One challenge of raising beef cattle, or any livestock/agricultural product, is that you are tied to the cows, fields, pivots, tractors, basically the dirt you live on every day of your life.  This makes travel of any sort tricky and virtually non-existent.  However, occasionally the stars will align, there will be a pressing need to travel somewhere (i.e. a sibling’s wedding), the fields will be planted, irrigation not begun yet, the cows are all in the pastures they’re meant to be in (this is a joke!), and a rancher can go on a family vacation for a few days.  Such an event occurred just two weeks ago for my family and it was so delightfully wonderful!

We drove from our home through Southern Idaho and Northern Utah and stopped at many of the parks and sites along the way to Ty’s brother Tanner’s wedding.  Any of you familiar with the area might say there’s nothing to see along that drive, but with the use of many back-highways and the need to stop every 90 minutes for the sake of two small kiddos, I beg to differ.  Since school is starting again and spring is a notoriously busy time of year for my life, the pictures and story of our trip are in reverse order…and I’m too lazy to reverse it.  Enjoy!

Here are my girls on Saturday night, home and happy to be watching the familiar “Pinkalicious” show for a few minutes before bedtime.  Both were so relieved to be unbuckled from their carseats and given free-reign over their toys at last.

Our second-to-last stop on Saturday was at the City of Rocks National Park.  What an amazing place!  The rocks are breathtaking, everywhere you look there is another huge formation jutting out from its otherwise flat surroundings.  We went on a mini-nature walk (I can’t call it a hike really) around Bathtub Rock and did a little amateur rock climbing.

Becca had a great view atop Mr. Rancher’s shoulders.  This guy is such a fun-loving and adventurous dad!  Just one of the many things I love about him.

We even let Miss Becca climb around the base of the rocks.  Honestly, she is probably the strongest out of all of us given how much time she spends crawling and climbing everywhere.  If she was a bit more balanced, she could’ve climbed the whole thing without even breaking a sweat.  I however, would have been breaking a sweat watching her do it.

“I got this, Mom.  Chill out.”

I can’t chill out!  Becca wanted to go anywhere she could and did get frustrated with my ever-present hands ready to catch her.  Henley only stayed with us for a minute before climbing with her dad.

She’s a real rock climber!

We were so lucky to have cousins with us on this trip.  Jake and Tina and their kids came down for the wedding and we got to spend lots of time playing at the Lodge where we stayed and playing at the various stops on the way back.

Miss Independence loved having the older kids to play with and loved playing at the City of Rocks. 

Here you see our vantage point from the top of Bathtub Rock.  Mr. Rancher, me, Jake, Lexcie, Trayce, and Joely made the scary (though definitely amateur) climb to the top to see the natural bathtub formed in the top of these rocks.  

I’ll admit, my head was spinning from the top of the rocks.  I’ve never been afraid of heights or nervous about things like climbing rock walls or roller-coasters, but there must be something about having two kids that messes with my sense of balance, invincibility, and nerves overall.  

The view was awesome, but I wasn’t sorry to climb back down.  Unfortunately, there was a troop of Boy Scouts waiting for us to get out of the way so they could climb up and I had an audience to watch my less-than-graceful descent from the start of the climb which was a makeshift re-bar ladder several feet off the base of the rock.  I couldn’t seem to find a place to plant my foot as the ladder ended and did a nice belly-slide down the front of the rock.  Graceful.

Ty stayed on top much longer and said “Take one last picture of me, just in case.”  Gee thanks, honey.  He’s too much of a daredevil for me sometimes.  He wanted to bring Henley up with us, but I put my foot down there.  That doesn’t happen too often, but the steep climb and possibility of falling hundreds of feet to, at the very least, a set of broken bones. 

Wonderful Aunt Lexcie! She was so much fun on this trip, helping with the kids and showing us the best places to go.

We made it! 

In an effort to document Mr. Rancher and me, rather than just Mr. Rancher and the kids, I took many more selfies this trip than usual.  Going through my blog, I realized that I don’t have many pictures of my husband and me, so I’m trying to be better about getting in the picture myself and to take photos of my marriage along with my family.

Henley loved spending so much time with Aunt Lexcie on this trip.  They even shared a bed at the lodge.  On our way home Henley let out a big sigh and said, “oh it’s so sad! Lexcie doesn’t get to sleep with me tonight!”  I’m Lexcie slept just fine without a three year old’s knees in her back.

Friday was the day of the wedding.  Here we are, all dressed up and ready to head to the temple.  

This is Miss Becca, aka the sumo wrestler, just before getting into her very beautiful but very restrictive dress.  Joely was the best babysitter and actually had to be grounded from holding Becca so that the baby could have a crawling break. 

This was Thursday night, just before bed.  These three were trying to watch Leap for probably the third time.  I don’t think they ever finished it since they insisted on starting from the beginning each time they sat down to watch it.

We spent Thursday in Salt Lake City at Hogle Zoo and Temple Square.  This is a photo of us driving back to the lodge after a long day of site-seeing and walking…

One of my favorite things about Salt Lake City is this Christus.  It is amazing how large, beautiful, and majestic our Savior looks up close.  Henley thought it was amazing for about five minutes then was ready for the next adventure.  

Our token family photo before leaving the zoo for the day.

Another selfie…with my honey.

The polar bears put on such a great show! They dove and swam all around their enclosure. 

You can’t tell by this picture, but Becca thought we needed to bring the polar bears home with us for her entertainment.

Lazy lions sleeping in the sun.  All the big cats were too sleepy to be very interesting.

This is a snapshot from our drive down to the zoo.  In hopes of playing in the splash pad with Henley, Mr. Rancher wore a tee-shirt and swim trunks to the zoo.  He acts like a complete nitwit when he wears tees and shorts and this time was no different.  He chewed fourteen pieces of grape-flavored gum the whole two hour drive and repeatedly blew bubbles the size of soccer balls.  It’s so clear to me why he almost always wears button-down shirts and jeans…he needs the clothes to make him act like a sensible adult!

Catching a nap on the way down.  Didn’t look comfortable then and doesn’t look comfortable now.

These last pictures are from our very first stop of the entire trip in Twin Falls, ID.  We were lucky enough to see ten base-jumpers jump and land from the bridge over the Snake River.  It was so scary to watch!  I will never be participating in that activity.

Overall, our trip was so much fun!  It was a much needed and overdue break from the routine of our daily life.  We were happy to get home and back to normal, but so grateful for the break and the chance to just play for a few days.