71 Ranch

Lauren and I went to the 71 Ranch over this last weekend. She is going to work there as a wrangler this summer and they wanted us to come and check it out before we left for Europe in a week - so off we went. The 71 Ranch is owned by the Ellisons who own many ranches in Neveda including the Spanish Ranch. Our friends, Greg and Malia Titus manage the ranch. The 71 Ranch is a working cattle ranch that is also a Dude Ranch. They differ from most dude ranches though because they actually expect their guests to participate in the day-to-day workings of the ranch. They also allow guests to bring their own horses if they wish. It is a great place, very beautiful (espcially when it is not snowing) and great food!

Some pictures of the Ranch

The Guest House

Cattle Barn

Lauren in the hayloft of the cattle barn

Greg Titus - Ranch Manager

Easter Sunday

I know, two posts in one day - what am I thinking! But, I could not resist some Sunday Best Easter dress pictures of the Baumgartners. Maddie was not too interested in participating so the photo shoot got worse as the minutes went by, but here a few of the best!

Tillis and his buddies

Maddie Learning to Walk

Ty loves to climb

The Whole Baumgartner Family

Happy Easter Saturday

We had a fun family Easter Party and Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. Julie and her family were here, Kristin's family and Lauren. Ryan, Anna and Norm were on a baseball road-trip. We missed them! Here are some pictures to document the great day and fun times.

Dax LOVES Tillis!

Julie, Jaab, Ty and Maddie searching for eggs


Kristin, Kasey, Mason and Griff (Dax was having a nap)


Sisters :)


Jaab and the kids


Mason on the run for more eggs!


Ty finding a bunch!


Griff is serious about this hunt!


Maddie before she dug into the chocolate

Puerto Vallarta

Well, we have been in Puerto Vallarta now for 5 days. To be honest we were a little leery about coming, but Mom and Dad Doyle wanted to come to check on their condo and we thought it would be a good idea to come along. We have been pleasantly surprised about how much we have enjoyed our time here. I don't think I have seen Norm relax so quickly on a vacation! We have enjoyed the beauty, people and slower pace. Our trip to help out Norm's parents has turned into a nice little vacation for us.

We are staying across the hall from their condo in one of their neighbor's condo who graciously offered his place to stay for free - how could we refuse? It is in the historic downtown area with cobblestone streets, lots of restaurants and shops, and the beach only a few blocks away.

Here are few pictures of our condo and the area immediately surrounding us.

Our "outdoor" living room. See the washing machine at the back left?
The dryer is some clotheslines up on the roof

Bedroom

Tiny Bathroom - notice our own little water heater to the right!

View out our living room window towards the beach


Sidewalk by the condo


Found these great stairs behind the condo
while we were out for our morning walk one day


Sand sculptures that we pass on our morning walks


We went on a drive and ended up at these waterfalls where we had lunch and watched the cliff divers. You can see one of them in middle of this picture. He was pretty good!


Us having fun at lunch at the waterfalls.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN! - (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER)

Lauren turned 20 on March 16th. Julie was nice enough to cook the birthday dinner and make a cake as we were traveling home from the Utah Horse Expo in South Jordan, UT. Thank-you Julie!!!

Ty was excited to help blow out the birthday candles

Ryan and Anna joined us for the festivities.

Of course Julie and Jaab were there to join in the fun!
(Someone needed to cook the dinner)

And Maddie is always the center of attention :)
Don't you love the hair?

Kristin and her family were not able to come up - maybe another time!

Happy Birthday Lauren! We love you!

New at Home Adventure

We are home from traveling for a bit and are enjoying our new adventure of having Julie, Jaab, Ty and Maddie as our new roommates! Julie and her family joined ours a week ago as Jaab obtained work here in Logan and they will be rooming with us until they are able to sell their home in Saratoga Springs.

We REALLY enjoy having them here. You have probably heard me complain that I have a hard time keeping up with everything around here - so it is nice to have two extra set of adult hands to help and two extra sets of kiddie hands to love and play with.

It has been so nice to see everyone working together on this new living arrangement. We come home from work and Julie usually has something cooking for dinner! We are able to help watch the kids so Julie and Jaab can get away a little bit. Lauren is sharing cleaning chores and she is the favorite Auntie around here. The kids always want her around and she can get more smiles out of Maddie than anyone. Julie and Lauren share clothes and shoes. And even Tillis (the dog) enjoys having some little ones down at his level.

Here are some pictures of us getting acquainted the first few days

Ty frosting (and tasting) his own cake!

Maddie and Tillis having a little visit

Ty and Maddie getting to know Tillis (He is loving this!)

Arabian Horse Show in Scottsdale, AZ

This is a GREAT Horse show. The quarter horse people think they do things big - they have nothing in comparison to these Arabian Horse owners! And WestWorld is a HUGE facility. I have never seen so many horses all in one place. Their barns are incredible, all decorated and fancy in the front of each barn.

Statues in front of WestWorld


The Nature Society brought birds that are indigenous to Arizona.
I thought this owl was awfully cute!

A few pictures of our booth. We have had a few customers but we could use a few more! We have really enjoyed the weather here and plan to come back again next year.