The first person to greet us at the ranch was Willy the dog. I think he could be considered a person, anyway. Willow wasn't sure what to think of him at first. She kept trying to grab him, like a stuffed animal, but she didn't like it when he moved. She laughed and cried. But he became known as Pup-pup to her over the next few days. Her first official word, after our names. She got a replica Pup-pup at the store a few days ago, too. I think she likes her fake Pup-pup better, though, as it doesn't move unless she throws it across the room.
This would be night number three in the camper and I was hoping she would go to sleep better than she had the previous few nights. This was the only thing I had stressed about this whole trip. I wasn't worried about bears or cliffs or car crashes or weather in the weeks leading up to it. I was only worried about how this baby would sleep.
After a delicious meal of roast and potatoes, the kids went to play with Grandpa Tim and the goats. We put Willow and the toddlers to bed in the camper and took a sauna. She fussed for a bit but by the time we got out of the sauna, she was sound asleep. It was the most beautiful sight.
The next morning, after finally getting a solid nights sleep, we all woke up in good moods. I told Willow, "See how much happier we all are when you sleep?" Hint, hint. The wild turkeys came by to eat, right next to our camper and the former babies, who I now have to call toddlers because of their age and size, went out to watch.
Ruby got quite a kick out of how the turkeys bop their heads back and forth. She is Ms. Observation and doesn't miss anything. Beware hanging out with her because she will tell me all about it later without missing a beat. She will even comment to me on your hairstyle and whether or not she thought it was good. Lady at Cabela's waiting at the fudge counter: I heard your braids were too messy and how they were plopped up on your head was not a good look.
It was quite early when these kids got going in the morning and Grandpa Tim was up with them, running right along side them. They hopped on the buggy and went to feed the goats.
Henry was too scared to go in the goat pen but he stood outside and showed them his belly button. "Goats, look at my belly button!" he yelled. The goats didn't care about his belly button, though.
The
Later in the morning, Grandpa Tim loaded up the kids in his truck and we followed on the four wheeler to the Money Mine, a naturally occurring land formation where US currency grows, most commonly that of the coin origin.
When it rains, coins flow out of the mine and out onto the grounds surrounding. It's an amazing phenomenon.
It's still a great view, though.
It was hot, especially in the afternoon hours, so while the bigger kids cruised around with Grandpa Tim, I spent time with the littles at the kiddie pool. Willow started to warm up a little bit to Pup-pup.
The kids ran and ran all day, going from one activity to the next. We could have spent another week here.
Before supper, Grandpa Tim brought the kids down to the fishing pond.
I stayed down here with Henry and Willow for about four minutes before Henry got stung by a bee. The older kids fished for quite a while, catching quite a few fish.
Before they went to bed that night, Ruby asked me where we were going tomorrow.
"Montana."I said.
"I don't want to go there. There are battlefields there." she said, quite seriously.
"What's wrong with battlefields?" I asked her.
"I don't want to die." she said.
After I explained to her that we weren't going to any more battlefields, she felt better about going back to Montana. It made me wonder how much internal terror she was feeling when we were at Little Bighorn. Although, with her motor-mouth, I think she would have said something.
I do not know where she got her gift of gab from. This picture is completely unrelated.
While I packed up the camper and cleaned up all of our messes, I told Chet and the kids to go play until we left. What better place to play than in the forest cutting down trees?
I'm glad I wasn't there to watch this. But that means the kids had a lot of fun.
What a fun couple of days we all had. Thank you again to Tim and Billie for your hospitality. The kids are already talking about next time.
On our way out of town, we stopped to see Sasha's grave. Milo had a bloody nose this time. It was always someone.
We hadn't been here since the funeral four years ago. Ruby was a teeny-tiny newborn then and we traveled out here not long after her ALTE (apparent life threatening event) when she was 10 days old. We had to bring her apnea monitor with us. Those were some tough months for us and being here with her was a bittersweet moment and a sobering reminder that He is in control over life and death.
To be continued.
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