We came up to the ranch last night for a quick weekend escape and have been relaxing and hanging out up here all day - ranch life is the best!! Even worth the 6 hour drive up and back for less than 2 days :)

Maisie in the morning ready to hit the feed store

lilacs in bloom all around the house (so glad we didn't tear them out when they were dormant and scraggly looking!)

JJ practicing for her pony ;)

and headed out on a mission with my girls on the backroads

just the bigs while Tess was out on the ranch with Dad.

and we got.... Chickens!!

21 little buggers! Feed store had 11 breeds in stock. #trouble

girls are smitten. Tiny is not sure. JJ might be first to kill one.

Maisie and her favorite two. So far they named 6 of them after Little House on the Prairie characters

and JJ is learning to be gentle. The girls love the story of two year old aunt Kat holding one too tight and brining it to Oma saying "peep peep go night night!"

doing their ranch chores to get the chicken coop ready

we have them in an old shed thing behind the house for now.

Tiny substituting her favorite puppy for riding a pony. He will do.

then off on 4wheeler to greet the cows and calves that are moving on the upper pastures to graze for a few months. Yay for more animals, even if they aren't ours (wait that's even better ;) this is heff's office right now.

the girls ask to put their toes in the irrigation ditch stream and one minute later it's down to this. Every time! Heff surveys the ranch and tiny just wants to be big

this was minutes before ;)

I love my husband and I love how happy he is out on the ranch farming and working hard. And yes we are wearing matching wranglers - I gave my sister full authority to make fun of me and told her I'm saving the sparkle butt ones for rodeo!

sisters at the old hay barn. Trying to figure out just how many chickens we can cram in here

and what am I to do with this kid!? #JJstyle

later in the afternoon after Tiny napped and I read out on a blanket in the sun (so rare and so good) we went to a BBQ and met lots of new fort jones people (might be the nicest group of people we've ever met in one place!) We had Coors Light and kids - do you need anything else?