His Ranch weekend

Our bible study group decided we would like to do a service project together. Randy Meyer has a cousin who runs a horse ranch as an Godly outreach program to disadvantaged youth.
Check out more information at: http://www.hisranch.org/ and http://www.hisranchblog.blogspot.com/.

The ranch is in Taylor, MO. It took us 7.5 hours to get there, with traffic and a dinner stop, and only 6 hours to get home (no stopping and some traffic). Quite the weekend! The boys did very well in the car. Zach enjoyed watching his videos which made my job - as permanant entertainer- a little easier.

Friday July 17th

We arrived much later than we had hoped to...around 9:30. Ben and Stephanie, who had been behind us earlier in the trip, were able to keep going when we stopped for dinner (thanks to LaNae who both entertained and fed Morgan). When we arrived, Shannon, Susan (owners of His Ranch), their 4 kids, Randy & LaNae ("Ms. Nae" to Zachary), and Ben/Stephanie/Morgan were already there and cooking up s'mores. It was COLD! I was very glad I had thrown in long sleeves at the last minute. We got our tent put up by lantern and fire light with little problems, got the kids changed and INTO BED! They both went to bed with little issue. We put Wyatt in his travel crib (smaller than a pack-n-play), and Zach in his Cars sleeping bag. Then we sat down with the adults to enjoy some down time. Around 10:30 or so Jared and Katie arrived, and got to sleep in the big tent that Randy let the borrow - and put up for them! First class treatment. Katie's first time in a tent, so some first class treatment was a good transition.
Before the kids went to bed we took a quick tour of the horses and the new (6 weeks old) puppies! SO hard not to put a puppy in my pocket and head home. :)

Our night was not great. The wind was unreal, and I could not sleep. Art had no problem, and the kids almost had no problem. Morgan woke up 1-2 times in the night for just brief moments. Then later Zach woke up crying for mommy. Art tried to calm him down, but he was not having it. We did not want to switch places, so Art just moved down a bit toward the front of the tent, and I scooted over a bit so that mine and Zach's heads were close. He stopped crying and went back to sleep. Poor Art though, he was smooshed down at the bottom of the tent. Obviously the next night we'll put Zach between us.

Saturday July 18

Happy Birthday Art!! The big 35! A very big day for a very big birthday. It began fairly early with Morgan, Zach and Wyatt waking up. With the tents that close, it's impossible not to hear everyone. Art needed a bit of help to get up and Zach was happy to oblige. We ate a bit of breakfast in the tent before venturing out to start the day.












Here is the inside of our tent - before I changed the camp pads (they do NOT work horizontally underneath the 3 of us; tonight Art will do w/out a camp pad). It looked like a nest in there!


Here is the campsite with the 3 tents - ours is on the far left.

Shannon and Susan, their family, and all their volunteers came down for a morning devotional. Wyatt and Morgan got put down for naps b/f it was over. Then a quick tour of the place, including all the plans for the future. Very interesting!
Now onto the horses...literally

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Me signing the waiver to ride. And me "riding" Louie. Just plodding around the arena. Didn't know we would be allowed to run until I saw LaNae do it later. I thought I would get in trouble. HOWEVER, since LaNae's saddle came loose and she went down, maybe I'm glad that I didn't try to run - though I doubt that Louie would have humored me.

Now it was Zachary's turn. So so cute to see Zach on a horse! He LOVED it! He would not get off for quite a long while. Poor Wyatt was still sleeping in the tent. He did get on a horse later (or so I was told), though I did not see it, therefore it did not happen.




Go Zach go!

Now it was time to get to work. After begging Susan to give us some chores, Katie and I got assigned to weed the rose garden in front. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. LaNae came out after awhile to show us how it is really done. Then we took a short ride in the back of the farm buggy (which we later found out is used to transport manure- yea!) and toured the ranch a bit. Then it was lunch time! Papa John's pizza! YUM! Zach wanted to sit with the other kids and basically followed them around.


Wyatt sitting in his chair, which we found out was the BEST playpen because he could not get out of the chair and he liked being in it. Zach and Wyatt giving DaU a nice birthday snuggle.

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Wyatt's Sisyphus task of trying to get up that slide...kept him busy for a long long while.

Lunch lasted a good long while, so after lunch the boys (and I!) went down for a nap.
When I went to open the tent to let the boys in, I noticed that I'd left it open about 4 inches at the bottom. Check out who else noticed the opening...

