La Familia Viene

Losely translated as - the Family Cometh. :)

Two weeks ago (yes - it's been that long), we were blessed to have Jason's family come to visit us at the Ranch for a few days. We had a blast, and they said it was one of their best vacations ever.

We went horseback riding, ATV-ing, we "shot shit" at the shooting range, we ate wonderful food prepared by Chef Andrew, we saw all that Cody had to offer (i.e. - The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, annual Native American Pow-wow, the Cody Nite Rodeo, the Silver Dollar Bar, and the Boot Barn). We just had an awesome time.

So - here are some photos from their visit, and a pretty cute video from the Cody Nite Rodeo of the nightly kids contest - who can be the first to take the ribbon of the calf?

There are a lot more photos from their visit, but they're in the cameras of G'ma Joyce, Catherine and Deborah. If I get my hands on some of them, I'll add more posts.

Rob and Bob cross the River. Photo by Jason.

Crossing the River. Photo by Jason.

Rob sits on Hollywood the bull at the Cody Nite Rodeo.

Rob gets in the spirit at Boot Barn.

Tommy and Deborah waiting for the Rodeo to begin.

Heading out on our ride. Photo by Jason.

Deborah and Catherine on ATVs.

Deborah on her ATV.

We're only missing G'ma Joyce in this photo!

Up on Etsy

I'm sorry that it's been two weeks since I've posted a blog. I have several excuses, but I should've at least put up some kind of post. I'm sorry. Thanks for reading, still!

What we've been working on, in this quiet time on my blog, is Jason's Etsy shop. As you probably know, my husband is a photographer. A damn good one, with the credentials to back him up.

So, since Etsy is such a high traffic site, we decided (after thinking long and hard about it) to list his photographs there. And we're REALLY excited about the possibilities.

So do me a favor or two - Go to Jason's Etsy shop by clicking on the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JasonSpeerPhoto. Look around. See what you like. If the spirit moves you, please consider supporting us by purchasing an image! Maybe share his shop on your facebook, or pin a photo or two to Pinterest. If you have an Etsy account, consider adding one of his photos to a treasury of yours, or marking one as a favorite. Any of these would be amazing!

We'd really appreciate your help and support.

Thanks so much!

Like this photo? You can purchase it by clicking HERE!

Lightbulb

I stressed myself out today.

We were late getting back to the ranch on Yoga night, which is one of my favorite parts of the week.

Doesn't it seem that whenever you are stressed, everything in the universe conspires against you to make the situation worse?

So there I was - half an hour late to yoga, stressed out because Indy threw up and diarrhead (sorry if that's too much) in our cabin while we were in town getting Jason's root canal and the poo still needs to be cleaned up. I walk in on class waaaay in session (here at the hawkeye this week) and they're doing some stretching and deep breathing (just what I need), so I roll out my mat and take a few moments just to let it all go. Deep breath.

At the end of our session, Danielle, my yoga instructor, said this - whenever we are stressed or frantic, it's a reminder that we may need to stop and be thankful for all the good in our lives.

Lightbulb!

When you focus energy on being thankful, it's almost impossible to be crazy.

So - tonight, I am thankful that Jason is home safely from California, that Indy seems to be feeling better, that we live in this amazing place, that we have a very nice roof over our heads, that I can go to Yoga every week with a great group of women, that there is a chef here who feeds us so well, and that we're employed.

New Baby Horses and Homemade Tamales

New Baby Horses and Homemade Tamales are two things that make me VERY happy.

Fortunately for me, both of those things were part of my day today!

We woke this morning to a brand new baby horse. She's the cutest little wobbly thing - all gangly legs. In another day or two she'll start to zoom around the pasture on her skinny little legs. I'll try to get some video for you all! Don't you just love Spring? (I know... the rest of the country is already in summer, but it's definitely still Spring in the mountains of Wyoming.) All the babies everywhere? We have baby Elk and Deer and Bighorn Sheep and Geese and Foxes and Robins and Cows and Horses. The whole Ranch is alive with the promise of brand new baby critters. It's the best. And it melts my heart!

And then, to make my day even better, Chef Andrew taught me to make tamales the way his Mexican grandmother taught him. Totally from scratch, even the sauce for the chicken filling - we toasted the spices and the peppers, soaked the peppers, ground the spices and blended them into a seriously delicious sauce.

He said I was better at rolling tamales than he is. It was awesome.

Jason's in California for a few days, delivering the photo truck to the boss, and right now he's having dinner with my family and watching the Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals. I'm kind of jealous.

