The Second of July by The Pioneer Woman

It’s the week of the Fourth, but it’s not the Fourth yet! It’s a busy time on the ranch, and Ladd and the kids (and the cowboys) are coming up on about three solid weeks of getting up before 5:00 a.m. Sunday is an exception. We’re old school that way. Remember all those times I told you about how my mother-in-law used to warn me about summer?

Yeah…this is what she’s talking about.

 
 
A weariness starts to set in…but that’s just part of ranch life!

 
 
Remember when this guy was a cute little fella?

He’s still a cute fella, but he’s not little anymore. In fact, he just turned nineteen!

 
 
And Cowboy Cameron? Well, he just became a dad. This is the first time I’ve seen him since his baby daughter was born the other day, and he reports that the first two nights at home were a bit of…shall we say…an adjustment.

I reassured him that it would not last forever, that she would not wake up six times a night up until she goes to college. I think he believed me. Next time I see him I’m going to tell him that if it was so bad, women would never choose to have a second child!

I wonder if that will help?

 
 
My nephew Stuart is living with us this summer, and we have successfully broken him of his nocturnal college sleep schedule! Ha.

 
 
If you ever want to break yourself of a nocturnal sleep schedule, a few days on a ranch ought to do the trick.

 
 
I was in Los Angeles filming a Food Network show for over a week, and my niece went with me, along with my two girls! While we were there, I kept asking her (somewhat in jest) if she was homesick, if she was ready to come home, if she missed working cattle, and if she wished she hadn’t come on the trip.

Her answers were: no, no, no, and no. Ha.

 
 
Good morning, Del!

 
 
And good morning, Honey!

 
 
We were apart during my shoot last week, and by the time I got home, we both pretty much decided being apart is for the birds. When I walked in the door after my trip, I threw my bags on the floor, ran toward him at top speed, jumped into his arms and he spun me around, caressing my hair in the process, as songbirds sang a melodic tune all around us—just like a romance movie!

Not really. We smiled at each other, hugged tightly, and smooched.

That’s our kinda romance movie.