Ensign Ranch - (Majority is from Allison's blog...)

We had wanted to start a tradition of going up to Ensign Ranch as a family for memorial day weekend, but when we went to book the lodge for this year, it was already taken! We decided to go the weekend before Memorial Day weekend instead! And since we didn't have all the family able to come along, we invited some friends to join us this year. It turned out to be a super fun trip!

All together there was us, Aaron & Alliosn, and three other friend families....the Hancocks, the Andersons and the Huffs. Most of us made it up there by Friday afternoon...we prepped dinner and had a fun game of kick-ball.

Saturday we got up and enjoyed a nice big, hot pancake and sausage breakfast! Yum! Then some people headed out for a walk and to check out whether we could ride horses this year! Check out this scenery!!!

It was drizzly and sort of cold, but where there are horses, you'll find several of these kids....The older ones got to go on a trail ride, (We had a few weepy faces since some of them didn't meet either the height or weight requirements.) Those that couldn't go on the trail, got to go on parent led horse rides, (Or more like Hancock led), but only 3 could go out at a time, so there was some waiting involved. The first glimpse of the horses!

We decided to feed and pet the "non-riding-horses" in the other corral while we waited.

By the time everyone got their rides in...it had begun raining and we were freezing! We headed back to warm up at the Lodge and enjoyed sandwiches, fruit and chips for lunch, then just kicked back and hung out all afternoon together!

This is what the kids did the majority of the time. FOUR SQUARE!!

This picture was actually taken the next morning when we were cleaning up, but it shows the huge great room where we spent all our time. The kids played pool, shuffle board and four-square all day here!

That night we had burgers and hot dogs for dinner...

Again, more pictures of the facility...the kitchen is AWESOME for big groups!

And one more just cuz Janelle posed so cute!

Check out Janelle's cute baby, Jane!

Then the kids watched a movie while the adults cleaned up and hung out, and we ended the night roasting s'mores outside in the fire pit! I love s'more pictures!

Someone brought those awesome HUGE marshmellows!

It was super smokey 'cuz the rain was still drizzling!

After that we cleaned up the sticky mess and got the kids into sleeping bags and eventually asleep!

The adults stayed up gabbing the night away and playing games! Really fun times!

The next morning we got up, cleaned up the lodge and headed home....

So much fun!! Can't wait until next year!!

cousins...

A photo during Kassi's soccer game and what the boys occupied themselves with...you can tell they really love each other :)

Fishing after the games was quite the experience. I don't think Mike will do this again without more adults. He was constantly being asked to help cast lines, untangle lines, reel in lines, get guck off of hooks, and once--to help get a fish!! Mikenna was asking for help as she was trying to reel in her line. We thought she had once again caught a ball of green stuff, I asked Tanner to help her out, and what do you know!! It was actually a fish!!

Sunday they worked on a welcome home sign for Aaron and Allison...a pic of Mike's scout group that he is in charge of and a random donut.

May times...

Girls having fun at their friends :) We don't usually get an opportunity to play with these types of toys.

Spent an afternoon cleaning out under the stairs...aka the toy, game, and book closet....

And then photos of the side of the house where we have to put up an expensive retaining wall, which our neighborhood developer is making us do...