Day at the Whaley Ranch

I didn't post yesterday because we were so busy. On Friday Mark went golfing and Brandi and I took the kids to the pool. The town of Buffalo has a city pool, and everyone can go to it and it is free. It is huge, and very clean and well cared for. There is a snack bar, playgrounds, nice restrooms and plenty of parking. All paid for by the city and everyone is so nice here. The population of Buffalo is about 5,000-everyone seems to know each other. Mark said the golf course was really nice, but for some reason he decided to walk it. The combination of high altitude(which really does make you feel like crap) 100 degree heat, plus he ran 3 miles that morning made him almost sick when he got home. He took a shower and drank more water and he was fine. For a minute I thought we were going to have to go visit Buffalo's 25 bed hospital!

That night we went over to Aunt Mary and Uncle Pat's house for dinner. We cooked out steak (they eat alot of Angus beef around here) and Aunt Mary made frog eye salad. If anyone I work with is reading this-you know I love frog eye salad! Then they showed us a video from 20 years ago-our grandparents 50th anniversary party-and it was so funny to see our parents, (a) all getting along, and (b)looking so young! The kids thought it was pretty funny.

Yesterday was ranch day! We left at 7am and met Mary and Pat at their house and we drove over the mountain(Bighorn Mountains)to Shell Wyoming. The drive to the ranch is so amazing. We stopped at Shell falls(check out the pics) and got some cool pictures. The kids just love that everytime we stop it is to splash in a creek, climb a mountain or do something physical! We got to Shell (population 50) at about 9:30 am. The ranch has not changed much. Uncle Pat took Mark to go do some ranch work (they were stacking bales of hay) and Aunt Mary hooked us up with a four wheeler and this little tractor that is like a tough golf cart so we could go exploring. Brandi and I crossed the creek with the tractor and walked around and then couldn't get it started again. Did I mention the mosquitos are the size of small birds around here? We had Carli with us, too. Nobody was answering us on the walkie talkie, so we had to walk back up the road and down to the ranch. Carli was not pleased with us. To make matters worse, Aunt Mary just put it in neutral and started it right up! After lunch, we decided to go see their cabin in the mountains. We had to take two 4 wheel drive truck because the cabin is very remote...and it is very remote. We drove to the top of the mountain and then had to walk down because there is no road. It is an old sheepherders cabin, so it's not fancy, but location is everything! We played in the creek, Courtney and Alex found fossils and climbed to the top of the mountain behind us and then we hiked back up to go find the four wheeler Aunt Mary had rolled(twice!) while herding cattle the other day. They found it and loaded it up in the back of the truck and we took it back to the ranch. Mark said he feels like he's at a dude ranch and should be paying for this experience! By this point it was getting late, and we were anxious to get over the mountain before dark, because Pat and Mary were staying at the ranch and we were going to Buffalo by ourselves. Aunt Mary wanted to cook us some elk for dinner at the ranch, but we wanted to go, so they gave us the elk and we will cook it tonight. We were actually starving so we decided to stop and eat anyway. We went to the Wagon Wheel, and it was niccer than we expected. We had a wonderful dinner, (angus beef!) possibly the best steak I have ever had. There were only about 8 tables in there. Guess who was sitting behind us? Wilford Brimley. I didn't see any celebrities in Vegas, but I see one in Shell, Wyoming. You could hear him talking in his Wilford Brimley voice all over the restaurant. He bought a ranch over here and we heard he moved his staff from New Mexico to here to run it. So that was our day at the ranch. The kids are exhausted, we are permanently encrusted in sand from the four wheeler,and we all have bruises, cuts, splinters and bug bites-but it's so much fun! I added a link on the right side of the blog so you could see more pics-someone please let me know if it is not working-and by the way, we love when we get comments from you guys!!