Labor Day

For Labor Day we decided to venture up to Paul and Carols Wilderness Ranch property. Jaimie was not that far away since Laramie is just a couple hours to the north, so she recruited a friend, Rachel, and came down to join us.

The weather was great, and with nothing special on the agenda we decided to show Rachel around a bit by taking a tour of the property on ATVs. This started off innocently enough but soon got a bit exciting. Jaimie and Rachel were on my 4 wheeler with Jaimie driving, and Cathy and I were riding in Pauls UTV. After stopping in a meadow and taking a short walk we were turning around to head back when Cathy yelled out, "They rolled over!". I stopped the vehicle and looking over my shoulder all I could see were 4 wheels in the air. Somehow Jaimie had gotten a wheel hooked in a grass choked ditch which pulled her further in until the ATV flipped over. As I ran back to see what was up I fully expected that the girls heads would pop up at any second, but unfortunately they weren't. Turned out Jaimie was pinned by a handlebar in the upper thigh and Rachel, who had just slid off the back, wasn't able to get it off her. Anyway, Dad to the rescue, I was able to lift the machine enough for her to get out. Wish I had a picture but I'm sure she would have killed me had I taken the time to snap a pic. Getting the ATV out of the ditch was a bit tricky with the damp ground and long slippery grass, but with four of us pushing and pulling and the wheels spinning we finally horsed it back to flat ground. Bruises and adrenalin not withstanding everyone was OK and the tour continued.

Time to move on to something safer so we broke out the firearms for some target practice. Rachel only had a passing experience with a shotgun and was pretty interested in trying some other guns. Turns out she was pretty good. We also had another first since up to now Jaimie had never shot anything more than an air rifle. With Rachel and Cathy both shooting I think Jaimie finally decided it looked like fun and pretty soon she was shooting as well. Not sure what this face was all about though? I think the girls were pretty proud of themselves when it was all said and done. The grin on Rachels face reminded me a lot of Bec last year. We also broke out the archery gear for some other amusement.