Somehow this place gets more beautiful every year. Legacy Ranch. Days 26-38

We have been beyond lucky to vacation in this piece of paradise each summer since 2009, every other Christmas (getting all 10 cousins together for awesome holiday memories), the occasional spring visit or Thanksgiving in Paradise Valley. Being able to share a vacation with friends is an awesome opportunity this ranch provides and it did not disappoint this year.

Highlights: (Do you hear the Hamilton soundtrack too?)

We arrived days before guests and settled into Clark’s Cabin on the Yellowstone River, our first time as overnight guests at Clark’s!
7 days of family fun with 4 other families from the East Coast with kids ranging from 1 to 21, and yes I still like to call the 21 year old a “kid” even though he’s not anymore. A quick visit from Erin who pops in every year. And a happy hour with local friends from the Valley.
We rarely left the ranch and still did plenty!
Our first night was clay pigeon shooting with the ranch managers.
Floating down the Yellowstone River (my favorite).
Kayaking and paddle boarding in the river and ponds.
Jumping off the docks, playing on the new trampoline and water mat.
ATVing all over the property. (We didn’t go up the mountain property this year since the wild fire risk is “very high”).
The kids all worked together to write, direct, film and edit an awesome western film that premiered in the movie theater – it was fantastic!
We played in the rec barn. Sometimes all together, sometimes just kids, sometimes just adults — Emmy’s favorite.
Had an epic scavenger hunt to find Mara’s delicious dessert.
Watched the rest of the Hunger Games movies in the theater since we finished all the books.
Fly fished on the Yellowstone River with awesome guides (one of Mat’s and my favorite days of the year!).
We had a silly dress up morning with the “ugly dress challenge” from Target. Seriously, google it, it’s pretty funny. And if you are wondering who would ever buy those ugly dresses from Target… we did.
Loved just lounging around the amazing yards watching the babies play in the grass that I am so envious of! (Jealous of the lush lawns to be clear. The babies are the cutest but I’m satisfied with my current phase of life, LOL).
The kids started learning poker and played more and more as the week went on.
Delicious dinners every night. A Scrambled egg cook-off one morning with 4 kids cooking up their own version of eggs from the coop.
Floated again. And again. And again.
Our ‘something new’ this year (besides the pond toys) was celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Old Saloon in Emigrant.
Shopping in downtown Livingston for a morning. Best purchases: Joel’s massive kite that all the kids loved flying. And Mat’s new brewery swag (also curtesy of Joel, he’s a great shopper) from the greatest Montana Brewery (we have yet to visit but will in the future!) 2 Basset Brewery – whose logo is 2 basset hounds that look just like Sully and Murphy!!

So grateful to vacation with friends somewhere so magical. Also very grateful that the weather cooperated as well as it did! The first couple days were cool, windy and VERY smoky. Smokier than I’ve ever seen the valley. Luckily, with a little rain and the winds shifting, the smoke cleared up and the sun came out and we had a week of beautiful weather. As soon as our friends left, the smoke rolled in again and our last day was a high of 55 degrees! Chilly. Even the Yellowstone River cleared up (from a plug following a storm) the day we were scheduled to fish… like magic.

The last couple days was just us Solsos on the ranch with Big Poppa. Mat fished another day with his dad. My girls voted to go visit Yellowstone National Park while they were on the river. So we did! (I’ll add that excursion in its own post). And we put all the summer fun away for the season. It’s always a lot of work and a lot of laundry to clean up the ranch – especially since we have been unpacking our RV day after day all over the place. Repacking Crystal was effort! But everything is packed back in (hopefully), she had an oil change and tune up during her hiatus, even got the leaking tire fixed, groceries are purchased for the next week and loaded in… We are ready to hit the road again!