Our dear friends recently acquired a 156 acre ranch in Cache Valley in Avon, Utah. The ranch is named Stratford because it's in Avon, and Stratford-upon-Avon is the birth place of William Shakespeare. And this friend loves her some Shakespeare. Besides having the cleverest name, I dare say I have never seen any place so pleasantly situated. We went up to spend the day yesterday and it was absolutely perfect-- so beautiful, so relaxing, and so nice to get away after being shut-in for a while.
Soon after we arrived, Bethany and Elinor took off to scale a steep grassy/rocky hillside. Greta took off after them. I ran back to the house to grab my phone so could take pictures. By the time I got back, Greta was halfway up and yelling for help because it was so steep. See the little black dot? That's Greta.
I hurried up to meet her. Right about then I heard the boys calling a greeting from the other side of the valley. Can you see them? They are super small.
Here I was, thinking this was high enough. It had been steep so far, but it got even steeper in the next part. I didn't not want to slip and find myself, or even worse, Greta in an out-of-control free roll down the mountain. But Greta-- the tough little hiker she is-- wanted to go all the way up. So I disregarded the judgement of my 42 year old self who has never broken any bones, and went with the that of the three year old. Wise, no?
So further up we went and found these beautiful, happy flowers.
Thanks to Elinor who came part way down to help us the rest of the way up-- WE MADE IT! We were rather proud of ourselves.
Gorgeous surroundings. Why does Greta look depressed in this picture?
I took this picture on the way down. That's a pretty good scale for a three year old!
Abe took this picture from the bottom of Elinor, Greta and I descending.
Meanwhile, the boys found the first of FOUR snakes they found and caught throughout the day. JOY! This yellow-bellied racer was quite a find.
Next up, this good sized bull snake.
The kids were pretty excited about this find.
So yeah. Sorry to disturb you. In other fun news, both Peter and George got bitten by the yellow-bellied racer. Don't be alarmed-- they aren't venemous and they were surface wounds.
Peter and George also both got bitten by garter snakes they found. This is like a badge of honor among our children. Peter said, "I can handle it! If I can handle getting shots, I can handle getting bit!" He did get shots the day before, so he knew what he was talking about.
In this picture, the snake is actually in the act of biting George!
I dare say George was pleased.
We brought up a lovely picnic lunch.
The weather was ideal-- it could not have been better.
We walked down to the river and the lower pasture to visit the cows. They were friendly. lovely cows. If I was a cow I would want to live there.
Abe and his Foxy Ladies.
We all went on a hike together.
The moms were bringing up the rear. It's not that we couldn't go faster, it's just that it was quieter for chatting at the back.
The whole gang! Greta was pretty tired after her morning hike, so Abe was nice to put her in the pack.
The dads and boys and Greta went back after the more level part, and the girls went onward and upward!
I'm so grateful for Andrea.
I'm so grateful for my girls.
Thankful for this time of lots of togetherness.
We had lots of time to just sit around and relax as well.
We played our new favorite game-- Camel Up.
Lots of time to swing.
Swinging in the hammock.
Getting ready for the cookout for dinner.
It tastes so good to eat food cooked outside.
I even got a moment to rest in the hammock alone.
So many thanks to Andrea and James for letting us invite ourselves up:) We can't wait to go back!
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