The beginning of October we had the chance to spend the weekend with my work on a retreat in the Uinta Mountains! I'm very grateful and blessed to work for a great clinic and have co-workers whom I consider some of dearest friends. It was a fantastic weekend filled with lots of laughter and some beautiful places! 

Hands down my favorite thing about labor day weekend- the sheepdog trials. This event has become one of the top sheepdog trials in the world and these dogs are simply amazing! The dogs have 13 minutes to bring 5 wild sheep 700 plus yards down the side of the mountain through a series of gates. They must separate the sheep into 2 and 3 and still maintain control of both groups- then to finish they herd them into a gated corral. The dogs do this only by listening to their owners whistle commands from the bottom of the hill. Its awesome- every year the festival gets bigger and bigger and we enjoy it more and more. After all we are slightly partial to sheepdogs! 

We just returned from a lovely five days in the mountains. We went with the intention of spending time doing nothing and just enjoying our time together. And i'm happy to report we did just that- the drover spend time perfecting his paracord bracelets (seriously that man is a knot tying genius) and i started the hunger game trilogy (now i see what all the fuss is about). We ate tin foil dinners- cuddled on the hammock- spent the sunny mornings sleeping in the tent- and let mr. dog and his girl "red" enjoy the great outdoors. And as soon as i dig myself out from under the piles of laundry and messy house i'll be back with lots of pictures. 

this weekend 

we relaxed-

spent a little time on the farm-

met the seriously adorable new neighbor-  

spent lots of time laughing with family- 

celebrated a few birthdays-

it was lovely. 

This weekend we headed up to a little reservoir with some friends and their adorable kids. Hands down the best part about where we live is that you can get in the car and be completely surrounded by beautiful wilderness in less than an hour. I'm pretty sure mr. dog would have happily spent the entire afternoon retrieving every piece of wood out of the water. That boy loves the water! And i love spending the day with my two boys enjoying the mountains and sunshine.  

Our second day of camping on the cattle ranch went a little something like this... 

a four wheeler trip to "the dump" which was mostly full of old crap but i did mange to find a few very cool old bottles and an old chicken feeder (which since it has been spray painted and is currently a very nice decoration on my backyard table) 

tire rolling competitions... 

shotgun shooting...

lots more four wheeler rides...  

easter egg hunting.. for both adults and kids... 

picture taking of the adorable little ones... and the handsome drover... 

lots of walks so the crazy border collie could watch turkeys....

overall we had very fun weekend- let the camping season begin...! 

Last weekend we headed up to an old cattle ranch to spend time with the drover's family. For me it was a dream- hello open land and old barns. We spent quality time with all six of our littles- we went on four wheeler adventures- we made some delicious smores- had an adult only easter egg hunt- mr. dog spent 90% of his time attempting to herd the turkeys- watched a beautiful sunset- and stared at the night sky with no city lights to obstruct the view- it was a much needed weekend. 

more photos coming...