Yee-Haw!

Sunday afternoon we went with Rustin and Sharon (and girls) to the Wild West show at Mackinaw Valley Vineyard.  Nate, Steph, and their girls met us there.

Max and Grace ready to head inside!

The pony ride was the first thing on the agenda and probably the biggest hit all afternoon.

There's Max!

A proud cowboy.

Reaching for the saddle horn, maybe?  Not sure.

Nora wanted to ride, but once up there she freaked out a little bit, which I totally expected.  She's not exactly our brave one. :)  Greg held her hand and walked by her for a little bit, and then she did it all by herself!  Yay, Nor!

Big girl.

All by herself!

Grace enjoyed her ride, too!

I love this picture...a cowboy and his pony.  He looks so natural!  Maybe we'll have to get one... :)

Elena did great on her ride, as well.  We had quite the group of kids!

Also sighted on the grounds were these four desperadoes:

Nora "Flower" Beutel...doesn't she look menacing?

Grace "Gracie" Schmidgall...gotta love that 'tough' face!

Max "Scowler" Beutel...ditto on this one.

Elena "Owl" Ramquist...not sure if this is her tough face or just squinting from the sun. :)

It was a gorgeous day to be at the winery.  I had never been on their grounds before, and it's just beautiful!

The lovely Ram fam by the vineyards

Sharon, Greg, and Steph took the kids on the mule cart ride...I took a video of them driving off into the sunset (so to speak).

After the ride we watched the Wild West show.  Our kids were too young to sit through it, really.  I don't know if we would have stuck around, but prior to the show the sheriff had 'deputized' all of our kids and said, "At the end of the show, there might be a bank robbery and we'll need you to help us catch the bad guy!"  So we sat through the whole thing, but by the time the 'bad guy' was running past, our kids were not paying attention and pretty well were in the back of the pack. :)  Oh, well.

I did spot this cute cowboy at the show, though, so it wasn't a complete bust. ;)

After the show, we went up to a pavilion and ate some supper (the pulled pork bbq was pretty good!).  In that pavilion were the "Too Old to Be Controlled" square dance band.  Not only that, but one woman there was showing the little kids a few square dance moves.  Knowing that our kids all like to dance, we thought for sure Max, Nora, Elena, and Grace would all jump in.  It actually took a little coaxing and Nora never did really get out there.  Once Grace got started, though, she didn't stop!  She danced with the two other little girls that were there until it was time to leave.  I wish I had gotten a video of that!  As it is, this is one where some of the parents were in on it, too. :)

Once we left the vineyard, we all went to Nate and Steph's and enjoyed a nice fire in their backyard fire ring.  It was a fun and relaxing way to end the weekend!