Our new spring break tradition as of last year is going to Uncle Ray’s house. And yet again….it did NOT disappoint. In fact, if it was even possible, it was better this year. As soon as we got there, the cousin of all cousins, Ryan told us about “Rodeo Day”. He had put together an entire day of activities/competitions for us. I’ll get to that, but it was the second funnest day of my year! (Nothing will ever beat Christmas.)
The group consisted of my mom, Tristen, the Denisons, Cliffords, Brockbanks, Taylors, and the Seth Ure family. Uncle Ray, Aunt Val and Ryan were, in Micah’s words, “the world’s best hosts”. They are so inviting and gracious to our massive group that it is amazing. They have all of their candy dishes filled (this year, the peanut m&m’s had a note attached that said, “ask Lindsey if you want some”. I guess I may have overdone it last year.), they have everything gassed up and cleaned, they have gourmet meals three times a day, etc. They never make us feel like we are overwhelming (minus the crab fiasco uncle Ray!), and to top it all off, they are all totally fun.
Here are a small percentage of the bazillion pictures we took:
The man of the hour (many hours to be exact) — Ryan. He did so much to make our trip so fun!
Icka was in her element. She just hung out all day every day and got filthy. Here she is, under the badminton net. Take a look at their incredible view.
Scout was totally in to feeding the horses. Sometimes, he snuck a carrot for himself.
In preparation for Rodeo Day, Uncle Ray and Ryan taught us how to rope a fake bull. Micah became quite the roper, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t too shabby either.
Aunt Val supplied the cousins with treats. They adore her, and her ice cream too. Scout could be anywhere with his cousins and be happy, but Uncle Ray’s is the best place. In fact, all of the cousins kept saying to their respective parents that their favorite uncle was Uncle Ray. Sorry Micah — you are out!
Nights were fun as we just hung out and shot the breeze. One night we watched Icka and Scout have a serious wrestling match that was hilarious. This night, Micah took this opportunity to work out a bit.
RODEO DAY
We were split into two teams — the red team headed by Tristen, and the Blue Team headed by yours truly. We competed all afternoon and Ryan the grandmaster had to even cut out some of the events due to a lack of time. We had the best day, and can’t wait to see what he does for next year.
Some of the events were — Cow Pie Toss (AKA frisbee), Egg Relay (of which I was the MVP — thank you very much!) Grape Spittin, Hay Race, Tug-O-War, Barrel Racing, Horse Shoe Toss, Bull Roping, etc. Micah came up with his own event of Rolling Kids in a huge tire that was pretty funny.
But the best even of the day was the grand finale. Ryan put together a Survivor style game that was awesome! There was one caller, and four blindfolded pairs that were tied together. The caller had to direct the pairs to one of sixteen bags to retrieve. Once all of the bags were back, we pulled our blindfolds off and opened the bags. Each had one puzzle piece, and we then had to put together a double layered puzzle. It was intense, and proved to me how much I would love to be on the actual show. My mom had the camera which is why the lense wasn’t completely opened — DUH!
The pairs looking for the bags. I was the caller for Blue, and Micah was the caller for Red.
Here is Red doing their puzzle.
here is Team Blue holding up #1 — because YES — WE WERE VICTORIOUS. Sorry Micah, Tristen and Team Red. Better luck next time!
The L-O-S-E-R-S!
After all of that fun, all of the kids lined up on the fence to watch some dry ice bombs. I feel a Bryan Brockbank influence here.
The next day was full of shooting. Here are the five guys playing a game. they each went one at a time to shoot the clay pigeon, and if they missed, everyone else had a shot. If someone got yours after you missed, then it was your time to “pull”. Micah was onfire, but Seth was the very best shot. He only missed at the very end. but let’s be honest, Ryan was shooting off his hip — he wanted to be fair I guess.
The other two little girls had to go home because they didn’t like the shooting. Not my little Icka. She was in hog heaven.
Tristen, Micah and I had to leave a little prematurely. So we left Friday night at 9:30, stopped in Vegas to srop off Micah and get a few hours of rest, and woke up at 5:30am to keep on driving. It was exhausting, but we made it home safe and sound.
This picture is priceless, because this is after a major 45 minute meltdown. Sweet thing has decided that she doesn’t like her car seat. Wish us luck on the flight to France!
This is when I decided to take over driving. Talk about a beauty queen with ear plugs!
This is immediately after Scout announced that he had to go to the bathroom. I was in the drive-thru a McDonalds, and Tristen wasn’t into going in. Instead she just let him use my car as a barrier and let him go outside. She didn’t factor in the fact that “fast food” means the cars keep moving.
Thanks Uncle Ray, Aunt Val and Ryan. See you again next year!
| DESIGN BY