Spring has Sprung at The Royal Ranch

Well, the kids are on Spring Break, and Tom has taken the week off of work so that we can take some day trips together and get some work done around here.  This means absolutely no work for me.  Don't get me wrong, I think you all have me figured out by now, in that my family is my world, but as you know, it is very difficult to get anything done with extra people underfoot.  At my house "extra people" goes a long ways.  Let me give you an example.
Yesterday morning started off with me getting two different groups of teenagers out the door to go skiing.  One group of sixteen year olds that went in my son Thomas' car and a set of thirteen year olds that went with my son Nathans friends' parents.  That's a lot of food, sunscreen, helmets, boots, boards, skis, hats, gloves, etc. to keep track of and organized.  Blessedly, I was able to squeeze in my blog and the morning chores before our next guests started popping in.
Tom's friend Steve came by,  and I saw him just sitting on a rock while Tom was down on the road talking to some guys; he'd been out there for quite some time so I went to talk to him.  Turns out the traffic jam was some hunters who had heard about us and Tom was out there with them for a long time looking at maps and stuff, so Steve and I caught up; I've been worried about his wife's health anyway (hope you're feeling better Terry!), and along came Dan our neighbor!  I ran inside to catch the phone-turns out my friend Viv wanted to pop by to see the lambs!
So... while Viv and her son Johnny, Bella and I were up ooohing and aaahing over Crash and Princess and Viv and I finally had a few minutes to catch up- lord do us girls love to "catch up"- Tom got rid of the new hunters and got to visit with his friends.  Vivian didn't get to stay as long as I'd like, but that's okay, because Bella and I had bread in the oven for Terry, which had cooked perfectly while we were at the barn!
While it cooled, we looked out the window and lo and behold a new visitor had stopped by!  A new neighbor; a veteran that is really having a rough time of it.  He's trying to climb Mt. Rosalie (way too early in the season, I might add), his wife left him, his kid stole from him and now his country won't take care of him-and he is way over medicated (again, I might add)!  I mean it's crazy, the stories that some people just drop on us, are almost unbelievable!  I think this place has a way of making people feel at home and we wouldn't have it any other way!
We were also excited to have our great friend Slimmy over for dinner.  Yes, I know we're getting too old for nicknames like Slimmy and that his real name is Pat, but he'll always be Slimmy to us.  He'd popped by because he'd taken his dog for a run out in the forest; yup, it's official everyone has Spring fever and is driving by The Royal Ranch to say hello.  How can you resist, with my tall skinny husband out there with his long armed wave?  So, you'll have to excuse me if my posts are a bit sporadic this week-I probably have too many bodies too wade through to find my computer-ha!!!