Monday, June 6, 2011

Fun on the Farm

You know, the more time I spend raising my kids, the more I realize what an amazing home I had growing up. My parents chose an incredible spot to raise the family and the many memories I have there are priceless. We had a one-acre mini-farm where we raised horses, cows, chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, pigeons, and rabbits. We spent hours and hours outdoors climbing the mountain behind our house, building large forts, pretending to ride through the world on the rooftops and jumping on the trampoline. I am grateful I get a chance to bring my children there to experience a piece of my childhood. I think they love it even more than I did!




My sweet parents hanging out on the front porch. She actually kissed him and my camera was too slow.


We had a great Easter Egg Hunt in the grass with Carl. I plopped Ragen down in the grass and this cat immediately came over and threw herself down in front of Ragen. No matter how hard Ragen pulled and pounded, the cat just purred and purred and Ragen loved it!



Mason trying his best to find some eggs! Carl thought he had a brilliant idea to NOT mow the lawn for the Easter egg hunt. On top of that, the Easter bunny forgot where he hid all the Cadbury eggs! Therefore, the hunt lasted a couple hours!



Tiana hanging out in the ditch. We spent many hours as kids playing in this ditch. The water was always dark brown (yes, there were many cowpies deposited in the ditch) but we didn't care. We had fun floating the ditch in our floatie tubes, building rock dams (which we got in trouble for and had to pull out), and cooling off on hot days. I'm pretty sure we lost a few shoes down the ditch, too.




Here's Tiana climbing the fences to take a look at the horses. I distinctly remember receiving cowgirl boots for my birthday and spending many hours riding Penny in the pasture.




Tyla ditch-jumping.....too bad there was no water for a real rush!



Grandma taking Mason for a horse ride. My kids always want to ride the horses when they go to Grandma's! Thanks for taking them on rides, Grandma!



Up on top of the famous 'Big Rock' as we dubbed it. This was a favorite spot for us to play House. We all had a bedroom, the TV room, bathroom (I don't think anybody actually used the bathroom, at least, I hope not), kitchen, etc. The most memorable was the TV room which looked out at the next mountain. Our TV was watching nature. :)



Hiking with Grandma. She told me she tries to go on a hike every morning for her exercise. It was such a refreshing hike and wonderful to be up in the mountain air.



Look at the beautiful sagebrush! The kids did not want to just walk along the trail. They were too busy searching through the sagebrush for treasures. We came back with many sticks, rocks, wildflowers, etc.