A big thanks to everyone I stole pictures from while my camera was out of commission!
We spent the end of July at a "dude ranch" and it was a great break from daily life, let me tell ya! The Coleman Clan branched out from our normal winter cabin trip, opting to change things up by going on a summer trip to the backcountry of southern Utah for a several-night stay at a genuine working ranch. It was the whole package, complete with no cell service, homestyle meals, and wranglers walking around in boots and cowboy hats. It felt good to have that phone on airplane mode for a few days.
There were 24 in our group, if I'm counting correctly. The ranch scheduled out all our major activities, so we didn't have to share horses or river tubes or the archery range with any other groups, which I really appreciated.
Hmmm, I think this will be easiest if I just break the trip down by activity. In no particular order:
ARCHERY
CANOEING
There was a little pond on the ranch grounds, with a couple canoes on the banks for people to use on a first-come, first-serve basis. We took those canoes out on the pond a couple times, and it was enjoyable. Especially trying to chase the ducks that live in the pond. Their names are Ducky, Littlefoot, Spike, and Petrie. Haha! And yes, I was a bit apprehensive about having no life vests on the kids. We even almost tipped once while my sister was helping us get the canoe back on the bank, eek! Luckily, it's just a little pond. Not a lake.
HIKING
There are several different hikes available to go on, and our group went up a canyon to the lower shaft of the old antimony mine. Antimony is a silvery-white metal that the little town of Antimony is named after. The hike was not difficult at all, but my kids still tired out quickly. Luckily, there were plenty of adults willing to take turns giving them piggyback rides!
WATER GAMES
We played a couple different water balloon games on our last afternoon at the ranch, despite the overcast sky and risk of getting rained on. We played water balloon volleyball (pairs using towels to catch and sling water balloons over the net) and battleship. We hung sheets over the volleyball net, everyone had to pick a spot to lie down, and then the teams took turns having one person stand up to lob a water balloon over the net. If you got reasonably wet, even if you weren't hit directly (ex: the balloon lands right next to your head) then you were out!
We finished up our water games by dunking people in the dunk tank. My parents, siblings, and I were all clamoring over the chance to dunk my youngest sister Jenna, who was the first to volunteer. I can't remember if Johnathon or Carissa was the one to finally sink her. Doug took a turn in the tank too, along with several cousins and uncles.
CAMPFIRE
One evening, our group got free reign over one of the fire pits on the grounds. We roasted marshmallows and sang cheesy songs (all Girl's Camp songs, actually, led by Jenna and Kiernan. We rolled our eyes, but I know I would have done the same thing at their age. Gotta love Girl's Camp!) The pit we used was right by the volleyball net, so a chunk of the group ended up migrating over there to play nighttime volleyball, with only a couple cell phone flashlights to provide light.
PETTING BARN
There were several "new mom" horses being kept at the petting barn with their foals. There were also pigs, sheep, goats, bunnies, chickens, and even four adorable little puppies! Our group had several opportunities to feed the animals, and we could always pet them through the fence. We got an opportunity on our last full day to go in the stalls. Most notably, of course, the puppy stall. Such cute puppies! But then a little girl who lives onsite brought the fluffiest little kitten over, and I said sayonara to those puppies because I'm a crazy cat lady, though and through. Oh man, I wanted that kitten so bad! So fluffy, and so cuddly with the perfect amount of feistiness. Such pretty markings on his face too! But our house isn't kitten-ready at the moment. First of all, I still need to solve the issue of where to put a litter box... #YoungKidProblems #Someday
HORSEBACK RIDING
I talked about this more in my last post, but there were a handful of opportunities for us to take horses out through the countryside, with just as many chances for the younger kids to go on pony rides around the ranch grounds. My very first horse was named Slim Jim, and he was anything but slim. He also REALLY liked to snack, so I had to keep yanking his reins to keep him from eating while we were riding through the grass. My brother had the same problem when he rode ol' Slimmy the next day, haha! My next horse--Little Rheba--was much easier on my hands. No yanking the reins with her!
