In one area the children were invited to sit on the saddles, try on hats and costumes, and pretend. The great poster of horses running and cowboys provided a prime photo op for our budding cowboys and cow girls
When the big boys realized that the largest museum collection of firearms were housed here they found the only elevator to the basement exhibit. Only a few rifles were on display in the upper part of the center. They even had a laser light shooting gallery which was quite popular. We spent just a couple of hours at the center because we really wanted to go to The Greet Ranch in Bigtrails, Wyoming another three hours drive.
My Grandfather Frank and his brother Fred started this ranch with 320 acres in 1909. It has been continually in operation for 104 years. Frank's youngest son John and his boys are running and expanding the ranch now. I believe the acreage is well over 5000 acres now and they also have mountain pasture deeded to the ranch. They started with the red hereford cattle and now run black angus beef. Their operation is sophisticated but somewhat, wonderfully nostalgic as well.
RED ROVER, RED ROVER SEND JONNY RIGHT OVER!!
Austin is one of our animal lovers. He was the first to pet the horses. It wasn't long before the others noticed and ran to join him. This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.
Uncle Johnny was gracious enough to hold his horse to let the kids reach out and touch all they wanted.
The Payan family behind the old homestead house where Frank and Fred lived until Frank married. The white part of the house, including the two story part in the background were additions built as the family grew. The old timber just behind the family is the original homestead.
The old bunk house with a sod roof was where my mom and dad started their life together on the ranch.
Grandpa Greet and his posterity. I was taking the picture so I'm not in it and two of my grandsons could not take time off work. There were 21 of us visiting that day quite a tribe.
The irrigation ditch that runs near Uncle Johnny's house is fed by the Nowood River that runs through the ranch. He mentioned to me a couple of times how dry the country was and the drought was causing problems for his cattle. My boys said they wished they could live in a place that in the middle of a drought you could see so much water. Our Lake Nacimiento in Paso Robles, California dries up nearly every summer due to drought and farm usage.
Joe Griffith and Joseph Hogeland stood off a little ways looking over the ranch and I'm sure were plotting a way to find a piece of property to ranch or just have as a gathering place for our family. They checked out the old car skeleton too.
We stayed long enough for the kids to get hungry. We said our goodbye's and thank-yous and headed back down the hill to Worland where we had the worst experience at dinner.
We ate at the Cowboy something on the main drag through Worland. Food was overcooked or undercooked and even undelivered. And it took forever to bring it out. It was lousy and the server did her best but she didn't call for help so she was handling the whole restaurant by herself. While it was an unacceptable experience it was the only one we had.
The next day we took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
The Clint Lowe family with the bones of a possible ancient ancestor?????
Samantha touched the fossil but it was "really creepy."
As I said before the grandkids wanted a pool wherever they stayed. No pool at the place we stayed in Thermopolis. Its ok though because they went to play in the big commercial water park fed by natural hot springs. They went to one of the plunges that has the "screamin' meemee" slide. A water slide that snakes its way up the side of a hill and drops the swimmer into the pool below. I watched a grandson and my husband make the trek up the hill on another trip we made to Wyoming a few years ago. It seemed like they were gone for ten minutes climbing and then sliding down. I don't have pictures for posting since I was in Worland with my sister preparing for our family dinner. You can Google Thermopolis, Wyoming and see the Hot Springs park and other frun things to do while visiting. One of the dads said he wanted to go back to go on a river rafting trip and maybe go hunting one fall. He and my sister Carli Flores have a lot in common.
More family games. It was a warm evening and the kids were pretty tired after swimming in the hot springs. But they behaved themselves very well. I was (and still am) quite proud of them.
My cousins Bonnie and Fred Drake brought Neil's oldest brother George down from their ranch in Bigtrails down to the celebration. A cousin on the Pyle side of the family Charles and his wife came down from Ten Sleep also. Fred is the historian of the Greet family and brought some artifacts to show the kids. My grandkids prepared questions to ask in an impromptu interview of the "old folks" we learned some interesting things about our extended family.
Neil Greet at the time was 84 and his big brother George Greet age 98.
Neil passed away November 11, 2012. The last thing he said to me was that he sure enjoyed meeting my kids last summer. This was a perfectly timed trip. Neil was declining at the time we were there and sometimes he forgot who I was. By September we knew his kidneys were failing and that he wouldn't be with us much longer. I am so grateful for the divine intervention that made it possible for all of us to travel together at the same time. We made memories and will draw on them for years. The treasure of family legacy and heritage and belonging cannot be adequately displayed in pictures and stories but dwells in our hearts.
From here we made our way back to Syracuse, Utah where many of us stayed with our dear friends, Micah and Tanya Smith for the night. We took them to Red Robin for dinner I think there were 26 of us in the party. (Great Food and Quality Service). We said our good byes to departing family members who were heading for their homes tired and happy and loved.
I hung out with my daughter-in-law Racheal at her sister Sariah's place in Provo, Utah before we traveled to Show Low, Arizona for her family reunion. Wow, two big family reunions in one summer. I am blessed with large families.