boys on the ranch

4 hours of non-stop play is what happened here last saturday when cindy brought travis and braden over to the ranch.  ezra and travis are both 4 years old, born 4 months apart, these boys were each others first playmates as cindy and i pushed them along in their strollers in the mountains behind our house, played in each other's backyards, at the playground and went to the pumpkin patch together.  braden was born when we were living on the island and this was our first time meeting.  he is already a walking, talking toddler and partook as much as he could in the boisterous play of the big boys.   he is a sweet dog loving boy, thankfully, as we had 5 big ones running in the backyard with them, although you only see cleo in the pictures because she's the only one who really wants to play.  the boys rode the radio flyer horse, climbed the corral fence, shoveled manure, played tug-o-war with cleo and her ball, climbed up and jumped off hay bales, as well as (but not pictured here) literally ran all the way to the playground and back - at least a mile and a half round trip.  by the time they left, travis and ezra were wet and dirty and braden had his clothes changed because he was making mud by the fountain and had fallen in it.  i heard later from cindy that travis fell asleep early that evening, but after eating some dinner, ezra was still playing into the dark hours of the night as he learned to ride his mini atv by himself that night...