After Chris woke up, my cousin Josh let us ride his horse, and taught Chris how to shoe it. We also got to ride their 4 wheeler over part of the ranch.
Daddy & John. Before John got up there, Chris showed off his cowboy skills and galloped the horse out in the open field. I was pretty impressed with my cowboy!
Yep, I too got up there, and I even made my way out to the pasture, but I was not near as good as Chris, even though I grew up around horses. Probably cuz the last major horse riding experience I had was at camp, where we took the horses out to run them, and mine started galloping, then jumped one way and I fell off the other. Got a nice concussion and have been a little less gun-ho about running a horse from then on.
John even got to ride with Papa, which was the first time I saw my dad on a horse, even though I've seen pictures!!!
And had to document my mom on a horse too!
John got to ride up and down the "driveway" (about a mile long gravel road) and into some of the pasture, with his daddy on the 4 wheeler
Then Chris & I got to ride all over the ranch! It was a lot of fun!
When Ben woke up he also got to meet the horses. He thought it was great to be able to pet it!
My little cowboy!
My cousin Josh was kind enough to take Ben for a ride. He had a blast!
And John & daddy learned everything they ever wanted to know about horseshoing. Chris was fascinated!! John was a little distracted! (They had a "snort" with a horn that he loved playing with!)
And, I had to have a snap of my grandma and her little apartment in Helena!! :)
After we left my uncle's ranch, we stopped to checkout downtown Avon, eat at the Avon Cafe, and see my grandparent's old ranch, and my grandfather's grave. Unfortunately we had some mixup with our pictures and we lost all our Avon pictures. Avon a town of 125 ish people, is where my dad grew up, and where we used to go twice a year to visit my grandparents and help them on their ranch until my grandfather passed away.
It was really neat to show Chris around. He was fascinated by the stories from my dad & grandma. Dad showed us the school he used to go to (the playground equipment was still the same, and the shortcut he took to walk home was still there), the church that he grew up at, the old post office, and the old trading post turned grocer/all in one store. Dad & Grandma kept meeting all these people who had heard of them, or were related to people who Dad grew up with. We went by the gathering place where there used to be something happening (talent show, bingo, potlucks, etc.) weekly, but had been shut up for a long time. Dad explained that after Grandpa had died, pretty much most of the life of the town died as well. Everyone loved my grandpa, and he carried the town. We drove by the old ranch, but weren't able to go up there, b/c the people who live there would shoot trespassers even if we told them we used to live there. The people who bought it were mean, ruthless, all for themselves people, and only cared about their money. They were afraid that anyone who stepped foot on the property would take something that was theirs, or cause them to lose money in some way. My grandma told us a story of my uncle returning some cows of theirs who escaped and they accused him of not returning all of them, and had to go look and took some of my uncles b/c he said they were his.
Anyway, after we "snuck" a picture of the ranch from the highway, we went on to see the Avon cemetery. Pretty much every Senecal who has ever lived is buried there. In fact, not sure if there's very many other families there!!! :) Actually the land was donated by one of my family members for a cemetery.
After the cemetery, Chris & dad left straight for Bozeman, while mom, Grandma, the boys & I went to Helena, to look at Grandma's apartment and meet my Aunt Anna Marie and her boys. Grandma had to show me all the crossstiches she had completed, all her new fabric, around the kitchen, and gave me some yummy chocolates! We met my aunt at Walmart, cuz she wanted to meet Benaiah, and wasn't able to make it out to my uncle's that morning. It was short, but it was good. Then began the "long" drive back to Bozeman (1 1/2 hrs). It was only long because I was so tired. I don't think I slept much on the drive back from Oregon. We made it back just in time to turn in the van, and then head to my parents! What a great road trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment