Memorial Day Weekend 2012

It was a very busy weekend for Memorial Day. I was going whitewater rafting with the youth from church and three days before the trip my cousins called to say, "Surprise! We are coming down!!" I hated to miss a full day with them, but the rafting trip was hilariously awesome. I went on the same river over ten years ago. It was a different season and the water was super flat, until the end there are some rapids that'll tip your boat if you don't go in just right. Or someone (me) falls out and the adrenaline is so intense my friend almost immediately jerked me back in. The boat I was in mostly contained 12 year old girls and 2 other leaders. I kept on about how the last time I was there the water was so flat it was kinda boring and we had to make our own fun by stealing people from other boats (that were with us, not random people) and spinning our boat just to keep it interesting. However upon entering the inlet, I saw the water-and boring was NOT going to be the case that day. Some situations were a little intense (self guided) and there was a lot of 12 year old squealing, and a lot of reminding to paddle-however, the girls did amazing. And although we got stuck 3 times and it was a little scary-we persevered and had a great time. Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures because-well, we were in a boat, and we got really wet-so you know. After I got back I met up with my family who had been at the lake all day, we had a great weekend including a trip back to the Circle G Ranch on Memorial Day.

Some of you will recall the last time I went, it was kind of like an episode of 'When Animals Attack'. this time-due to it being Summer, there were A LOT more people and the animals were a lot less "intense". We still had a great time though. We piled into my van and Kris's Explorer.

There were a couple of cars in front of us, so we had to wait-whether the bigger animals were approaching or not, we had to wait. We all agreed that my cousin Susan could be in a horror movie, and voted her "Best Scream". But we'll get to that later-you know the arguement about "fight or flight"? That was tested twice at the ranch. While waiting for the cars in front of us my sister said, "I'm okay as long as the cow with the horns stays on your side of the car." It was as if the cow (bull, bison, water buffalo-whatever) heard her say that. Right that very moment he crossed the road and started coming on her side. She had Reese standing in between her legs. The cow came up and she and Reese fed it.

The cow got excited and went for the bucket of food! Natalie was screaming "GO BETH GO!!" but I couldn't because another cow was blocking my way. Natalie was screaming and so was Reese, I looked back to see this (on a side note this picture cracks me up-look at Natalie and Reese's faces and the eyeballs of that cow!!)

and saw a huge black tongue lick Reese's shorts and up the front of his shirt!!! This is when "flight" entered. Natalie screamed and took the bucket of food and threw all the food at the cow. I finally was able to pull forward and Natalie closed the door. She just kept saying, "I'm so sorry about the food, that was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me!" It was hysterical.

Then we heard screaming coming from the car behind us (Kris's car)

It was Susan.

We went through the rest of the trail where Kris had been trying to feed a deer on the other side of the car, a camel had other plans for him. Kris said the camel had his elbow in its' mouth. I didn't believe him until I saw this picture

Pretty disgusting. Afterwards we went to the petting zoo area. I was feeding the camels when one grabbed a hold of my bucket "fight" entered. I grabbed the bucket with both hands and tried to pull it back (really tried). Who knew camels are freakishly strong? And as if it wasn't enough he took it, he flipped his head up and shook it so that he could get all of the dust too, just to rub it in my face.

I can't begin to say how much I LOVE when they visit. I wish I would have gotten more pictures. Our kids are all the same ages with the youngest 4 being exactly 4 months apart (weird and unplanned-unless you count when we planned that when we were little).