That cat slept in our tent until about 6pm or so. So funny! About half an hour into our nap, one of the horses, that was corralled right outside our tent, let out an enormously loud whinny. I awoke with a major start, but the boys didn't. I tried for about 30 more minutes to go back to sleep, but then the horse did it again. This time Zach's eyes popped open and he said "WOAH!" and went back to sleep. Both kids were exhausted. Wyatt slept about 3 hours. Zach woke up after 2 hours b/c he was soaked in sweat - his sleeping bag had no lining, just the nylon bag, so it was too hot. But I uncovered him and took off his shorts and he went back to sleep for another 2 hours. He woke up just as I was starting to clean out the horse stalls with LaNae.

Here we are in our Wellies, preparing to get busy, and then shoveling out the manure in two of the stalls. The smell was not nearly as bad as I thought. I think we took 3 or 4 truck loads of manure out to the pile and dumped it. Yes, same truck that I sat in earlier. Lovely.

The kids had plenty to keep them busy. Zach had a WONDERFUL time with Shannon and Susan's kids. They played in a wagon for a long time (Zach called it a school bus), and played w/ the Barbie jeep for a bit until the battery died. A very favorite activity for the boys (and me too, truth be told) was petting all the cats and kittens that roamed around. They were just so loving and friendly, a far cry from our aloof-except-when-he-is-desperate Dexter. They also took many trips to the stall housing the tiny puppies. Zach was not thrilled with them, but did enjoy them, and Wyatt was mixed. He definitely like to look at them and ocassionally touch them.

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After the horse stalls, pretty much everyone quit work to start preparing for dinner. Everyone that is except Randy. He was driven to finish. Look at how great it looks:


For dinner we cooked hotdogs and brats over the fire, had watermelon, grapes, and cucumber salad. Yum! Then...dun dun DUNNNN...for Art's birthday (which did not end up as a big surprise, but that's ok), I made Heath Bar Trifle. Being humble, I would say it went over well. Being accurate, I would say it was demolished in mere seconds. I am so relieved that Susan thought to grab some for LaNae and Randy (who were STILL working in the conference center on the wall.), b/c by the time I thought to get some, it was nearly licked clean. It was later licked clean by helpful barn cats. :)

After dinner started to wind down, all of the volunteers they had working there came over and we had an around-th-fire-pit sing along with them singing praise songs, many I had not heard of. Wyatt to bed, easily! 20 minutes or so later, Zach said he was pretty tired. So off to bed with him. Then it was just the EBFers and Susan/Shannon/kids left around the fire pit. We just sat around a talked for a good long while - it was after 10:30 for sure. **THEFT WARNING** If I complain that I "can't find" my super awesome folding banana shaped sports chair - you know where to look. One Randy Meyer. He spent most of the evening in my chair, and liked it just a little too much. :) [In all honesty, I looked on the internet after we got home, for about an hour, to see if I could find one like it. They do make them, and I found a few, but none for less than $40. I can't really justify spending $40 on a sports chair.] What a day. Off to bed. Tonight, no wind, and we put Zach between us, and we ALL slept like a log. No peeps from anyone. That's good sleepin'.

Sunday, July 19
Art is now 35 and 1 day old. He's really showing it too. :) Wyatt refused to take a morning nap. Flat out refused. Fine, be that way. The families were so nice, and let us use their bathrooms/showers so we could get cleaned up for church. They all belong to the Apostolic Church, and it was very neat to be able to go and experience something different. Like men and women sitting on the opposite side of the sanctuary (worked out great for me - I figured Zach, not quite old enough for Sunday School, is a boy, and should be on the male side!), greeting each other (not us visitors) with a holy kiss, etc. Two things I am very impressed with. They do not have paid preachers. They have 3 men who will decide, at that moment, which one will preach. They just open the book in the NT, give a message on wherever it opens, then the same thing for the OT. Their biblical knowledge must be amazing. Very very impressive. Second, the kneel to pray. I like that. I wish we did that more, even in my own home. Faye always does, and I admire it. After church, they serve lunch (before going in for another session) to everyone in a very cool and efficient way. I was very impressed with the set-up, and Stephanie M. (in charge of EBF's set-up and tear-down) made of mental note of what a good idea this was. There were long counter-type tables & barstools permanently set into the lunch area. A waitress of sorts comes by to offer drinks, and refill food trays. I wish I had taken it picture, but it was certainly a great model for post-church lunch fellowship. We had to get going after lunch. While I was changing and using the bathroom, Art let the boys run around in the grass for awhile. The parking lot was next to a corn field, so here are my children of the corn. Hmmm...not funny. That movie to too scary for me to see, or even think about. Slightly amusing, so it stays in.



Finally, the long drive home. We did not stop one time, gas maybe?, and it took us 6 hours. A bit of traffic on 55, then again on Lake Shore Dr. We SHOULD have stopped and changed Wyatt, that would have avoided some diaper rash. Everyone was pretty excited to get home. To bed early for us all!
Big Thanks to HIS Ranch for doing such a great hosting job!