Family Reunion at the Ranch

We had a great time at the ranch with my family for our family reunion. On Thursday my mom watched the kids at the cabin while Daniel and I went for a ride on the 4-wheelers. It was a lot of fun. I have never really riden 4-wheelers much but had a great time. By Friday everyone was there and we just played and played. I kind of feel bad. We were supposed to be in charge of races and activities, but everyone was so busy playing that we didn't do anything structured. The kids had fun on the zipline over the meadow (somehow I didn't end up with any pictures of that). We played at the beach, went for boat rides, shot off the rocket, fished, played on the swing set, went for 4-wheeler rides, played games in the house, swam, went down the zipline into the pond, etc., etc.

 

Grandpa got a great workout employed as the rower for the little girls. You can tell Kyla, Kaira, Senna, and Nora are having a fabulous time.

 

This is my super brave niece, Senna, going down the zipline into the pond at 6 years old! She went down it even after Kyla had tried and got a bit banged up because she wouldn't let go and drop into the water.

 

This is proof for my kids that I did go down the zipline, swim in the pond, and had fun doing it. For those of you that aren't aware, the pond at the ranch is extremely cold. It is a very frigid experience to go swimming in there. It's the kind of cold that if you try to get in slowly and get used to the water, you'll never get all the way in. You just have to jump in and let it take your breath away.

 

Daniel loves to try fun ways of going down the zipline. This time he was trying to ski across the water on a board while he hung on one handed and held the board with the other.

 

The dock and part of the beach area. Savannah played Miss Strong Arms and rowed everyone around after Grandpa gave up. Kai, Nora, Miles, Kyla, Sydney, Savannah, Senna, and Daniel.

 

Grandpa and Erik trying to trick the fish in the pond. With all the commotion we were making and avoiding swimmers, boaters, and the zipline, I think they still caught a couple little ones (and threw them back of course).

 

This is the giant rope swing on the front lawn. Daniel would climb way up on a stump of the tree with Nora on his lap and launch off and go so high and long, she loved it.

 

The perfect ending to a great day. View from the back porch.