Nebraska Vacation (part 4 of 4)

After spending 4 days away from our baby girl. Ryan and I were finally reunited with her at Dismal River Golf Course back in Nebraska. We had planned to meet up with Fay's OTHER grandparents and cousins(!!) for a weekend at Dismal Golf Resort. And the Janssens planned to drive Fay from Kearney to Dismal for our little reunion.

Dismal River is in the middle of the Sandhills so it is quite a hike to get to from Avon Colorado ( 7 hour drive). And there is not much around it except for prairies and cows.

We arrived about 15 minutes before Fay. I could barely wait to see her car coming up the long dirt road. When she finally arrived she was having quite a miserable car ride (not in love with the car seat) and she emerged, crying, from the car. Of course I thought being in mommy's arms would immediately calm her. But she was a little confused at first to see me and daddy, so it probably only added to the emotional outburst she was having. But she calmed down quickly enough, and clung to me, which made me pretty happy to have her in my arms at last.

Ryan and I spend 2 days at Dismal, visiting with my family, golfing and touring a ranch. On Saturday, all the non-golfers (re: women ) toured a nearby ranch. We rode horses, met some cows, visited with the chickens and learned a little about what goes on on a ranch. At one point we were on a truck surrounded by mooing cows and Fay's eyes looked like the might pop out of her head in awe.



The other highlight of course was getting Fay up on a horse. I was a little wary, but the ranch owner said she used to put her baby on her back when she had to do some work on the ranch while riding a horse. I guess I'm a little citified!

It was really great to see Fay interact with her cousins. They all wanted to play with her and she loves seeing what the big girls do. We spend a lot of time with a little toy table that makes music when you press the buttons. Fay would dance a little while holding onto the table and her cousins would sing a long with the alphabet song.

And that just about ends the vacation. Ryan and I drove back to the Janssens on Sunday afternoon before flying out on Monday. Fay got to see Sparky one last time, which she loved. And I swear Fay was an entirely different baby on the plane ride home. She seemed more energetic, even more curious and simply could not sit still. Needless to say she received a lot of stimulation on the Nebraska vacation and I think she definitely matured a bit (if you can use the term mature for a baby!)