At the end of the day, we could help unsaddle the horses so they could get ready to be let loose on the fields for the night to graze. So many horses!
FAMILY RODEO
We had our very own family rodeo on the morning of our last full day at the ranch. We got to try our hand at barrel racing and pole bending to see who could do it the fastest. We also did a relay race where we split into two teams and we had to see which team could transfer the most water from one bucket to another with a ladle while riding on horseback (which Nicole got to participate in!).
After the horseback events came mutton bustin' and calf riding. If you were under 65 lbs, you could try your hand at riding on a sheep. One of my cousins held on for a full 6 seconds, it was impressive! Anyone over 65 lbs could give calf riding a try. Because of the risk for broken bones and concussions, we only had two of our group try it. Both teenage girls, and they both lasted about 3 seconds at the most. Calves are crazy! I can't even imagine a full-grown bull!
The winners of each of our events had a little race to see who would be crowned "King of the Rodeo" and then we had our final event: calf chasing. The wranglers let 3 calves loose. Two had a strip of duct tape on them, and one didn't. Whoever got the duct tape off the calf could go trade it in for some ice cream from the gift shop ice cream parlor. I almost snagged some--felt that tape under my hands--but only came up with a couple cow hairs in my hand. Poor calf! Doug managed to snag one of them, so he handed it off to me. Aww, how sweet. Man, it's hard to run in an arena of sand! The calves had the advantage!
HORSE "PAINTING"
We had one activity where we "painted" a couple horses using chalk dipped in water. The horses were oh-so-patient, and I imagine all the rubbing felt very nice to them! We all felt that the activity was incorrectly named, though, because we were all picturing actual paint. Whiiiiiich makes no sense because why would you put paint on a horse?! Haha. The chalk just comes right off with the next rainstorm (and rain is common down in Antimony). Paint? Not so much.
BAND NIGHT (with line dancing)
On band night, a couple wranglers came and taught us a few line dances, and then a little band got set up in the main lounge area so we could put our country line dancing to work, dancing to a live band! They played a couple fun "freestyle" numbers too, and we kept on dancing from 8:30 until 10:15 that night! I probably should have changed out of my flip flops because they kept coming off my feet, and I didn't feel like going barefoot, but oh well!
TUBING
I don't have pictures of any of the actual tubing excursions, so here's a picture of some of our group post-tubing down the river! Our last tubing activity was scheduled first thing in the morning on our last day, and only 3 or 4 boys went on it because nobody else wanted to get in that cold water when the morning was still fresh! I didn't end up going tubing, which was probably a good thing because we had practically no place to hang wet clothes and extra towels in our room. Those who went enjoyed it, though!
Not pictured:
+ The kids' playground and the big wooden swing hanging from a tree
+ Playing Bananagrams late into the night
+ Our teeny, tiny bedrooms (but man, that AC worked really well!)
+ Austin still taking his 2+ hour naps in the afternoon (kid loves to sleep!)
+ Going on a "treasure hunt" across the ranch
+ All the cowboy hats Nicole tried on in the gift shop
+ The ever-changing weather
+ Games of ping-pong and pool
+ Nicole making a horse craft during craft time and naming it Ryan after her uncle
+ How tired we were from climbing all the stairs to the 3rd floor all day #noelevators
+ Taking a wagon ride through the town of Antimony... pulled by a tractor because the horse who usually pulled the wagon had a baby recently
+ A big, loud family sing-along session in the lounge while waiting for dinnertime. Me at the piano, everyone calling out songs they wanted to sing. Did we annoy other guests? Perhaps. Did we care? No. Did we enjoy ourselves? Immensely.
+ Other extra activities that our family didn't take part in, such as a dutch oven cookout, advanced/day-long horseback rides, nighttime horseback rides, rounding up horses in the morning, cattle runs, fishing, skeet shooting, lassoing, rock climbing, and rappelling. There are other activities I'm forgetting too, I'm sure.
Aaaaaand a couple more pictures:
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