Family Reunion at Gilbert Ranch

In June all of Tommy's family got together at a ranch in central Nevada. I was thinking it would be pretty desolate there, but it was actually quite beautiful.

We first drove to Las Vegas and on the way there, instead of going I-70 to I-15 we decided to take a detour.

It did make our trip about an 1.5 hours longer (so it was 12.5 hours) but it sure was pretty... I think it is actually worth the extra time!

We drove through Zions National Park and it started pouring... and I mean POURING rain!

Below is a pic I took through the windshield. Do you see the waterfall? Well, that is not usually there... that is how hard it was raining!!!

Here is the barn at Gilbert Ranch in Nevada. It had a huge living area and a table that actually fit all of Tommy's family!

Here are the four bedrooms in the barn. Tommy's 3 sisters and 1 brother stayed in the barn.

Beautiful huh? We were really roughin' it!

This is the house that we stayed in with one of Tommy's sisters.

It was nice having some private space away from everyone, although I constantly

had bad dreams of Graham waking up in the middle of the night and

going out in the pond... it was really terrifying! I actually ended up sleeping on

the sofa by the kids.

This was our room

And this was our view

Graham and his cousin Drew at the chicken coop. Graham loved those chickens! He even went inside and collected eggs!

Tera, Tommy's sister, put together some crafts for the kids to do:

Decorating Visors

Tie-Dye T-Shirts

Graham was not really interested in crafts

Him and his cousin Drew played with a remote control 'digger' instead.

This is us on the little fishing boat, taking a little drive around the pond

Our niece, Rory, got in and we went for another spin.

Graham kept wanting to touch the water, so he would lean over - while holding my hand, of coarse! - and I would lean over the other way to balance.

There were rainbow trout in the pond and occasionally we would see them surface

There were probably 5 or 6 four wheelers, so Tommy and I went for a drive up

a steep path just north of the ranch.

This is a pic of us at the top of the trail

The view at the top of the trail... that is the side the ranch was on

It was so beautiful up there!

Who would have thought this was Nevada?!

The view from the other side of the trail. We followed the trail down this side

for a little bit before heading back.

Some of Tommy's family that had gone on this trail later that day, had an

encounter with a deer. It pretty much jumped OVER one of them on their 4-wheeler.

Pretty crazy!

Before dinner that first night, we went shooting. It was actually a lot of fun! I have shot

rifles before but never a hand gun. I thought the hand gun was WAY more fun!!!

I shot a 9mm and 22. The picture is of the 9mm.

I really liked the 22 because there was no kick back... but I could do a 9mm again

I'm pretty patriotic, huh?!

This is Tommy shooting the 9mm. He is a really good shot, so watch your back!

The next day we shot rifles. But we didnt' get any pictures of that. The one below is the

one I shot, an AR-15

This one Tommy shot, a 50 caliber rifle.

Let me just say... HOLY COW!!! That was a big gun!

Tommy's brother, Trent, was the first to shoot it (without any warning, I might add)

and the sound was absolutely deafening! You could actually feel the pressure

of the gun firing and I was like 3 feet away.

We had a really fun filled day and I am so grateful for Tommy's family and that we could spend time with them... and one of the greatest things is there was zero cell reception

and no internet. It truly was a getaway! Hopefully we can do it again!