Now that we live so far away, it is even more important to me that my boys get to spend time hanging out with Grandpa on the farm or at the very least enjoying the wide open spaces. Zack is usually the most eager to experience farm life. He likes the tractors and riding horses. This trip he tagged along with Grandpa while he doctored the calves. Zack rode Jazz by himself & especially liked it when Jazz "went fast to chase the cows." It was really cold and so his wimpy mom didn't take any pictures. We'll have to settle for this artist's rendition of the event.
It's a rare occasion when we can join them for the some of the more cowboy-ier things like branding and cattle drives. The cattle drives are big family events involving uncles and cousins and long days up on "the mountain." Sometime I would love for the boys to have that experience. Instead we somehow always manage to see my dad when there is a cattle auction taking place on RFD. What is RFD? It's my dad's favorite channel--programming lineups include Hee Haw, horse dancing competitions, a dutch oven cooking show they sometimes make fun of on the Soup and cattle auctions. While we were there, some of Dad's cows were up for auction. According to a disgruntled Zack, "Grandpa came in and literally woke us up with the auction." Thanks to my dad's little obsession with recording and watching auctions, my kids can all do impressions of an auctioneer.
Normally the boys pass the time in Idaho playing video games, basketball, jumping on the trampoline or 4-wheeler rides. This year, our visit coincided with a massive mouse infestation. Not good for me. Awesome entertainment for the boys. They went on a mouse killing rampage. I am really surprised that my boys willingly coaxed mice from their hiding spots, chased them around the yard and shot them with blow darts, air soft guns and stabbed them with sticks until they died. Noah has pictures of some on his phone. Gross. I will not post them here, but I do say a dead mouse is never a bad thing so while I didn't exactly encourage their behavior I didn't make them stop either. They were having fun, enjoying a little bit of farm life.
