Back Up in July!

Happy 4th of July!

We missed the annual Class of '62 trip to Jerry's Bell Cross Ranch in Montana last year because we were on our wonderful "back to my roots" trip to Norway and Sweden with my siblings and spouses. Roger was pretty excited to go this year, so July 9 we headed up north  to stay with Rick and Jodie before we left for the ranch.

Rick arranged for his son, Josh, his son-in-law, Joe, Roger and himself to golf at the Eaglewood Golf Course, which is behind their home. I got a much-needed haircut!

Roger was in heaven the 3 days at the ranch, riding horses, trap shooting, driving the Ranger off-road vehicles, and mostly, gabbing and catching up with his life-long friends. The latter is also what I love, too. What a wonderful group of friends they are!

It's down to 9 out of 26 of those who still want to ride horses on an 2 1/2 hour trail ride.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . here are some of the non-horse riders who will ride in Rangers up and down the mountain to the meadow where we will be served a grilled hamburger lunch.

Now it's time to ride back down the mountain.

We had a great dinner and program the second night. This is the year of the big 80th birthday for the Class of '62, and 2 classmates, Joan and Jerry, celebrated their birthdays at the ranch with all of us.

We played a couple of trivia games for prizes - chocolate kisses. Roger and I won the 1st one, and actually the 2nd, too, but were too embarrassed to call out our score! Me, the game hater! Not anymore! But, this'll never happen again!

Probably Roger's favorite activity of all is skeet shooting. He's a sharp shooter and doesn't miss many!

The last day, a group, including Roger, went on a long Ranger ride and had a flat tire, so they were gone all afternoon. Again, back at the ranch, I enjoyed a lively and heart-felt conversation with some of the girls. We've spent a lot of time together through the years, with many class gatherings, and I truly love these girls and guys - they're good people!

The last night was a celebration with a live country band and a delicious filet mignon dinner. A friend in St. George works at an auction house and she picked me up this hat for $12! I love it! A woman who had a crazy amount of country western stuff died and her husband auctioned it all off. 

Joyce and Jimmy

Chris and Lyle

Jerry, our wonderful facilitator for houseboat, Deer Valley and dude ranch get-togethers

Vickie, Jerry's wife, and Linda and Fred Stettler, our dear friends

Carol and Danny, dear friends

Suzanne and Max - such great people. She was a high school counselor at OHS for our kids. 

We returned to Rick's home on Sunday (about a 71/2 hour drive), and on Monday morning, Rick, Jodie and family left for Banff, Canada, and we stayed with and took care of this guy! He was so good and happy all week, and, though it's a lot of work (Roger does all of the heavy lifting, so to speak), it was also a lot of fun! We love this kid!

Blake LOVES to go swimming and we spent some fun time in their pool!

Missy and Jedd had been to Banff the week before, and she was in SLC at a concert with daughter, Ellie, who left to go home with friends so she could go to work the next day, and we invited Missy over to the dinner we made for Rick and family when they returned from their trip. Missy was staying over to help host the aunts' shower for Katie on the next day. They had a great time comparing notes, talking about what they had seen and done and seeing each other's photos.

On Monday night at her Aunt Jenny's home in Pleasantview, I attended a lovely bridal shower for this beautiful granddaughter, Katie. She is so excited for her upcoming wedding August 29!

I am so grateful to be back up and not exactly running, but able to be a part of all of these happenings in my busy family life! I don't take that for granted!