Black Rock Ranch

Spur of the moment trip with 14 1/2 kids, 8 adults, 1 dog, 3 days, 2 nights, lots of motorcycles, fishing, canoeing, hiking and only 2 major accidents with no major injuries = GREAT weekend.

The Hales, Blatters, Callaways & us!


Big John and Diane donated their big T.V. to the Ranch, so John hauled it up along with all the bikes.


The 4 wheelers were a hit with the big and the small.


Only a few emergency gas runs.

Umm, Chad, I think your helmet may be on backwards?

Only, one child flipped a four wheeler into the lake :) Everyone and the bike were ok. The parents did freak out a bit! We were rattled just long enough to make the kids get off for a whole hour (if that!). You can't hold them back forever :)

Lots of Mule riding (that's what this vehicle is called - there wasn't a real donkey there :)






The girls take it for a spin (with a few kids - of course)


Cole came up the hill on his motorcycle right as we were leaving. He was so cute he decided to follow behind the mule on a big adventure. I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into, until it was too late for him to turn around. We went far and wide and on some very steep hills. He kept right up - Daddy was VERY proud!


Following behind.


He was just like the pros!


My sweet Drewbie


The "karate/pokemon" room. It was a big empty media room where the kids were in heaven. It had big, heavy solid doors, that the parents could shut and not hear the chaos. So the parents were in heaven too.


Gordy was in heaven. He played so hard all day, he crashed every night at around 6 and didn't move until the morning.

On one of the mule rides he saw a flock of geese and went CRAZY!! Chasing them like he was a 5 year old again. I guess once a bird dog - always a bird dog.

It's not a ranch with out guns - right?




I'd never seen the lake so amazingly glassy! It was like a mirror.


Perfect for fishing and canoe rides.


Also perfect for photo taking, which can take one's focus off of watching the kids. One who shall remain nameless totally busted himself of negligence, with this photo series :) At least we got it all on film and it was a happy ending.

Sammie Lou and Gordy playing and jumping dangerously close to the edge.


Oh look, John across the lake on his motorcycle.


Why is everyone yelling Sammie's name?

Oh, she fell off the dock and is going under!


"I don't want to go swimming in my clothes!! I have my shoes on! I have to go POTTY!!"



What? I was watching!


Luckily she is far from traumatized. If you ask her about it now she will tell you the whole story. "I fell in the lake and my daddy saved me! Then my friends brought me blankets. I don't like swimming in my clothes! It was cold."

Cole was so cute, without being asked he took off his shirt and gave it to her to wrap around her. What a good brother and daddy for saving her.

Even with the accidents, we had a great time. Hopefully we'll be back at least one more time before it sells!

The 2 Sammie Lous

Kelli did another photo shoot for me and it turned out awesome! The main goal was to get a great shot of the 2 Sammie Lous together and there are many great shots. My favorite was not on her blog so I'll share after I purchase it.



She also got MANY awesome photos of just Sl2. There are so many good ones I can't pick a favorite. They will all go perfectly in her new fairy room too!















Thanks again Kelli - you are amazing! I love them all.

Conversations. . .

The boys were outside picking up the dog poop. In this task Drew is the bag holder, while Cole is the shoveler. In my opinion, the bag holder is pretty nasty! (don't tell him that) Drew comes in. . .

"Mom, could you get 2 pairs of nose pluggers? One for Cole one for me. This job is stinky!"
Me: Oh yea, sure, if you know where to get them I'll pick some up.
Drew: (all my sarcasm lost on him). You can get them at Costco, if not there, for sure at Target.

Then he heads back out the door.

I think he may be under the impression that everything comes from one of those 2 stores. They are about the only places I frequent.

Hiking with Dogs!

We watched Indo for the weekend. We had to take them to Mt. Diablo:)

Ski Season's here!

Ok, I knew dating a ski instructor is one of many girls fantasies but to actually marry one is even BETTER! It comes with so many benefits I didn't even think about! He teaches your kids to ski and actually has fun doing it! It was so great, to see the kids with their daddy out on the slopes. They all had a blast and are improving in leaps and bounds. I was a little sad to be on the sidelines this year, but it gave me a few priceless photos...


Sammie Lou was SO EXCITED to ski this year. She did it a few times last year and talked about going again ALL summer. So she was thrilled to open a new ski outfit on Christmas and find out it was ski season again.


It's Cole's first full season with poles and he was AWESOME.


Drew got his edgie-wedgie (holds together the front of the ski's in a snow-plow position) taken off on the first day. He wasn't too sure he was going to like it. He yelled down the whole first run "I WANT MY WEDGIE! PUT BACK ON MY WEDGIE" My dad, who was with him, said they got a few strange looks, people weren't quite sure what a "wedgie" was.


After that run, he learned how to do his "french fry" turns and turned into a speed demon. He thought the rest of the group was "way too slow for him." Notice his hair coming out of his helmet in next photo. It was stuck like that at the end of the day from flying down all the hills.


We even lost him a few times, he had gone and gotten back in line because we were all too slow to hop back on the lift.


Grandma and Grandpa were crucial in helping to manage the kids' 3 different levels of skiing on the first day.

What kids are lucky enough to go skiing with their grandma and grandpa. Actually Grandpa Hank (great grandpa) came one day too, but we were leaving that day so we didn't actually ski with him. That would of made a 4-generation ski day!!

My mom and Nikki.


Carter decided to try skiing out. After getting all the gear on and strapping the skis to his feet he decided it wasn't the thing for him. He preferred wrestling with Lou-lou. See the screaming coming from both of them. Bystanders were a little disgusted with us for just watching and letting it happen. Not to mention the laughing and photo snapping from their parents, I'm sure they would have declared us "unfit parents."


Some soon-to-be-classics of Brad and Sammie Lou.


Can you tell how happy she was?

When I took her skis off to go home, she got so mad. "PUT MY SKIS BACK ON!! I'M NOT READY TO GO HOME YET! PUT THEM BACK ONNNNN!!" I think she might have stayed all day had we let her. Notice her clinging to them in this photo - still hoping that she would get to put them back on and ski a little (or a lot) more.


Finale shot of most of the gang!