Leaving the Ranch. {Day 5}

I woke up extra special early on our last morning...I wanted 2 hours to myself before everyone woke up. I went to desk by the window and wrote some in my journal.

 Then I bundled up in a blanket and greeted the glorious fresh air.

It was so serene and still and tranquil as I sat in wonderment. This beautiful haven of peace belonged to us for 5 short days. And how would I ever bring these experiences back to our real lives? How could I ever convey what I had felt in my journal, or blog, or to anyone who asked? My heart is always so full of so many things that I could never put into words. I cannot write the smallest part of which I feel. (This is from my beloved hero Ammon.) I said goodbye to my beautiful Island Ranch Retreat and we all vowed to come back again next year. A tradition has been born!

On the way home, we pulled off the side of the road and threw our last messages in a bottle into the Payette River. They were letters of joy and encouragement to whoever finds them. My sweeties wrote the letters all by themselves.

Sadly, The End.

Until next year....

At the Ranch. {Day 4}

We had a social tour on Thursday morning with one of our hosts. He got his old pick-up truck working and we all piled in to tour the whole perimeter of the ranch. It was about 4 miles around the property, and while we would have loved to walk around the fun trails, it just wasn't feasible this year with the littles. So we felt pretty blessed to get our own personal tour!

The river was breathtaking. I wanted to sit all day and ponder. Maybe next year...

But alas, we had to leave so we could go on another treasure hunt. This one involved finding Captain Crane's lost treasure around the island, painting it, and taking it home with us for safe keeping...

{This is Tate and his gold dubloon...which he called, "double-oons"}

Upon returning, we attempted to make a smoothie and accidentally made a scrumptious tropical mango peach ice cream. It was to die for!

After dinner we made rafts out of sticks from our treasure hunt--complete with sails and everything. We took them down to Big Creek and let them go...

I have to admit, it was really bittersweet letting those little rafts go...it was like I was releasing the memories of my children at their special ages on this magical vacation and and letting them float away.  It was an ending to something I never wanted to end....

That night as we all sat around the table for our last dinner together, I cried and cried.

At the Ranch. {Day 3}

Wednesday morning, you could find us in the strawberry patch--eating tiny little sweet berries as fast as we could pick them. {And Maylie is still Miss Strawberry Shortcake...}

Our second Sunrise Devotional involved a message in a bottle...a treasure hunt waiting to happen.

 The jumbled letter clues spelled, "x marks the spot." So they hunted around for an "x" and when they found it, there was a treasure hunt with 5 individual pictures of our family with the message on the back "Families are the treasure of heaven." ~Elder Neil L. Andersen

It was one of the themes I wanted to teach during this trip. My sweet mother did a similar treasure hunt for us when we stayed at the Bucaco Palace and I'll never forget it. I wanted to recreate this special treasure hunt {simplified for my little ones of course}.

Later that day, we played on the beach again. And it was again heaven. I'll never forget the sounds of their giggles and laughter as I listened dreamily to their imaginary play.

This little girl loves her daddy...

{Maylie spent most of the day snuggled with us under the umbrella.}

{Trekking back to the retreat}

Each night I had planned a different dessert to bake. I hardly ever bake dessert, so it was pretty special for all of us. This night was cheesecake (a pretty healthy version). Few things in life trump raspberry cheesecake in my book.

Oh the view.....

That evening, we played the new games I had bought especially for our trip--Spot it Junior and Tell Tale Fairy Tales. They were amazingly fun!!! This was such a memorable part of our vacation! I couldn't believe how creative my boys were in creating their fairy tales. So precious!!