Wednesday morning the kids were off painting a horse for a few hours (they literally let all the kids paint a white horse-I wish I had gotten pictures) so the rest of us went on a hike (Benjamin and Christina were still in Breckenridge).

 Deer Valley Ranch is situated in front of the Chalk Cliffs. We thought it would be neat to hike to the cliffs so that we could actually touch them. We didn't really follow a trail, but just kind of made up a path. It was really fun blazing our own way.

Tuesday Joey, Hannah, and I went on another horseback ride. I know this picture is blurry, but it was pretty cool having our horses walk through the river so I quickly whipped out my phone to try to capture the moment.

This time we did a Level 2 ride, so our horses walked and trotted. The kids loved getting to trot!

Monday night there was a big square dance, so we all got dressed up in our Western gear (as Western as we could).

The whole family came except for Benjamin, Christina, Ben and Lauren. Benjamin and Christina offered to babysit the little ones back at the cabin since they weren't interested in dancing.

We all had a great time at the square dance. We actually did all kinds of dances: the hokey pokey, the chicken dance, the two step, line dances, a square dance, and even a circle dance.

The circle dance was really fun because the inner and outer circles moved counter to each other so you kept changing partners.

Even Ellie could do that one!

When it was time for the square dance, it worked out almost perfectly because we had four couples, including Joey and Hannah. Ellie sat that one out and watched.

Here's the video of the chicken dance. I forget why Ellie was out of sorts at this point, but she rallied later on.

And here's a video of Rachel and me dancing. We were laughing so hard by the end that we could barely do the dance, but at least we started out knowing what we were doing!

It was a late night for the kids, so they all kind of melted down a little at the end, but overall it was SUCH a fun night. Definitely another highlight for me at least!

Monday morning instead of having breakfast at the lodge, we hiked about a mile away for the "Wrangler's Breakfast."

We got to Deer Valley Ranch at 4:00 just in time for check in and to get settled before dinner.  After dinner we went to a few talks about activities for the week. The real fun began on Sunday.

These five were happy to be reunited! 

 The main activity Joey and Hannah were excited to try at the dude ranch was horseback riding. 

Neither of them had ever done it before so I was curious to see how they would like it.

We signed up for an hour ride for beginners on Sunday.

Since we were on a beginners ride the horses just walked, but I showed the kids how to stop their horses for a bit and then trot to catch up with the group. They loved that.

The kids ended up LOVING everything about horseback riding and couldn't wait to go again. 

Ellie was too young to go on a regular horseback ride, but they let little ones go on a horse while a Wrangler led them around on a walk for about ten minutes. Ellie loved it too!

My parents treated us all to the week at Deer Valley Ranch and decided to splurge for the all-inclusive meal plan. Let's just say, that was a great decision! The food was amazing and never-ending.

We also had dessert at every meal! These two were all about that. I think Ben's diet consisted of bread and ice cream for the week. Can't say I blamed him.

 While there were plenty of activities at the ranch, we also had lots of downtime to hang out, play cards and read books.

A couple of weeks ago we went on our first road trip as a family to Nathrop, Colorado. We were heading to a dude ranch called Deer Valley Ranch with my side of the family.

As much as we were all excited about getting to the dude ranch, we were also legitimately looking forward to the road trip part!

Maybe it was this bucket of snacks we were taking.

Last year, Andy and I went to a Phish concert up in LA together. We had such a great time, but I didn't feel the need to see Phish in concert again this year, so Andy decided to go up by himself (wearing the same Sixers shirt that got him more high fives and a hug this year!).

When I opted out of the Phish concert, Andy reasoned that two of us going to one concert was the same price as him going to two concerts by himself. So with that in mind, he decided to also go to the Phish concert about an hour south of us the very next night.

The second concert was a lot better than the first one and he got to be way in the front. He was really pumped!

The concert was filmed, and these are a couple of screenshots. Notice Andy in the middle with the red shirt and white "3." 

When the camera cuts to the crowd, he's really easy to see. He's like a red rock in a sea of gyrating hippies.

Here's the show queued to a spot right before it pans to the crowd. Try to spot Andy: