An Afternoon at the Ranch

Sometimes I go a little stir crazy.

It's not just the house, or the construction, or the kids, or the boredom, or the mess, or the noise, or the monotony, it's everything all wrapped up in one huge stay-at-home-mom-of-four-under-five-burrito.

Yum....burrito....anyway, back to my point.

I mean, I know this probably sounds a little nutty. I do have to acknowledge that I have been blessed with four great kids.

Kids who are pretty darn sweet.

Kids who make me smile.

Kids who wear head to toe cheetah print and make no excuses.

Kids who, well, eat other kids' food.

So when the temporary insanity rears its ugly head, I have to get out of the house and I have to get out NOW. Usually I will call Danny, and he can immediately assess my emotional state from my desperate voice, and he usually has a good idea what I should do. His suggestions usually include some type of exercise, but he could tell that wasn't going to work this time. I had gone past that point, besides, I had all four kids by myself, and it's kind of hard to go for a walk when two are wandering aimlessly beside the double stroller complaining that it's not their turn.

So I said, "I'm thinking about coming out to the ranch to let the kids run around."

He said, "GREAT!" Then he said, "bye," and I said....well you get the picture.

Going to the ranch for a group of little kids is like entering a totally magical, adventuresome, beautiful wonderland. It is a place to explore, run, scream, throw stuff, drive stuff, and indulge the doting grandparents. It's a good time.

Here's a rundown of the afternoon. First I have to load everyone up. This takes a while.

Then when everyone is buckled, strapped, zipped, wiped, hydrated, and fed, we get on the road.

Once we arrived, the girls ran straight for the drivers' seats of the play cars, and the babies ran straight for the passenger seats.

First, the kids tore around the yard in the cars. Now, let's play I Spy.

Can you spy the proud grandparents?

Can you spy a deaf dog?

Way to go!

Cubby is taking this very seriously. J.D. is trying to ignore the fact that the jeep is pink.

G has perfected the "vroom" sound. Oh, if her feet could only reach the pedals.

Then they decided to throw clods of dirt into the ditch. Now this is real country entertainment.

"That was a BIG splash!"

Grandpa and the girls search for worthy clods and/or dinosaur bones. Whatever comes first.

Grandma and G celebrate a perfectly executed slide-down.

And then I capture one of those beautiful, magical moments I was talking about. My little girls wading through the tall wheat with their grandpa. I'm not feeling so stir-crazy anymore.

If you are itching for more views of the ranch life, check out the video of our afternoon with the grandparents.