Sunday, April 26, 2009

Slate River Ranch - April 2009

Magnus helping Daddy fly the Learjet 45

Petting one of the pretty strawberry roans at the ranch.

One of the many cute babies!

At the Fort Worth zoo.

Checking out a display at the zoo.

The lions kindly posed for me, per my request. =)

Magnus finally got to see a real live giraffe! His books were as close as he'd ever come.

Daddy and Magnus with some of the pretty SLR cutting horses.

Magnus helped me make friends with the two year old's.

One of Magnus' favorite things on the ranch! The golf cart. He was good at steering it too!

Daddy took Magnus for a trot on one of the ranch's "using horses".

The newborn foals were such sleepy-heads!

We found this poor fellow along the road (beer and all!).
♪ He put the bottle to his head and pulled the trigger. ♫

Checking out the daily cattle drive in cow-town.

Dining on BBQ in Stockyards Station.

At the Stockyards Rodeo - Magnus loved it!

I love this picture of my boys on the ranch pony! Magnus really enjoyed this ride.


Normally Magnus and I don't get to go on trips with Joe, but the owner of the Learjet (also the owner of Slate River Ranch!) generously allowed us to go on a week-long trip to his ranch at Weatherford, TX! They put us up in the large house there, so we had the "comforts of home", plus a golf cart to ride around on. =) We got to enjoy the ranch at the perfect time, since now is when they do their breeding/foaling. We didn't catch any foals being born, but the activities at the breeding barn were interesting to watch! Discovery channel material, to be sure, but really neat. They use "surrogate" broodmares for a lot of the foals so they can save their cutting mares for competition, and they do all the implantation, etc. right there on the farm. We took video for all of our friends to see, so just come on over and be enlightened! We took Magnus to the Fort Worth Zoo one day, as he'd never had the pleasure of such entertainment, and we enjoyed other local events like the cutting horse competition, Stockyard Station (a bit touristy, but hey... that's what we were!), the rodeo and of course some shopping at the western stores! Joe and I both agreed that the "cowboy culture" out there sure leaves Virginia with much to be desired! The people were great and all drove trucks... with horse trailers following close behind. It was a very relaxing visit, lots of fun, and by the time our week was up we were ready to come home to our own little farm. Check out the ranch website sometime: www.slateriverranch.com. It's truly a beautiful place!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Children's Easter Festival

Magnus loved petting the sheep, and they didn't seem to mind either. =)


He even got to ride the most adorable donkey!

The firetruck was definitely a huge highlight!



Ahh... sitting on the super-cool red machine!


Picking up "Easter eggs"!


On the prowl for those egg-shaped candies!



Magnus certainly enjoyed his trip to the Children's Festival where he go to experience his very first Easter egg hunt! It was a great way to pass the time while Joe was away (he's been gone forever, it seems!) and the only downside to the happy occasion was having to come home! The Easter egg hunt was fun for him, but I think he enjoyed the festival part even more! (I was just disappointed that they weren't real plastic Easter eggs! I am new at this Easter egg hunt myself though, so I didn't know they just throw out sugary egg-shaped candies!) Magnus loved going around to all the little vendors and having everyone give him candy! A guy could get used to that, for sure! His favorite thing was the firetruck though, and I think he could've just sat on it and soaked it in all day. He was very brave for his donkey ride too, and he wanted to pet all the lambs (and the baby goat, which wouldn't cooperate - it was sleeping safely in the MIDDLE of the pen!). We got to ride a little "train" and we even took advantage of the swings at the playground since it was held at the middle school right down the road from us. He had the time of his life, and the only things that would've made it better would've been Daddy, and getting to stay a lot longer!