Medicine Bow Springs Ranch

Wow! It was wonderful to be in God's creation without the technology. Our family just got back from spending 7 days in a wilderness. It was so amazing. No TV, phone, Internet, etc! Paul's Aunt owns 2 homesteads (160 acres a piece) in the middle of mountains. We had time for mushroom hiking, four wheel riding, horseback riding, reading, talking, and many more activities (including identifying different kinds of scat - bear, elk, deer, cats!).

This is a picture of Adele "steering my horse by myself."

This is Claire (Paul's Mom), Aunt Mary and myself collecting the largest bunch of Honey mushrooms Aunt Mary has seen since they bought the homesteads in 1971. Aunt Mary and I found Satan's mushrooms. They are poisonous and will give you hallucinations. Needless to say we did not cook or eat them!

Adele lost her first tooth there. Which is amazing because you know the fairies there have so many fairy rings where they live among the forest - Adele was sure to score big! Of course, I forgot to mention that Gma and Gpa were there so I am sure the tooth fairy was inclined to leave a larger sum than normal.

On one of the rainy days, we were bored and Adele found a 550 piece puzzle. I don't remember ever doing a big puzzle like this in over 20 yrs. Anyway, come to find out it was only a 547 piece puzzle because we were missing 3 pieces!

This is a picture on one of our hikes. Paul, Aunt Mary, Sandy, Lowkey, Adele, Gma, Gpa (left to right)

On Saturday the 13th, we wanted to leave in the morning. God has blessed the forest with over 3 days of rain. It needed it because it was so dry. Unfortunately it makes the descent very dangerous and slippery. We had to wait until Saturday afternoon to depart. God knew what he was doing because while Paul, Adele, and his cousin Mike went exploring again on the four wheelers, Aunt Mary, Paul's Mom (Claire) and I hiked up to this most amazing Panarama view. We stopped to sit on the chairs God provided (wonderful rocks covered in moss) and we all prayed together for what God has given us. It was a wonderful woman moment where we each took time to pray for each other as well as our country, church, work, people who impact our lives. It was amazing. Thank you God for the precious time that we had at Medicine Bow Springs Ranch and for the wonderful precious world you have given us until we are able to be with you in a better place!

The above pics are Adele and her friend Rayann (we only saw her for a day but they had fun hiking and using their imaginations as they played together in nature!) The second is one in which we rode four wheelers for some amazing views of the mountains around us.