Family Trip to Ponderosa Ranch

Just keepin it real...wanted to blog about our super fun trip we went on last month with the Yospe clan. The first weekend in May, we all ventured down to Orderville, UT right next to Zions National Park. Jake's dad won a 3 night stay at Ponderosa Ranch in a golf tournament last year, so he got the whole fam together and planned a fun family vacation. This is the cabin that we got to stay in. It's called Sunrise Sunset, because it's like 2 cabins joined together in the middle. There were 22 of us all together, with 4 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, lofts and fold out sofa beds, so plenty of room to share. It was such a nice place! This is the extra large porch that wrapped around the cabin, overlooking Zions.

 Inside, everything was nicely decorated and nice and cozy. This is one side with the living room and part of the kitchen. Then the other side was pretty much identical. We had a good time relaxing, visiting, reading, and taking turns making dinner each night.

 I loved these big old woodsy mantles above the gas fireplaces. Even though it was like 80 degrees, I had Jake turn on the fireplace one night cuz I was always cold! Still am...sitting in my fleece pants and sweatshirt and slippers at the moment.

These were the double doors in the middle that separate the 2 sides. There are staircases on either side that go upstairs to the lofts and other bedrooms/bathrooms. The little boys had fun sleeping in the loft in sleeping bags.

 Grandma Yospe sharing pine nuts with Cam, Mae and little Henry. Grandpa bought some yummy pine nuts from a roadside vendor on the way down to the cabin, and we enjoyed them the whole trip long. Those little buggers are addicting!

 Cami and Mae had fun playing princesses and My Little Ponies. So cute.

 Lex entertained herself in her booster seat with measuring spoons and cups. :)

 We also tried out the Jenny Jump Up for the first time. She kinda liked it, but she'd rather hang out on the floor and roll/almost crawl around.

 There was a jacuzzi right outside the cabin, which the kids enjoyed more than the adults I think. The water was just warm for them, but when Jake and I got in it was super hot and felt sooo good!

One of the highlights of the ranch is that there are tons of activities to do throughout the resort, including mini golf! Everyone enjoyed at least a couple games of golf over the weekend. It was Cami's first time playing, and she mostly just carried her ball up to the hole and tapped it in. She sure had fun though!

 Look at this cute little ringleted mini golfer!

 There was also a 2 level swimming pool with a rock waterslide. The weather was kinda cool most of the time, though, and the pool wasn't heated! Therefore, I did not stick a toe in, but Jake and Cami and some of the rest of the fam braved the cold.

Higher, Daddy, higher!

 Bahaha...Jake posing at the top of the waterslide. It took him SO long to finally get up the nerve to go. He wanted someone to go with him, but nobody would, so he went ahead and was giddy as a little schoolboy.

 The awesome part of the trip was the fact that there was a zipline, and we rode on it! (Jake's dad was nice enough to provide us with all these fun activities, by the way. Thank you!!) I'd been on a zipline before at a camp with the young single adults in PA, but it was NOT a good experience. They told us on that one to hold our legs up at the end or else they would hit the dock where you landed. So I jumped out of the tree platform on the zip line, rode through the woods pleasantly, and then BAM- slammed the back of my calves and ankles into the platform at the end. It hurt so bad...I was bruised and bleeding. I had even held my legs up, but I guess not far enough. I wasn't the only one with casualties, either. So that was a lame zipline.

But this one was fabulous! We hiked up the tall spiral staircase in the activity barn to the very top, got harnessed in, and then they opened the little gate on the balcony and said "Go ahead!" And that first initial jump off is the scariest part, of course, but I think the fact that it was above the roof made it not so bad. If it had been a straight drop down, I would've been more nervous. There I go!

 Cool, huh?

 Jake went after me, and then we both got a 2nd ride. I didn't do anything fancy, but Jake was pretty brave and let go. I was proud of him and so glad he went with me!

We visited the horses and some other farm animals that live at the ranch.

 And we enjoyed watching Lincoln and Abe climb the rock wall. Lincoln's a natural climber and impressed us all! I like this picture with all the brothers (Abe's sitting down with the helmet).

And of course Cami was thrilled that there was a playground with swings! That girl could swing ALL DAY LONG. I love that Grandma Yospe joined in, and Jake pushed her!

On Friday, everyone went hiking to a nearby slot canyon, but I didn't think I was up for a hike. So we ventured out on our own and found some cool sights along the way. Like this Gem Shop in Orderville, a town known for its polished rocks and stones. Who knew? This was a fun little Flinstone car out front.

 Clever little weather forecast.

 It was cool to see all the colorful hunks of rocks and gems outside. Took me back to the days when Bree and I collected polished rocks as kids. We'd go to the rock shop at the mall and get so excited about filling those little velvet bags as full as we could. We each had our own plastic sorting containers to hold all our treasures, and I still have all my rocks/gems/eggs in my room at home in PA. :)

 We headed further on our adventure and found the Coral Sand Dunes, which are known for their coral color but also really popular for ATV's. The sand felt really good on our toes!

It's cool to be able to see and appreciate different kinds of landscapes...from the wooded mountains to the sandy desert.

Little video of Cam sliding down a dune.

On the way back to the ranch, we stopped at this restaurant...cuz it's unique. :) And who doesn't love ho-made pie. We got a kind called razzleberry or something, and it was just ok, sadly.

 We enjoyed roasting hamburgers and hotdogs on our last night, and were sad to leave on Sunday morning. But it was the perfect little vacation and such a fun time being with the whole family. On our way home, we stopped at a little town to go to sacrament meeting (just found an LDS building with cars in the parking lot), and then stopped in my Grandma Willes's hometown, Panguitch, for lunch. It's such a cute little town, it makes me want to go on a trip with her there so she can tell me all the stories of growing up. We ate at a roadside diner with this silly little man as the door greeter. I just love the quirky little parts of vacations and roadtrips...there's always golden nuggets along the way.

We had a blast on our trip down south. Let's do it again!