Trip to the ranch

We took the kids on their very first trip to our ranch a few weeks ago. My family owns property about an hour away where my dad plays the role of weekend rancher. He's been dying for us to bring the kids, but I've been putting it off mostly waiting for them to be able to handle loud noises since I knew we would be taking a hayride and using the tractor to do so.

The day was off to a little bit of a rough start though. Still trying to maintain some sort of schedule, I wanted to leave around 9am and spend a few hours there before heading back around 2pm when I figured their only nap for the day would be in the car. We left around 9am and barely got 10min down the road when I realized I forgot their boots. You never know what you'll step in out there!

So we turned around to head back when I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. It was the alarm company letting us know our house alarm was going off and a police officer was on his way there. I figured when I was rushing out the door, making sure I had everything like all the food, diapers, wipes, change of clothes, no boots (ha!) etc, I must have not closed the door to the garage all the way. Great. I told the alarm company to cancel the police and we would be there in a couple minutes. Alex spent the next 20min walking through the house and checking all the closets and doors again before we got back on the road, about 45min later than planned.

We got to the ranch and were immediately greeted by my mom, dad, granny & granny's dog Rusty. The girls LOVE dogs and couldn't wait to get out of the car. Andrew, however, was less than thrilled. I'm not even sure who took him out of the car, but as soon as his feet touched the ground Rusty was all over him and he did not like it. He screamed and wanted to be picked up immediately. We went in the house to take all our stuff in and the girls spent the next 15min squealing at the top of their lungs and chasing poor Rusty all over the place.

Not wanting to waste much time, I suggested we get this hayride going before the kids got hungry for lunch. They were really unsure of the whole situation and once the tractor started up, it was craziness. Ava was sobbing, Andrew was flipping out and Mia was the only one not crying, but she certainly wasn't enthused about it all. But after a couple minutes, the tears stopped and they loosened up and enjoyed it. Here's a few pics on the tractor and hayride.

The kids took turns sitting in grandad's lap on the tractor.

Ava was a little scared.

She was much better once she was on solid ground

We got back in time for lunch and the kids took turns riding on Grandad's John Deere Gator. I constantly hear "grandad's tractor" and "grandad's gator" all the time now, although Andrew says they're his and not grandad's. I'm sure my dad is already searching for a kid size gator for Andrew to ride.

At this point, the kids were pretty much worn out. We went back in to gather our things and the girls chased Rusty around one last time. The entire time they were playing with Rusty we were watching them to make sure they were being nice and not rough, especially with Mia's history with animals, and for the most part they were just squealing with glee. Unfortunately right before we left, Mia tripped and fell on Rusty who nipped at Mia and got her on the arm before I could whisk her up. Thankfully it was just a scratch and didn't break the skin or anything, but it scared me to death and I could tell Mia was shaken up too. I seriously thought my heart stopped when I saw Rusty whip his head around and bare his teeth. I know it's not Mia's fault, I mean she's 2 and clumsy and Rusty was just reacting as any dog would. Needless to say, we left pretty quickly after that.

This is what has made me so hesitant to have the kids around dogs. They don't quite understand yet how they should approach an animal and between all the squealing and screeching from the girls and Andrew's screams to get away, I've avoided having them around unleashed dogs as much as possible. This is also why we have never taken the kids to Alex's brother's house. They have 2 HUGE dogs and as much as they like to think the dogs are great with kids, I'm not willing to put this to the test with my kids. This certainly isn't to say that there are plenty of people who have dogs that are great with their families, but I also know my kids. Even with 5 adults watching 3 kids, this happened within seconds with one little dog. I could go on and on about this subject, but I'll cut if off here and get back to the ranch :)

Before we went back home, we made a quick stop at my great uncle Alton's house........who also has 2 dogs. My knees were still shaking as we got out of the car and even though his dogs are super friendly, my guard was definitely up and I was like a hawk especially on Mia. Thankfully, they didn't go as crazy for the dogs as they had for Rusty earlier, I think they were too tired to show a lot of enthusiasm so everyone behaved themselves. Even so, I don't think I really relaxed until all the kids were buckled in their seats. Here are a few pics from Alton's

Guess who slipped under the fence to get to the cows? I need a leash on this girl!

Andrew running away from Pepper & Willie, but at least he wasn't screaming.

Ava giving Willie a hug and kiss. I think he kind of liked it!

All in all, we had a good time and hope to take them again soon before it gets too hot!