Missing my kids

You know what? I'm missing my kids! I've had a great summer. I've gone on trips, I've spent time at our ranch, I've done pretty much everything I've wanted to do this summer and yet, now that school is starting, football has started and my two older children are pretty much set in their ways, I'm missing hanging out with my children.

My youngest made the Jr. Midgets football team. He's the biggest on his team and is excelling at it. He reminds me of myself when I was his age. I played all sports. Loved being a part of an organization. The only difference is, he's about 60 lbs bigger than I was when I was his age. I think he's going to take to football very well.

My 18 yr. Old has left for College. It's his first time away from home for any extended time and he's really excited about being in College. He was accepted to Gonzaga University and he's really looking forward to it.

My daughter is 24 now, she's working, living in Central California, has a fairly good job and an OK boyfriend so she's pretty busy just doing her own thing. I hear from her on occasion when she needs something.. I hope that one day, she'll just want to hang out with me and not because she needs something... but just because she wants to...

My oldest is 27. He's working full time, going to school full time (16 units) is married and supporting his wife while she attends school too... needless to say, he's busy... I'm really proud of all my kids... I'm just missing them.

I guess it's time for me to start finding other things to do! LOL

I've been busy working and ranching... or should I say, working so that I can do more ranching.

Funny thing happened the other night. I was Kayaking with a friend of mine on the Russian River. It was about 9:30 at night we were about a mile and a half up river from where we launched. It was a beautiful night. The moon was out ( it had been about 100 degrees earlier in the day) I noticed something in the water ahead of us and thought it was a log in the water, that is, until it spoke. Turns out that 2 young girls, (18yrs. old) had started floating down the river at 3:00 and that was as far as they had gotten. They were supposed to be another 2 miles down the river by dark and they didn't make it... they were frightened, wet and hypothermia. My friend I I made sure they weren't in any medical condition that needed attention and then we preceded to tow them back to our launch location. When we got there, we put them into my truck and drove them to where they said they left their car. Turns out, they left the car at another location 7 miles further down the river. If we hadn't come upon them, they would have had to float another 8 miles and probably wouldn't have made it off the river until sun up, if at all... They could have gotten out of the river and walked, but that would have been a problem too. 2 Young women in bikini's walking along a dark 2 way road would have been asking for trouble. I'm just glad we were there to help them... Capped off a great evening on the river, helped to notsosmart girls and got a nice workout as well. Just another great day on the river!


Tomorrow it's back to the river to work and if I'm lucky, I'll have some time to do some more kayaking.

Looking for more things to do.. any suggestions!