Tree Top Flyin'

Jul7 28-31, 2011 - McDonald Family Reunion

'This is The Place' Utah.

This really IS The Place when my family is here.

There isn't a better party out there!

McDonald Family Reunion.

We spent some time in Heber, but this day - we visited the historical site of 'This is The Place'

My family is the best thing on the planet.

Let the Circus begin...

Kate & Parker.

Mom & Dad. Celebrated 35 years this year!

Elijah has become The Center of The Universe in our family.

Only grand-kid, only nephew. He's THE most perfect baby boy. He looks just like Jon when Melissa & I used to tote him around, dress him up, feed him dirt.

He was the baby when we played house.

I only wish there was as little competition around as there was when Jon was 2.

We're all learning to share Eli.

Jon, getting a shave.

I think we were all excited he was gonna get a real shave - and then we found out it was a theatrical show with a butter knife.

And then Bo wanted a piece of the action.

Handsome Dad.

Bo, consistently thinks babies and little kids are 'annoying'. But Eli has been the exception, and I have a hunch....

He told me recently that he was SO happy when Eli was born because, finally he wasn't the youngest in the family.

This is just a random and terrible photo of me (and Elijah) after a workout.

I am not one of those girls that looks cute at the gym. ugh.

Ty & Parker playing Chess. Parker... always competitive.

I think Ty might actually have surprised Park... they both love a good run-for-their-money.

Who is winning in this moment??

Parker is about as cool as it gets, according to the boys.

Ahhhhh... Cake Pops.

Katie and i decided we needed to make Cake Pops. They sort of inadvertently became the eye of our hurricane weekend.

So typical of my sisters and I.

Emily: Katie, we left the cake pop stuff at the cabin! Should we turn around!?

Katie: Ahhhh... screw it.

(That's for you Kate)

They looked nothing like the ones we saw at Starbucks and Nordstrom... surprised?

And then I guess we all decided to try to force Eli to eat them.... I didn't realize until I looked at the photos. Ha!

These are the days.

February 15-20, 2011

Vernon & Barb visit us in Wyoming

Vernon was best friends with Jim's Dad through high school, college, and then later in life until we lost Jim's Dad in a car accident. The last few years Vern has become a second Dad. He and Barb treat us like gold, and we've been spending a lot of time with them. They came to see the ranch, when there was a god-forsaken 47 inches of snow on our ground.

The fresh snow was so deep when we got to the entrance, that it clearly had to be plowed to get up to the house. So I huffed it up the hill to get a snow-machine while Jim started the bob-cat for plowing. I taxied Barb & Vern up one at a time. It was an abrupt, but very real way of introducing them to our ranch.

We had a place in J-Hole for 5 years before we traded it for Smoot. It's such a tourist hot-spot, we felt we had to give the Nebraska folk a good piece of the famous Cowboy Bar.

Vern on the saddle stools! We didn't even have a beer... just the camera and the gawks. The Jackson locals in general are so snobby, it made me very happy to be rid of it - and in my cheerful farm town of Smoot, WY.

Good times. It feels good to have people... to have family.

The Little Ranch - January 2011

Here we are in Smoot, Wyoming. Our new dream ranch and home in Star Valley. The population is 106 now that we've arrived, and we're crazy about it. It's been so much work, with much more to come - but it's a place that is just, so... 'us'.

This is the barn, and us - delivering one of our first loads in October.

This is the opposite view, with the house up in the trees... see it?

Jim unloading what will be our temporary entrance gate - a cattle gate.

We had a major mud problem in the fall when we first bought the place, so Jim turned the dirt road into a gravel road with 8-plus loads of gravel and the bob-cat. It was so much work for Jimbo, and the boys helped spread the rock around. In different ways, the boys are both miniature versions of Jim.

This particular cowboy hat is a major point of contention at our house. We have maybe 5 cowboy hats... all of which, I can't tell the difference between one from the next. But the boys both have their eyes on this particular hat. They fight about it - I think every day. Bo thinks he deserves it because he's, 'the smallest person in the family'. And Ty just won't hear of it.

I think we got a little piece of Judd Cramer back when we bought this place, and I know he's buzzing around us somewhere.

Wish he was here.

The Tree House.

It's looking a little lopsided, but it's working for now.

Jim told the boys - the tree house was theirs. But they had to maintain it... more than anything to get them to figure stuff out on their own. And it's working. The boys worked an entire afternoon building a ladder.

Bo hammered his face when the claw-end of the hammer came loose as he was digging a nail out of his ladder. A near-tooth-loss incident. Turns out all we needed was some unnecessary (magic) chap-stick and some TLC. It's amazing what those magic remedies can heal.

The boys both shot their first squirrel, wow were they proud...

...and these photos show they were proud when posing for pictures, but their faces say it all in these next two shots.

Ty's true reaction -

... and Bo's -I thought he was going to puke it. He later nailed it by the tail to the side of his tree-house, calling it his, 'squirrel mount'.

Jim and I worked on fire-wood for two solid days. We were up against snow-fall in October, and literally worked until it fell. We used the 4-wheeler and chains to drag fallen timber out of the back of the property, and cut as much as we could to store for winter.

And the snow has fallen.

Jim in the bob-cat, trying to clear as much as possible.

No furniture at this point, the boys crashed on the floor of the loft.

Preparing for Christmas, Jim & I hiked and found our first, real Christmas tree.

The house was pretty bare for Christmas, but the one thing we DID have - was a tree.

Pulling sleds behind the sleds is our favorite new thing. Ty is quite the driver.

Ty and I had a little too much fun in the beginning, turning over the machines a bit too often for Jims taste. We can tip them over, but can't quite set them back upright. I clearly had nothing to do with this one.

Hitching a ride in the bobcat.

The wreckage of Christmas morning. I hope we're not the only ones who let our kids be this unruly. It's once a year, right?

Jim trying to kill the muskrats in our pond. They look super cute with their fuzzy faces, until you see their giant rat-like tails, and then you remember they're MuskRATS.

The house from the gate.

Mi familia at the ranch. Jim's got a thing or two up his sleeve at all times. For Christmas, he surprised me with almost everyone coming for an unexpected visit... followed by an even more unexpected proposal!!