Visiting Inie

The first weekend in October we got to take a little family trip to East Texas to visit Inie. My dad goes up almost every week and Ben always wants to go up and help him on the ranch but our weekends are pretty scheduled in advance. 

 There was only one weekend the whole fall that we didn't have soccer games so we took advantage of it to go see Inie. My dad was very excited for us to all go too. We got there Friday evening and had dinner and played around the house and went to bed. 

 Saturday morning we went with Inie into town to go watch the Oktoberfest parade. It was so cute and such a fun time for my kids. They watched all the little pageant girls and football teams and horses go by, got candy thrown at them and loved it all. 

 

 After the parade we went to the ranch. 

 We had a picnic lunch on a gorgeous day at the shop. It was my first time to see the ranch since the massive floods we had in the spring. It was so sandy and dusty and, ironically, we need rain now to help with the sand that was washed in by the floods. 

 We played on tractors and rode in trucks but our favorite was dad's new ATV he got for his birthday for the ranch. It made getting around so quick (although very dirty). 

 Everyone took a ride and took a turn driving. 

 It was a blast.

 

 

We rode down to the river a few places that are too hard and bumpy to take a truck down to. We figured out we could take 5 adults and three kids on two vehicles, the ATV and the Ranger. 

 The little river beach was so fun for my kids. 

 We threw sticks to see them float down the river, played in the sand, skipped sand rocks. It was a perfect place to see the water. 

 And I heard a funny story about this particular spot on the river. 

 Apparently one time Inie and Bull went skinny dipping here and while they were in the water a friend rode by on a boat and just stopped to talk to them for a while not realizing they were in their birthday suits under the water. 

 It was so cute to see Inie laugh and blush about that memory. 

 What a fun lifetime of love they had together. 

I just loved it.

 

 As always, there were plenty of cows to look at.  

 I love this picture of brothers looking at the cows. It reminds me of some pics I took of Kinley doing the same on this trip to the farm a few years ago. 

After the farm we went back to Inie's house and no trip is complete without a walk around her property and a visit to the pond.

I love it there so much. So many amazing memories.
I am just thrilled each time we get to go visit and thankful for every moment we have there with her.