Whiplash.

That’s what it feels like to transition from a week of perfection to a laundry list of stuff that stacked up while you were not checking in.

Not to mention the actual laundry.

But let’s not focus on the 37 texts and the 490 emails that I’ll need to eventually wade through.  (Although I am prone to it, that is not hyperbole.)

Let’s just share a few photos from a week well spent at Lost Valley Ranch.

 

 

We couldn’t even believe we were able to enjoy a third summer at the ranch.  I don’t think a single guest was a new person so it truly felt like a gigantic reunion.

 

 

In the shortest recap imaginable (because it’s very late and I’m in a dark hotel room with five sleeping kids in two beds that seem to grown increasingly smaller with every trip we take) – here are a few bits that were true in the past years that we adored again this year:

The generous and humble staff.  There’s nothing quite like it – the high level of service and kindness and overall just pleasantness that exudes from the people Lost Valley hires.  It’s remarkable, endearing and inspiring.

 

 

The uninterrupted living.  My phone is set to airplane mode from Sunday to Sunday.  I don’t check in or log on or click this or click that.  It is glorious.

The horseback rides and the long range views and the mountains.  I love when we walk slowly on mountain trails and my mind is just about blank and at actual rest.  I love when we lope and I focus on remaining in the saddle and I forget that if I keep grinning I’ll get rocks and dust in my mouth.

 

 

The friends who feel like family.  It’s easy, of course, to make friends when someone is making your bed every day and cooking your breakfast to order and your kids are rarely complaining and no one has a deadline to meet.  But still.  I have loved the long chats on horse rides with people I would never come across anywhere else.  The connections and threads that make our world small – like the wrangler who works for one of my college friends.  I love sitting by the pool and swapping stories and developing friendships and bonds that last throughout the year in our regular lives too.

 

 

A couple of new highlights this year included:

Trotting on a horse in the stream.  Now that was satisfying.

 

 

Standing up on my horse – because, why not?

 

 

Owning a couple of real deal Western shirts.  My kind friend Betsy, who always dresses impeccably, gave me two authentic cowgirl shirts so I can look legit for the rides.

Three teenagers of mine in the Teen Group.  And this summer that meant that the Keigleys were half of the entire group!

Otto caught 18 fish in one day.  The kid never stopped fishing it seemed.

 

 

Hummingbirds were swirling all over and several of my kids were able to hold a hummingbird and one little beauty even tried to find a meal in Otto’s ear!

 

 

Another run at branding calves.  (Came home with a small souvenir – a sweet burn on my thumb from the brand.  It will definitely leave a scar.  Purely user error on my part.)  And this year I added in a little castrating bulls to the mix and administering inoculations too.

Hiking to Sheep’s Rock early in the morning with Berg.  He’s like a mountain goat and I’m like the dead weight.

 

 

Riding a horse to a giant rock overlooking a beautiful valley early one morning.  Having breakfast cooked on that rock in cast iron skillets over an open flame – I’ve never tasted better pancakes with a sweeter view.

 

 

 

Winning the steer penning competition at the rodeo with London and Mosely and our friend Grayson.  I mean – how often does a mom get to say that?

 

 

You guys.  It was a good good week and if I could live in that sort of dreamy perfection all of my life, well – you know I would.  

A handful of women woke up early Saturday morning for a pre breakfast ride and we tied up our horses (and by “we” I mean the wranglers tied up my horse because I CANNOT master that simple knot – ugh) and we gathered on a rock outcropping overlooking the serene Lost Valley Ranch.  We shared our hearts and chatted a little about the struggle common to us all.  And I used a phrase I have used over and over in the last several years of my life.

 

 

Both And.

It’s the sort of life I am living.  Maybe we all are.

Both And.

I both love Lost Valley kind of living and I love my own regular old life.

I both want to place my heels hard in the soft life that a permanent vacation would be and I want to embrace the not-so-vacation life I actually live all the other 51 weeks of the year.

Both And.

And the going back and forth between those is a bit like navigating in the dark sometimes.

 

 

 

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