the reunion of family

Last week we had ryan’s mom’s family reunion up at the ranch. It was so much fun visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins that we don’t see very often. Our agenda was jam packed over 2.5 days. I think the best part though was all of the ridiculously good food we ate. Here’s a lil summary of some of the other excellent parts of the reunion:

1 – VISITING. Just hanging out in the shade watching others ride horses. I didn’t position anyone for this picture. They were all just standing like this watching and chatting; I thought with the background {just the dirty shop down by the corrals} it was such a cool pic.

2 – CAMPFIRE. We enjoyed hot dogs and s’mores with a lil game of fuzzy bunny between Ryan, Addie, Hazel and I.

3 – REGISTER ROCK. This is such a cool place. It’s along the California Trail which runs right through the ranch. I’ll have to do a post about this sometime!

4 – TARGET PRACTICE. Almost everybody got a lil lesson in shooting a gun and then we had a competition.

5 – PLAYTIME. Obviously Harper was never suffering from lack of attention. But, really, does she ever?!?

6 – BONFIRE. There was an old, very heavy couch and bed in the basement that we commissioned the boys to carry out and burn up. They happily obliged!

7 – HAYRIDE. We took a hayride one morning to see register rock and some of the other cool landmarks around the ranch.

8 – HORSIES. We watched Ry play with Duke. We also had “child-friendly” horses that everyone was able to ride.

9 – And some of us got an extra special ride in the bucket of the tractor!

Oh and did I mention we ate a TON of really amazing food? Oh I did. Ok, good!

daddy’s getting old

Ryan turned 28 this year. It’s so wild to me that we’re fast approaching 30. I always used to think 30 was OLD! Turns out , I was wrong. I’ve decided anything over 90 is OLD…and we have a lot of years in us before it gets to that point.

For ry’s birthday, his mom made delicious marinated steak. And his sister made his all-time favorite peanut chocolate cake. And, well, Harper and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers and “happy birthday” signs, and sent ry on a little hunt to find his gifts:

I have a few things that you might like,

But you will have to take a hike.

To begin you will want to look,

Somewhere one might like to cook.

Where it was found: in the oven

What was there: coupon for a pie of his choice

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This one isn’t quite as clear,

But I’ll give you a clue – it’s below here.

You’ll find it in something, I would bet,

That keeps you dry from the wet.

GOOD LUCK!

Where it was found: in his rain boots

What was there: coupon for a pedicure

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Now onto the best gift of all,

It might make you so happy you’ll want to bawl.

This place is favorite every night.

It rejuvenates your mind, body and sight.

Where it was found: in our bed

What was there: coupon for a 5 min back rub everyday for a year < {now that is true love}

 

daddy day

my two favorite people {with bedhead} enjoying breakfast in bed on father’s day…

we made daddy breakfast in bed again this year. Harper was as much help this year as she was last year! We also made him a little candygram that said:

Daddy

I love you mounds and mounds. Thank you for always feeding me your food and then cleaning my goobers. Thank you for always making me snicker, especially when you do the whatchamacallit. I wouldn’t trade you for 100grand. You’re the bestest daddy ever!

I love you!

Love,

Your Pride and Joy

Harper

xoxoxo

from the wild

Ryan brought home this bouquet of flowers after work a few weeks ago. He stopped at the local floral shop {aka the top of the mountains} and got me the biggest, most beautiful bouquet of wildflowers ever! I suggested that he become a florist because he did such a great job. Maybe we can start a little side business up here…

when it’s springtime in the rockies

since the cattle have been released into the mountains to graze, ry has started irrigating the hay fields. this is a pic of him setting siphon tubes. you can see in the mirror, the little orange spot…that’s the dam. he’s quite the irrigator man.

 

he is also quite the pyro man. sometimes he likes to set fires and dance around yelling “burn baby burn”. ok, just kidding. this tree was in the way of his ditch, so he was trying to get rid of it. notice the ax and the diesel can in his hand…enough said.

and as daddy works real hard, harper and mommy like to watch from the car and take pictures of ourselves. because that’s how we roll!

because I know all you want to see is this face:

Harper has grown so much this week! I still can’t believe how quickly she changes. I’ll update you next week {when we’re back from “the middle of nowhere”} on her new developments. I just want to keep you on your toes {because obviously that’s what’s going to happen}

Stay tuned!

rainbowly

last sunday we looked out the window and saw this:

i’m pretty sure it’s the most vivid, bright rainbow i’ve seen in my life.

this pic really doesn’t do it justice.

just thought you’d enjoy.

watch out taylor swift!!!

our little ducky

 

Memorial Day Traditions

Ryan’s family has an awesome Memorial Day tradition and we were lucky enough to be here to be a part of it this year. Our day went a little like this:

At 10am, we headed over to the cemetery to clean up the Bedke lot. We weeded and raked and left flowers and raked again. It was a lot of fun and the final product {the top left picture} looked awesome. Really…you should have seen the “before”.

 

While we were working hard, Harper napped a little and watched us from in the car:

She was so perfect all day. She hardly made a peep until our last cemetery visit at about 7pm {and rightfully so}.

After we cleaned the lot, we walked around the cemetery. Ryan’s parents and grandma told stories of and our relationship to the different people who were buried there. I’ve decided that we really are related to everyone in town!

After the cemetery tour, we headed to Grandmas for yummy bbq’d burgers. There’s seriously nothing like lunch/dinner at Grandma's house!

At about 4pm we headed out to visit 3 other cemeteries in town. We walked and/or drove around and continued to hear stories of everyone. It was fun to make connections and look at birth/death dates and imagine up stories of people we never knew. It was seriously just so cool!

Harper loved sitting up front with Grandpa and honking the horn while daddy loaded the car.

This is the “hidden” cemetery that none of us had been to before. It’s in the middle of a field and very random. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d miss it! It was really neat though. There were a lot of really old headstones.

It was a loooong, but very fun day. I loved learning more about the family roots and the people from this community. We seriously live in the best place in the world!

I’m excited for a repeat next year.