Wyoming Trip

The 3rd weekend in August, I went to Wyoming with my family. We stayed on a ranch that my aunt's father owns with his 6 other brothers and sisters. Their family ranch is a total of 1400 acres and he owns 400 of them. It was very nice of he and his wife to let us come up and stay in their cabin and play with all their toys.

My sister and I drove up Saturday morning, well, we actually left closer to twelve. We had a few detours on the way up because we weren't sure if we were headed in the right direction but nothing too time consuming. We got to the ranch around 2 pm, just in time to join members of my extended family on a four wheel ride around the ranch, with Ron (the ranch owner) as a guide. We were in this giant procession of four wheelers lol and Ron would stop at points of interest and tell us about the history of the ranch. The first stop was an old log cabin. It was small and crooked, and looked like it was flooded with dirt because the door was so short! He showed us a pile of rocks that were used back in the day to mark the corners of an area of land. He's found 3 of the 4 that would be on his property. The last stop was an old school house he and his family had renovated. It was very cool. They had old fashioned desks and everything. Even a shelf full of encyclopedias from the 1800s.


We went back to the cabin and ate some dinner and rode the four wheelers some more while the men went out shooting and the kids went frog hunting. We went and swung on the tree swing next to the creek where the kids were catching frogs and then I tried to catch a few frogs of my own. It was really fun. I'd never done it as a kid. The tadpoles felt so weird to hold lol, like all slimey and wiggly in your hands as they tried to escape. It's crazy the transformation that they go through, from tadpoles to frogs. So weird that some creatures change so much over the course of their lifetime.

That evening, we went for a little horseback ride. Some of the horses there aren't very responsive. They tend to have minds of their own. Mine went for a gallop when I wanted to just trot lol, and my sisters was just following our horses around and wouldn't follow her lead. I lost my cell phone and couldn't find it that night but in the morning I went out and found it - yay - I was scared. Especially because it's not technically my phone.

The next day, we rode four wheelers, caught frogs again, canoed and paddle boated (lol, yes paddle boated) in the pond. It was so beautiful and relaxing. I really want a ranch when I grow up lol. Being out in nature can be so rejuvenating, it's a release from all our social cares and stresses that weigh us down day after day.

It was almost spiritual standing in the middle of the valley, mountains on either side of the vast sky and feeling so small and at the same time feeling that somehow things are all connected. Like the earth is our mother and we go to her to find peace and rest when we can't find it anywhere else.