Day 1 at Ranch Camp

The City kids have arrived at the ranch.
Alarm sounded at 4:45am... which I snoozed until 5am (slacker that I am). This early morning work is going to take an adjustment! I carefully lead the twins to the living room so the little boys can sleep a little more, and attempt to coach the 9 yr olds through getting dressed half asleep. First crisis is that Anthony's jeans are tight, since he has been growing like the incredible hulk, so he tried a couple pairs of jeans before finding the right ones. Maggie got dressed without a hitch. The boots were a different story… both kids needed serious muscle to get their boots on – I even had to get Papa's muscle in on getting Anthony's boots on. (crisis #2). To my relief, once the boots were on their feet, they did not complain about them being tight, so we were off…

Per Papa's instructions, I delivered the twins to him for work at 5:30am (okay, his instructions were 5:15 am, but he probably said that because he knew we would be late – I had 2.5 hours sleep, so he let it slide this time). Cousin Forest (Thatcher's son) is here too, plus 2 cowboy kids that they played with last summer, so the kids are happy to be back. Maggie was so happy to see her favorite horse Ted again. Uncle Thatcher was not so excited to be saddling 2 extra horses again, plus Forest makes 3 extra horses. And Uncle Thatcher was especially not excited to hoist 90 pound Anthony onto a horse. Anthony will HAVE to learn to get on his own horse very quickly. I waved goodbye as they joined their fellow cowboys… and I snuck back into bed for a couple of hours until the littles woke up.
Once Ben and Alex awoke, we gathered ourselves a bit, then joined the cowboys at the pens where they were sorting cattle. The littles rode horses a bit, then we joined the cowboys for a late lunch at Bad Brad's BBQ (a great local BBQ joint that we will wear the kids out on this summer).

In the summer heat, the work must start by daylight (sometimes before) because the cattle ( and horses, and people) cannot take the heat. When the cattle get too worked up in the heat they can die. Often when the work day takes longer than planned, we will loose at least a couple of cows, which is sad, and very costly for Papa. Sometimes the work is complete by as early as 10am, but usually at least by lunch. The cowboys all go in for a nap in afternoons when they can, but the city kids think naps are only for babies, so they refuse naps, and opt for the cranky evening route, which provides so much joy for their beloved Papa.

Sweet Ben... he may have a big fat lip, but look at that smile! He has a smile that will melt the heart of anyone!

Our Day 1 Traumas:

In our first 24 hours, Alexander fell head first on the cattle guard and ended up with a golf ball size bump on his forehead, then Ben fell off the bunk bed (or maybe he jumped... the story isn't really clear), then Maggie rode her beloved horse Ted through the trees and cut up her neck and face. Mommy was a little worried about the massive fireworks planned for the evening... perhaps an ambulance should be on call.


Alexander ...bumped his head today as he was walking accross the cattle guard, and he is tired tonight, but it was a great first day at "ranch camp"!

As a special treat on this day 1, Papa has acquired some special fireworks for our enjoyment. I called him just before July 4 and asked him to get some fireworks for us, because our neighborhood in The Woodlands is under a burn ban so we cannot do our normal fireworks at home on July 4. The ranch has no rules, so I knew this would be something we could do at ranch camp. When I asked this, I thought he would get sparklers and bottle rockets, and the small stuff we are used to doing in our front yard on the 4th of July. Papa is a big man, who does nothing small. He ordered special fireworks for this event, which were quite large, with names like "Hot Mama", and "Big Daddy". He invited a couple of cowboys, friends, and Debbie from his law office who has worked for him since I was 11 years old (somehow no title seems enough for this woman who has been through so much with my dad).

Cousin Forest has to leave on Saturday, so we will make the most of these next couple of days with him! It is hard to believe we have only been here one day at this point.