Last day of summer vacation, first day of school

Last week I told my kids to decide together what they wanted to do the last day of summer vacation. They put their heads together and decided they wanted to have a cousin sleepover and then go for a hike the next day.  Only 2 out of the 4 available cousins could spend the night, but they still all had a blast.

My son really wanted to go hiking in what I consider the back part of the ranch and see the house my dad lived in when he was a baby. I had just moved cows there Saturday and was itching to get back in there are explore a little more myself so it worked out perfect.

My sister in law went along also.  As the road is pretty rough getting back in to the old house we parked and walked in.  The kids were troopers and had so much fun exploring as we went, finding feathers, an old animal trap in a tree, cool rocks, looking for treasures etc, but when we finally came over a hill and saw the house they took off running for it.

My dad, his three sisters and their parents lived in this tiny house, with no running water, no electricity, no telephones when he was younger.  Clearly it has seen better days.

It was fun to ride through here with my aunt and hear stories about the place. I love family history.

The view out on of the living room windows,  I could handle that! The trees near the bottom of the picture is where the water came from.

view out the living room window

We explored around and found the root cellar, the old double seater out house that was occupied by a rattlesnake, a sheep dip, all kinds of treasures.

and we found these initials (or is it a brand) carved into a sandstone rock with a date. I can imagine the person who carved them would be happy to know they were found and the kids were super impressed with them

Little cowboy also decided he really wanted to ride his horse. This had me a bit torn as he decided it as I was getting ready for a run. In the end I blew off the run and helped him with his horse. I decided since it was the last day of summer vacation I would rather spend that time with him. He is growing up so fast!

Lil Cowboy, Pepper (the horse) Gunpowder and Tip (the cats)

And there was a captive audience in the corrals to watch him ride.

We ended the day by heading down to the open house at the school and dropping off all the school supplies.  Today is the first day of 2nd grade for lil cowgirl and 3rd grade for lil cowboy.  I will get in my missed run today.