Malia ended up with one of the biggest horses, one named Woody. The only person in our group whose horse was bigger was my nephew, Jacob. The horse he was riding was a big old draft horse. It reminded me of the bygone Budwieser ads. Nathan, on the other hand, was initially settled onto a horse that was a tad too small. His legs are so freaking long that his feet here actually touching the ground. The rancher’s response was to give that horse to someone shorter and set Nathan up with a taller one. It made me laugh.
Although it was a guided ride, there wasn’t a specific path. We rode through meadows and woods, crossed a small stream, and were generally able to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The weather was absolutely perfect, even for me. It was sunny but cool, with a nice breeze to keep things pleasant. We all enjoyed the ride and all the kids felt like it is something they’d like to do again.
The ranch where we rode offered several other activities as well. After we ate our lunch, we took advantage of the small archery range to shoot a few foam animals.
Rachael and her crew came back after lunch to enjoy some paddleboats and swimming, but we opted to stay out of the water because the weather was too cool. Around 2:00, clouds rolled in and it started to rain just as we headed back to the car. Perfect timing for a storm.
After showering the whole crew to prevent any horse related allergy problems, we headed out for dinner. Rachael had heard about some tasty bison burgers, so we went into West Yellowstone in search of some. We found them on the menu at a place called Bullwinkle’s. The burgers were tasty, as were the elk ravioli and the traditional beef steak. Malia and I did have a weird “you are definitely not in Utah anymore” experience while we were in the restroom at the restaurant. She was washing her hands and I was standing behind her, waiting for her to finish. An older GUY walked into the bathroom, went into a stall and did his business with the stall door OPEN, and then proceeded to greet us with an, “Excuse me, ladies,” as he walked out of the restroom without washing his hands. I could see Malia’s face in the mirror and her eyes were huge. She had that, “What the heck is he doing?” look on her face. Honestly, I probably had the same look on mine. Yup, we live a sheltered life and I’m perfectly ok with that.
After dinner we did a bit of souvenir shopping. Malia is an interesting mix of a rock hound (I had to tell her to quit carrying rocks in her school backpack because not only was it making her backpack weigh a ton, it was wearing holes in it because they were BIG rocks) and a crow attracted to shiny objects. So when we walked into a shop that had an entire table filled with a wide assortment of polished stones, crystals and gems, she pretty much flipped. She became an instant entertainment for the other customers as her excited exclamations filled the shop (she is definitely not a quiet or inhibited child):
“Whoa! Look at all this shiny stuff!”
“Is this a real rock? I’m touching a real rock!!”
I laughed out loud at that last one. And one other lady did a bit of a snort laugh as she tried to contain her amusement. I caught her eye as I was laughing to let her know that if the mom was laughing, it was fine for a complete stranger to join in. WINKIE SMILEY
To sum up day three of our vacation:
Traveled as if it were 1819-check.
Shot some animals without doing any bloodletting-check.
Laughed at Rachael’s kids as they got tossed in the freezing cold water and popped right back out again-check.
Missed the rain by a moment-check.
Ate a fabulous, meaty meal-check.
Found reasons to be grateful for our conservative home state-check.
Laughed at my youngest child-check.
Yup. Today was definitely a success.
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