Wheeler Ranch

This past weekend, we took a road trip to Tarpley to spend a couple of days at the ranch.  We had been wanting to go before it got too hot and before I got too pregnant, and thankfully we were able to find a weekend that worked for the rest of Ben's family to go down there, too.  Every time that we go down to the ranch, we have even more fun than the time before, and this trip was no exception.  Between the fishing, the gator rides, the animals, the construction equipment, and the great outdoors, the ranch is pretty much every little boy's dream, and it was so fun watching Jackson experience all of it.

We left our house as soon as Jackson got up on Friday morning.  It had been a while since he had been in the car for that long, so we weren't really sure what to expect on the 2.5-hour drive, but we brought the iPad, picked up doughnuts, and hoped for the best.

Thankfully it went well.  We actually made it all the way to Bandera before he started to get restless, and at that point, we pretty much started handing him anything and everything that we could find in the truck to keep him entertained. 

Unfortunately, it rained almost the whole way down there, so the drive wasn't quite as beautiful as it usually is.  I was a little worried about what we would do if it ended up raining the entire weekend, but thankfully, it only seemed to rain when we were sleeping, so it didn't really interfere with much and kept the temperatures down enough for us to actually enjoy being outside.

Wheeler Ranch -- Tarpley, Texas

As soon as we got there, we headed down to the lake to do some fishing.  Jackson was definitely ready to catch some real fish, and although we didn't ever put a real hook on his pole, he did get to help both Ben and Pops reel in a fish, which was so fun -- both for him and for all of us.

Baby's 1st catch...

Although he was saying "cheeeese" for the picture, he would not take his eyes off the fish.  And I was so excited that I completely cut Ben out of the picture and didn't even realize till I was looking back the series of pictures later and barely saw that he was smiling for the camera, too.  Oops!

Helping Pops reel his in, too.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time inside, but when we did, we had fun "playing" shuffleboard, pool, foosball, and Big Buck Hunter.  While Josh and Ben take their shooting very seriously, Jackson apparently thinks that shooting wildlife is hilarious.

If I had to guess what Jackson's favorite part of the weekend was it would probably be the gator rides.  He absolutely loved just riding around the ranch and especially enjoyed driving over the low water crossings.  He always wanted us to speed up to make a big splash, and if he was lucky enough to have Ben driving {and me in the other gator}, everybody inside would get absolutely soaked.

It was a little too cold to swim in the spring, but that didn't keep Jackson and Memaw from wading through it.

Uncle Jack and Aunt Lisa recently bought another nearby ranch that has all sorts of animals on it, so of course, Jackson was more than happy to take a gator ride out there to feed Ella {the deer}, the pigs, and the cows some "cookies" and to help give Taz {the calf} a bottle of milk.

Instead of calling the deer "Ella", Jackson called her "Brella", which happens to be the same word that he uses for "umbrella".  Thankfully Ella didn't seem to mind though and enjoyed the cookie regardless.

A bunch of real-life Wilbur's.

Uncle Jack's newest ranch hand.

Helping Pops make breakfast and quickly taking over.

Another highlight of Jackson's trip was getting to ride/operate all of the construction equipment with Pops and Ben.  And apparently all of his practice with his toys has paid off because Ben said he was pretty good, too -- although something tells me that he's just a little biased.

On Saturday afternoon during Jackson's nap, Ben and I set out on a little gator date.

We drove over to the garden first and stuffed ourselves silly with blackberries {or was that just me?} and then went cruising.

We ended up finding a spot on the ranch that we had never been to before with a sign labeled "pond".

We drove down to the pond to check it out, and it ended up being such a beautiful little spot, which we later found out is about as far away as you can get from the barn and the rest of the houses on the ranch.  We decided to get out to walk around a little, and as luck would have it, when we got back in, we couldn't get the gator to start...and of course, we also realized at that point that we didn't have cell phone service in that particular spot either.  Thankfully we were able to get it started after just a few minutes, but personally, my out-of-shape body and I were already starting to panic a little about how long of a walk back that would be.

A "Crested Caracara", otherwise known as a "Mexican Eagle".

Another trip to see and feed all of the animals.

And if driving/operating real construction equipment weren't enough, Kyle and Steve also brought several of Jackson's toy trucks to the ranch, and he loved digging in the ice and filling up the dump truck while we rocked on the covered porch.

Nothing says "boy mom" quite like being covered head-to-toe in mud splatter from the gator tires.

Both nights, we had a fire outside, and while everyone else chose to stay out late drinking and having a good time, I took advantage of the fact that I could go to bed early and crashed not long after Jackson did.

Early this morning, we woke up to a storm and lots of thunder, which of course woke Jackson up.  Ben ended up taking him out of the crib and sleeping most of the night with him in the bottom bunk bed.  I would have been jealous, but on the flip side, I had the entire queen sized bed to myself, which is pretty much every pregnant girl's dream.  This morning, we reluctantly said goodbye to the ranch, went on one last gator ride, and gave Jackson a little bit of privacy to do his business {under the piano with his requested pillow AND blanket} before we loaded up the cars and headed back home.

When given the option, Jackson chose to ride back to Austin with Kyle and Steve {shocking, I know}, which in turn gave us quite the peaceful car ride and time to go through the entire baby name book.  Neither one of us really wanted to, but considering this baby will be here in 12 weeks {or less}, we know that we need to get started, and thankfully we now have a short list of favorites.

While it's good to be home and in our own beds, we already miss the ranch and are ready to go back soon.  Ranch weekends as a family of 3 {and soon-to-be 4!} are definitely not as relaxing as they used be, but we all had a great time -- except for maybe Puppy Lovey who looks even rougher now than he did before our weekend getaway.

It was only a matter of time till all of that chewing tore a hole in Puppy's nose, but that poor sweet face.  It looks to me like he needs a vacation to recover from his vacation, and while we're on the subject, I'll take one, too, please.