Girls Night Out

Tuesday morning my sister, Chelsea, my mom, and I (along with my chitlins) headed East for the Cherokee Ranch to go camping.

My mom was so nice to give me a break and hang out with Lola at the toilet (potty training.....argh). Forr and Grandma caught 2 horny toads. We saw a dead tree that had been struck by lightning and completely blown apart. I'm not going to mention any names but someone got walked-in-on by an old man while going to the bathroom at a gas station.

I am indeed blessed to have these two awesome women in my life. Love you mom and Chelsea. What would I do without you?

Thelma and Louise?

Nope. Just me and my mom ready to embark on an adventure.

Let's go through a few of the differences between Thelma and Louise's idea of an adventure and our idea of an adventure.

For starters, Mae and Mom didn't spend all night drinking, dancing, and then murder somebody.

Mae and Mom didn't meet or make whoopee with Brad Pitt only so he could rob us blind.

Incidentally, Thelma and Louise didn't sing along at the top of their lungs to the Julie Andrews- wannabe nursery rhymes CD.

I also don't remember Thelma and Louise cleaning carsick-kid puke off the carsick kid, carseat, and car.

I guess our adventures were a tad, well, maybe a lot more tame than Thelma and Louise's. We spent a few days at the Cherokee Ranch. Here are some highlights:

Loly (who spent pretty much the entire time shoveling rocks into her mouth).


Here is Daddy on the enormous tractor they rented to level out a spot for the trailer. He is a manly man.


Forr liked the tractor too.



What did Daddy find?


Aww, cute.


A picture of Forr after he was stripped of his pukey clothes.


Thelma and Louise's adventure ended with them holding hands while driving Thelma's 1966 Thunderbird convertable over a cliff.

Our adventure ended with us each riding home with our respective husbands, holding hands, and looking forward to another week.

woah, what a weekend

Here are some highlights.

My brother Chad and his ever-lovin' Lisa stayed with us for the weekend along with their ADORABLE one-year-old, Kevin (Nate and Cleo stayed with Grandma and Grandpa).




Thursday. Thanksgiving!! What a day. We headed over to my sis-in-law Jen's house around 1:00 pm for "linner" which was absolutely scrupmtious (the Evans definitely have the corner on the mashed potato market). We hung out there until 4ish when we went over to my mom's for our 2nd turkey dinner which was equally scrumptious. On a side note: Right now I might be pigging out on some leftover chocolate pie that somehow ended up in my fridge.

On Friday the real fun began. We just hung out. All day. That evening we had my side of the fam over for dinner.

Andrew (he didn't really eat the whole pan of waver jello, he just finished it off):



Miss Morgan:



Justin and Nat:



awwww



Father and son:




Saturday we took a trip out to the Cherokee Ranch.



I could just eat her:



coneheads??



Nobody said y'all weren't tough



Grandma with Loly:



Chad and Kev-bo



Jeff and Em (along with baby Milo still in Em's tummy)




The trip out to the Cherokee Ranch was a nice finishing touch to a wild weekend. Monday came much too soon.

The Cherokee Ranch

I know Mom said, "NO Indian names," but I can't think of a better one...okay so I haven't really thought about it that much. We'll just call it The Cherokee Ranch for now.

I have to say it is really cool. Really cool. I will admit I was skeptical at first when my parents said they were going to look at some Moondance Ranch property for sale out by Duchesne. Duchesne?? Isn't that some weird hick-town out by... what is it even by?? I was pretty sure I had driven through there at one point or another and seemed to remember a lot of scrub oak and not much else. So let's just say I was skeptical.

They bought it. 40 acres of land out by Duchesne. The Cherokee Ranch.

Yesterday I wedged myself in-between two carseats in the back of my parent's Jeep Liberty and headed out to see the Cherokee Ranch. The drive was scenic and enjoyable complete with a few stops to nurse Lola, nurse ourselves with delicious hamburgers, and pick up a few things from Al's Food Barn (the only grocery store in Duchesne and a fine grocery store at that).

The Cherokee Ranch is maybe 15 minutes from Duchesne. The Cherokee Ranch is also HUGE. Huge. 40 acres is a lot of land, especially when you walk all the way around the perimeter with a 2 year old and a 5 month old. The Cherokee Ranch is 40 acres Riddled with hills, valleys, washes, ravines, junipers, pines, drift wood, and yes- scrub oak.

The implications of this purchase my parents made are still sinking in. Especially since everytime I referred to The Cherokee Ranch as their property they corrected me and called it our property. They bought all of this land for us. Our family. The Cherokee Ranch is destined to become 40 acres of awesome family memories and I, for one, cannot wait to get back out there with the whole family and explore all 40 acres over and over again.

Dad aka GPS Master:



Lola L-O-L-A Lola:



Forrest, trying to find the next marker:



Two long shadows heading off into the sunset:



Scenic:



Wow, what a view:



Some really cool drift wood: