Holidays are for Fun.

Labor Day. What a strange holiday. But I love it. It means no school. To celebrate the labor force of America my family headed up to the family ranch. I'm sure there was lots of labor going on there at one point or another. The ranch is always a good time; the standard trip includes shooting contests, dirtbike adventures, spikeball tournaments, hot dogs, sourdough pancakes, and napping.

I love the ranch. I love that technology doesn't work out there. Disconnecting from social media for a few days is always a dream. I love not having a schedule. There is endless fun up there and all day for it. I love the stars. At the ranch you can see stars on stars on stars. It is humbling and magical.

My favorite event was the Shotgun Knockout. If you've never heard of it, read on. If you already know what it is, read on. You play with 4 or 5 people. They stand in a shooting line. With shotguns. The left most person is first. He/she yells "pull!" and has the first shot at the clay pigeon (if some of these terms are foreign to you, call my dad for a description in laymen's terms). If shooter #1 misses (we'll call him Payden), then shooter #2 (we'll call him Riley, for no particular reason) can shoot and knock Payden out. If they both miss then shooter #3 (his name will be Trey) has a chance to shoot. If Trey hits the clay pigeon then both Riley and Payden are out. It is incredibly fun. We played until we ran out of ammo. We started with a lot of ammo...

My uncle brought his horses out to the ranch. Read below for our riding story.

Before my uncle unsaddled the horses, my friend and I decided to go for a ride. We planned heading into the pasture until we hit the fence. The horses had other plans. We started leading them out away from where they were tied up. We made it about 30 yards before the horses decided they were done. They started turning around. I tried to steer my less-than-loyal steed straight but he wasn't having any of it. He would turn and start heading back to the tie spot. So I would turn him around and start heading back to the pasture. I would make it past the garage and he would turn around again. This happened 3 or 4 times before I gave up and let the horse have his way. He walked straight back to the tie spot and demanded to be unsaddled. Trey had a similar experience. His horse was just as stubborn. He even tried to pull his saddle blanket off with his teeth. It was pretty hilarious. Nutshell: we rode to our hearts content...which was only about 5 minutes.

My dad's Dirty Harry impression.

Family. Friends. Guns. Food. Stars. Fun.

The ranch.