Wednesday, February 17, 2010

When the Cows Come Home...

Yes, friends...it's that time of year again. Last Friday we all came together and drove the cows the 16 miles home to the ranch headquarters, which can only mean one thing! CALVING SEASON!!! Jordan, James, and I stayed back at the ranch to sort and vaccinate the 2nd and 3rd calvers while Chase, Megan, April, Brian, Gracie, Natalie, and their friends Casey and Flora (as well as Olivia and Abby) all started the rest of the herd home from my house. Reiny, Jordan, and I went out and met them when they were about 6 miles from home and Reiny and I rode Reggie (the horse) the rest of the way home. Reiny looked so cute up there and was having a ball! She got tired by the time we made it back to the ranch and had all but fallen asleep on the horse in my arms.

It looked like quite a circus with all those little kids on horseback, but they seemed to handle things quite well. Gracie has great balance on a horse, and Natalie rode all by herself for the first time on a horse she's named "Snow" (can you guess what color he is?). We made it home...ate ourselves silly on "gut-buster chili," and watched the openning ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The next day, we all took turns sorting the rest of the cows (about 1200!!!) and then vaccinated all the "heavy" ones. "Heavy" refers to the ones that are closest to calving...it's a good thing Jordan never used that term with me when I was expecting! April and I got COVERED in cow crap, but it was still a lot of fun...if you can believe that! I always like when April and Brian come for a visit...they are such a breath of fresh air.

Saturday night, Chase, Megan, Jordan, and I went to Salmon for dinner and a movie. The dinner was delicious and the movie probably the best one I've seen in years! We went and saw The Blind Side. That was such an awesome movie and I wish I had the nerves of steel like Sandra Bullock's character did!

Anyway, here's some pictures of the cows we moved home from about 40' in the air. Jordan lifted Brian up on our loader and he took some pictures for me. The only cows missing in this picture are the 2nd and 3rd calvers (about 450) since they were already sorted and vaccinated. Still quite an impressive herd...

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

It's true what they say...

There's no place like home!!! Oh how I just love Kauai...it really is starting to feel like my 2nd home. I know where everything is, where to find the best deals, and even the best places to eat. We had such an amazing time on the island. This trip was definitely not as stress-free as last year's trip, but I'm sure the 6 hour plane trip with the 2 year old had something to do with that.

Reiny LOVED the ocean!!! She was not even the least bit afraid of the waves or sand. One day the weather called for high-surf on the western shore, so we drove over there to see what their definition of high-surf was...oh, holy crap!!! Those waves were HUGE!!! (that's what she said :) ) There were locals on the beach with their surfboards saying "dude...no way am I going in today!" I look over and there's Reiny making a bee-line for the water! Needless to say...she LOVED IT!!!

We also took a train ride through an old sugar plantation, fed some wild pigs (and goats), went kayaking on the Wailua River up to Secret Falls, took a catamaran boat trip around the Na Pali coast to see whales and dolphins, went to Luau Kalamaku, and still found time to relax by the ocean and watch Reiny bury Daddy in the sand.

We also went snorkeling with sea turtles and Reiny would lay on her boogie-board with a "peep hole" into the water and watch the fish swim underneath her. She loved the brightly colored ones!

The whole trip was just awesome, and everywhere we went the people kept saying they couldn't believe how well-behaved Reiny was! I thought so too!! When we took our boat trip, the crew was so worried that she was going to be seasick that they stuck us in the back of the boat. Reiny had about enough of that and ran to the front, held on to the railing and was squeeling at the top of her lungs "wook at me! wook at me!!! wook mommy a doffin!" There were grown men spewing there guts out off the back and there's my 2 year old trying to jump in to catch the dolphins!!! It was amazing!

We went to a luau and Reiny just watched in total amazement! During the dinner portion, Reiny went up on stage and started shaking her hips. Everyone started to laugh and some people were actually taking pictures of her!! AHH...she'll probably be the next star on YouTube!

We had such a great time as a family and I even got to do a little shopping this time before we took off, much to Jordan's dismay :) Reiny slept the whole flight home and picked up her usually schedule like she'd never missed a beat!



Now we're home and potty training!! Reiny's doing awesome. I was ready to quit half way into the first day, and started crying when she wet her 5th pair of panties. Reiny said "Mommy, are you sad?" and I said, "yes, Reiny, I just want you to pee in the potty." She said, ok, and went in the bathroom and peed in the potty!!! After that she didn't have anymore accidents that day. On Sunday she only had two accidents, one as they were saying the closing prayer in Sacrament. She said I have to pee and I ran her to the bathroom, but we didn't make it in time. then during the Super Bowl we all got distracted and forgot to take her when she asked...opps! In any case, she's doing awesome with that too and today (cross my fingers) no accidents yet!!! Yay!! Wish us luck...we might be getting somewhere!