Be Still My Heart

My mom arrived last week in order to join our fam for a 3 day trip to a Wyoming Dude Ranch.  I've been looking forward to getting the heck outta town for weeks, but I had no idea how much we would all fall in love with life on the ranch.  We've been home for over a week and I'm still gloomy about the fact that we couldn't ditch suburbia and stay there.  Forever.  What made us fall so deeply for this 300,000 acre sanctuary of bliss?

 The above photos are from a cattle ranch 20 minutes outside the dude ranch.  The kids were picking up cow pies (knowingly) and chucking them in the stream.  And then subsequently licking their hands.  I threw my intuitions out the window at that point.  Everything was fair game.  Poop and all.  

 This is to warn you of the airstrip you're above to drive over.    

 Our home away from home.  Directly over a rushing river.  Come on.  

Below are countless (I apologize) images of the highlight of the weekend for my dear son.  This child is afraid of rolypolys but fell head over heels in love and adoration with the 120 horses on the property.  He would talk to them, pet them, feed them, brush them, giggle at them....I've never seen him so immediately drawn to a creature with no qualms or fears.  We were blessed with a 2 hour period of time with Miss Lynne (his cowgirl).  She gave him a one-on-one with the horses and allowed him a chance to learn how to ride and lead horses around the pen.  He was over the moon and did so well.  So, forgive on onslaught of photos.  It was a rather special weekend for the Dude.  

 These front 2 white horses would not leave each other's side.  Dude rode one of them and the other needed to be tied up to watch.  It was darling. 

He loved him his cowgirl.  At first he referred to her as "his farmer."  We educated him at that point.

 

 

Home, home on the range.  Where the deer, the antelope, my children, the horses and the chicken play.  Where seldom is heard a discouraging word or a whine or a screaming cry.  And the skies are not cloudy all day.  And people make us food.  And clean the dishes.

A big part of me feels like God intended life to be like what we experienced here.  I have a better understanding of the passion so many people feel for a rural way of life.  No TV.  No Internet.  No cell service.  No skyscrapers.  No pollution.  No video games.  No Walmart.  No traffic.  Everything there was as it's meant to be.  Free and endless entertainment for kids -the young ones and the adult ones. Natural, relaxed and unbelievably beautiful.   Of course it's not for everyone, but I felt so incredibly at peace and happy there.  I couldn't run errands or get on Facebook, so I didn't.  I long to go back and wonder if some day we might just find a plot of land in Sedalia or Evergreen by a stream and call it a day.  Weirder things have happened.