra friend for Grant) up to the mountains and pretended to be the big ol' mountain women we are!! Hee! Hee! Our young men were AWESOME at starting us some roaring campfires where we tested our cooking skills (not bad!). Our girls did all sorts of beauty-enhancing tricks -- Tiana with lemon juice in the hair for blonde streaks and Victoria in mud baths for skin cleansing! Thursday and Friday we moms just relaxed, did a few crafts -- Elaine did embroidery, I did scrapbooking -- and we took a couple of GREAT hikes! The kids just played, annoyed each other, played some games, read Archie comic books and ate more marshmallows than any one person should enjoy in a lifetime!! :o) It does seem like we all ate LOTS and LOTS, but we worked most of it back off just climbing the mountain to our tents or to the next vista! Our husbands joined us on Friday after work. Saturday we went to the lake and they took the boat out. We went back to the ranch, had lunch and while that was getting ready, they hauled a 75' tree 60' up the hillside. What an impressive feat to watch! Both Gentry's full-size Chevy and Kent's "little" Tacoma got a piece of the action!

Just to share, here is one of the best viewing spots on the whole ranch -- and it's view:

Looky-Loo
Looky (from the) Loo

To feel like you were there with us, go here.