But I got to see a brand new baby horse today. And I got to make tamales (a lifetime goal). And now I'm drinking a glass of wine, watching JULIE AND JULIA and writing for all of you.

So goodnight, out there! Bon Appetit!

Off to Montana

On Friday, Jason and I got to have a totally unusual work day. Jason and I drove a truck to Billings, Montana as did J.W. and Heidi and their two kiddos. Billings is the closest "big" city to the ranch at 3 1/2 hours away. The boys (Jason, J.W., and his son) went and did boy things (namely, Cabelas) and the girls (Heidi, her daughter and I) went SHOPPING. And when I say we went shopping, I'm really serious - Heidi and I cleaned up on sales racks around Billings. Sometimes you just need a little cheap retail therapy! And it turns out that Montana-ites don't like the clothes that Californian's are wearing just yet. So I really cleaned up. I'm very excited.

We met up with the boys for lunch, and then went to pick up the things we'd really driven to Billings for: Two pallets of sod for the new entryway, and this year's hanging flower baskets which are seriously gorgeous.

The day was gorgeous - sunny with perfect clouds in a blue sky the likes of which you only see in Montana and Wyoming. And it was in the 80s. It was outstanding. (So of course, we woke up to freezing temperatures the very next morning, and they have continued through today.)

Still, Friday was the best work day. Seriously.

So here are some photos from the day. The first two are shot out the window on the way back from Billings. The last is of some of the gorgeous baskets now hanging in our greenhouse at the ranch, waiting for the last frost to come and go so they can get hung around the ranch.

The Man with Nine Lives

My husband is like the cat with nine lives. (He hates cats, so he'll really hate the comparison to one!)

Last year, Jason had a tree land on him. A tree. It suddenly fell over and hit him on the back. He walked away with no problems, and just some soreness in his shoulder.

In our first week here (early May), Jason was jumping the battery on one of the ATVs we have here on the ranch. The battery arced through his wedding ring, blasting a hole in the white gold and leaving a really serious burn all around his ring finger. (In retrospect, and seeing how slow the healing has been, it was probably third degree and we should have gone to the doctor.) A month later, it's STILL healing. He has a permanent scar from his wedding ring, and an indentation in his flesh where the ring was. The finger still looks nasty. He's lucky he still HAS a finger.

Today, we were working in the new Gallery addition, monkeying up and down ladders, wiring/hanging/focusing lights. His ladder slipped out from under him, and he fell from the rafters, landing on his back. He got up and walked away. He is a little stiff, though. Says he was just practicing his audition for WWE. I almost had a heart attack. I felt so helpless as it happened, wishing there was something I could do to stop it. But there wasn't. It happened in a snap.

I'm so grateful he's okay.

At this rate, I hope he has more than nine lives.

Maybe I should change his health insurance premium.

More Memorial Snow

Well, I promised that I would repost if our Memorial Snowfall became more epic. And it did.

Saturday morning we woke to eight more inches of snow. Since the ground is no longer frozen, it melted gradually from the bottom all day, turning the entire ranch into mud city. We all were off after lunch on Saturday. Everyone left the ranch except Jason and I. As the snow started all over again, falling in big fluffy flakes, Jason and I made pizza for dinner and then had a big fire in the lodge fireplace, and played cards while we watched the snow fall outside. It was awesome.

Sunday we woke to another six inches of snow, and decided that we were going to town to do some shopping and go the movies. Another date day. We saw MIB3 (which was great, and makes me want to watch the first one again) and then headed back up to the Ranch, where all of the snow had melted off during the day.

Today, we woke up to no snow, but a gloomy, cold, rainy day, so we stayed in bed until 3:30 this afternoon watching movies!

Not the sunniest or warmest Memorial Day weekend, but certainly a restful and beautiful one.

Enjoy the photos!

Saturday morning outside our cabin.

Jason took a TON of photos. Hopefully they'll be up on his blog soon.

This is Allen's dog, Toby. Check out his snow beard. Awesome!

The construction equipment covered in snow with a spectacular backdrop.

We live here. Seriously.

I shot this first thing in the morning from our cabin porch. Pretty, ain't it?

On the left you see Indy prints. On the right? Grizzly prints. BIG grizzly. Indy was trying to track him.

Stopped for a photo op on the way into town on Sunday. This was about where the snow stopped, and you can see the whole valley where we live in the background. It was CRAAAAAZY windy.