Walker Ranch

We are officially back in the swing here with Nathan and Zoe both back at school after an awesome winter break.  Well, of course, we've been back in the swing for a couple of weeks now but it's  been a much less painful return to "the grind" as I'd feared.  It's been nice to have Nathan home most nights for dinner and on the weekends and the past couple weekends have been really quiet and pleasant.  We typically tend to look for a lot of activities and outings when we know we're all going to be together but we've been taking it easy these last couple of weekends and I'm so glad for it.

We didn't have anything planned this weekend, which turned out to be a relief because Owen caught another stomach bug, poor guy.  Yesterday he felt horrible so we stuck close to home...I baked a couple of loaves of bread, which is something I only do on occasion and every time I do, I tell myself I need to more often.  It always reminds me of my friend Mariah who baked her family's bread weekly instead of buying it at the store, and one of the best days to go to their house (although any day was a good day to do that) was on bread baking day.  Yuuuuuum.  At one point I got a funny reminder of why I love living here in Family Housing as I ran over to my friend Gretchen's house with a measuring cup and a big ziplock bag to pick up the one ingredient I'd forgotten to get at the store: flour. Duh.  Thanks for bailing me out, G!

During Owen's naptime Nathan, Zoe and I had a quiet board/card game marathon which is personally my favorite way to spend naptime.  I'm not sure the 3 of us had done that together before, especially now that Zoe is old enough to actually play most of the games by the real rules.  It was pretty perfect if you ask me.  Owen's stomach hurt all the way up until bedtime..he kept saying "Owww!! My tummy huhts!!" and wouldn't touch his dinner.  I eventually gave him a children's Pepto and after that settled in, he finally got some relief and felt better by the time he had to go to sleep.  As I hugged him goodnight, the sweet boy even tried to thank me for helping his tummy feel better...until he realized mid-sentence that that was the result of his completely filling his diaper:  "Sanks foh heping my tummy feel all beh...oh and zen Owen pooped and my tummy felt aw bettah. G'night!"

He felt better today but still wasn't 100% so we mostly stuck close to home again.  During naptime today though, I took Zoe to Walker Ranch up Flagstaff Mountain (man, that's a crazy road!) because they were having a free event called "Heritage Days" (today only).  They give tours, but you can also just go around on your own and check out all of the buildings and barns.  For this event, they have volunteers demonstrating how the people who were living there in the 1800's went about their daily lives.  Although one of the volunteers told me they have a website (they have 4 free events throughout the year), I can't for the life of me find it.  If you want to read more about the ranch you can check out this Daily Camera article about the event today.

Zoe and I both loved it.  At one point, she said in a very contented little voice "I could stay here all day."

The day could not have been more beautiful

Churning butter

The yummy treats...these biscuits were fresh from the wood stove in there so the little house smelled delicious too...that's apple butter there in the bowl and the cups were for hot apple cider.  Zoe couldn't get over how yummy the biscuits were.

That's a bathtub!

This one's for Jessica

Parlor games

Baby crib.  Zoe was blown away when I told her it was for a baby and not a doll.

Carefree days...

Making snowflakes in the wheat barn/schoolhouse.  Their July event is a "school" event...you can go see how they would have it set up for a school day and pretend you are going to school there...Zoe can't wait.

Blacksmith

Turkey/chicken coop...for some reason, this was one of Zoe's favorite parts of the day.  She even got the nerve up to ask the volunteer a few questions, which is huge for her.

The root cellar.  She didn't want to hang out there long.

Bedroom above the kitchen in the log house where they were baking the biscuits

Outside of the hay barn

Inside of the hay barn

On our way out.  She's holding up her snowflake because she couldn't believe how well she'd made it "I think it's my best one yet!"