4th of July weekend at the RO

Clarendon is the perfect town to celebrate the 4th of July. There were festivities all weekend. We hit as much as we could, in addition to hanging out w/ the Family. The 4th of July has become our favorite holiday!

Check out the weekend events, complete with Chicken roping!

Brothers

The Popsicle gang

The family hosted a fantastic BBQ at the Ranch. We even had 3 tarantulas visit us (no picture shared as I couldn't get that close due to major fear of spiders)

Both our favorite Texan Aunties were there as well as Uncle Lewis!

Complete with homemade cobbler

We had a good showing at the hill top BBQ

Billy, JWG and Uncle Lewis

The BBQ started late, so little Levi was exhausted and begging to go home. We finally caved and set him up in the back of Billy's SUV w/ the iPad... technology to the rescue!

The sunset was gorgeous at the Ranch and by then it was only 80 degrees

Billy took Levi to the Ranch to show him around and look for turtles, so we could compete in the Turtle Races on the 4th of July (no luck on turtles however, as it's not rained since the previous Fall!)

Felix came as well and lounged about

Enjoying cuddles from his Granddad

Levi learned to fish, but no luck. The catfish weren't hungry :-(

Uncle Jimmy kept baby Felix good company throughout the weekend

We also visited the Clarendon Country Club. It's like no other Country Club....

Pool time at the club

Brothers on 4th of July morning in the bunk house

The famous Clarendon Turtle Races, where kids bring their turtles (after painting their shells so each one is different) to see which one crosses the 4-ways stop first!

There they go! The smaller turtles took top prizes in each age category this year.

The fans

Only in Texas...

Levi checking out the chicken roping contest

Enjoying some more BBQ

The Drive-In was playing Cars 2 and had dressed up all these cars to resemble the movie. Levi was blown away, so we drove by it at least twice a day. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the showing, but are taking Levi this weekend to see the movie. It will be his 1st cinema experience (not counting when Mumsey and I took him in London and he was 6 wks old).

Cousins!

Levi got a good dose of time with his cousins Xander (who's only 6 months older) and Lily who's 1 1/2.

Xander and Levi hanging out

Levi was smitten with his little cousin Lily

Monkey-see-monkey-do made it much easier when getting Levi to sit and eat

Grandad Billy filled this old tire w/ sand, which provided hours of entertainment. Of note, this exact tractor tire served as John's sandbox when he was a toddler in the 70's as well as was his father's sandbox when he was a toddler in the 40's!

It will be so fun to watch these two grow up together over the years

The RO Ranch

7 years later, I finally made it to the Texas Panhandle to see the RO Ranch, John's family's ranch. We spent 6 days at the ranch. It was 100+ F heat with no humidity. We explored, hung out w/ family, and ate a lot of BBQ! It was absolute heaven for little Levi and particularly special for me, as I was able to see where John spent part of his childhood and learn all about the history of the RO.

This is the main house that is actually not located on the Ranch. It was built in the late 1800's and can easily sleep 15+ people. Complete with a farm sink perfect for bathing Felix!


We slept in the bunk house. JWG, Levi, and I each had a bunk, while Felix slept in his pack n' Play. It was a bit like camping, only we had electricity :-)

This is the side of the house, where we'd sit under the trees and do nothing! It was lovely.

Ahhh...the RO. Thousands of acres of land, filled with cows, horses, snakes, and spiders (I saw three tarantulas)!

Uncle Jimmy (who Levi LOVED)

There are several small houses scattered about the Ranch, and this is one of them.

This house is known as the 'Butt Hut.' All though I'm calling it Rattlesnake cove, as last year they discovered a major rattlesnake problem, due to a den of rats living beneath it. I've been told this is no longer an issue, but you won't catch me spending the night there!

Inside the 'Hut'

Spade Flat is one of the highest peaks in the ranch

Despite no rain since the Fall of the previous year (!!) (everything was brown), the expansiveness and uninhibited land is beautiful.