DVR: It's Not Just About The Horses

Friday's are always hard at DVR because you know that night means packing, and the next day means leaving.  We are so blessed to live right here in Colorado - we can actually visit the ranch in the Winter time, too.  Last year we stayed over there for a few nights and skied at Monarch.  DVR is a totally different place in the snow.  The mules hang around and actually do work on the ranch, but the horses are in Winter pasture.

Back to Friday: at dinner, Harold presents the Mule Certificates.  If you are blessed enough during the week to ride Sugar, Cricket, Ruth or one of the other mules, you get a Mule Certificate, entitling you to brag all year about your exploits. 

After dinner, the kids put on their skit at the old western town.  Usually the same plot, good guys live in the town, bad guys cause trouble, good guys throw them in jail, but never the same experience. 

Later in the evening there is ice cream at the lodge.  Lot of folks take their pictures up to the office to be loaded onto the DVR computer and Brock puts together a slide show.  During the ice cream reception, there is a continuous slide show of all the pictures taken that week.  It's really fun to see other people's pictures - especially if they happen to be of your family. 

Friday evening gives us a chance to say goodbye to old friends and new ones.  It's also a time to say goodbye to the staff, who by then are like family.  It's much like the end of a family reunion when you say "Y'all come see us!".

This year we are very blessed to have one of the staff girls from a few years ago going to graduate school right here in Colorado Springs.  It's like having a niece move to town.

Saturday brings a quiet breakfast as many of the guests leave before breakfast to make out of state flights.  And then, well, we have to leave. 

Another Strickland family vacation comes to a close, but for this one, we KNOW we'll do it again next Summer. 

We have committed to going to Deer Valley Ranch every year no matter what our financial situation is.  (We prefer the whole enchilada - the ranch package where everything is included.  But some years, like this one when finances are lean and mean, we do a la cart and that saves us some money.)

We  measure our growth by the ranch, both physically for the girls - we have their picture taken next to the same fence every year, and relationally for all of us. It is an anchor for our family, a fixed point.  We may be all over the place (figuratively speaking) during the school year, but during that one week of every Summer, we 4 are able to take our focus from the chaos of the world and turn it to the family that Jesus has made us.  Sometimes it is a place of healing, sometimes it is a place of respite, sometimes it is just plain fun, and sometimes it is a week of non-stop worship of the One who spoke such a beautiful place into existence.  But everytime, God shows up to each of us in the way we need that particular week.

So here is my sales pitch:  If you are looking for an extraordinary vacation for your family next Summer, please consider DVR.  I am working on a group rate for their opening week next Summer, June 4 - 11.  I hope you'll check back here for details through the year.

Thank you for taking this journey with me.  I know a week turned into 6 weeks, but that is okay with me.  The longer I can draw out my Deer Valley time, the better!

Please look at our Legacy Family Facebook page for a slideshow of our week.