Carson's grandfather, Walt Poling, passed away on Thursday, May 10th, 2012. So we headed to Fritch/Amarillo on Mother's Day for his funeral. Monica, Carson's cousin wrote this sweet note about "Walt" after his passing. I love that Charlie got to meet Walt two summers ago in this post.
We loved you, Walt, and we'll truly miss you.
Charlie was extremely excited about visiting the RANCH!!!!
P_
After a 6 hour drive, Charlie went straight for the dirt.
And then he saw the rocks... lots and lots of rocks = HEAVEN for Charlie
Charlie's first ride on the 4-wheeler
The picture above reminded me of this picture of Carson and Justus at the ranch in the 80's!!
All of Walt's great-grandchildren (from L to R): Shelby, Charlie, Audrey, Genny, Carly, Haley (excited?) and Conrad
This is Charlie leaving the ranch....
All the brothers after the funeral
Justus, Andrew, Landon and Carson
With Charlie too
Carson and me at the ranch
All of Walt's grandchildren in birth order from oldest to youngest (from L to R): Monica, Molly, Robert, Meredith, Carson, Justus, Landon & Andrew
Carly and her amazing gymnastic skills
All the first cousins on the Poling Ranch firetruck
The Morris Family: Molly, Marc, Carly & Conrad
The Pfaff Family: Bryon, Monica, Shelby & Haley
I almost stepped on this little guy... GO FROGS!!!!
Shelby and Haley were not afraid to love on the little horned toad
Their daddy was apparently a lizard whisperer... he turned it over, rubbed it's belly and put it to sleep. The things you learn at the ranch.
I loved this picture of Carson's great-grandfather's wedding certificate from 1917. It survived Walt's house burning to the ground a couple years ago and was hanging in Walt's bedroom. The ranch was homesteaded by J.M. Poling in 1898 so my mind just races at all of the history of this family ranch over the past 114 years while I was looking at this wedding certificate.
One of Granny Nelle's paintings (Carson's grandmother)
Stan gave Charlie a ride on the firetruck, turned on the siren and he was grinning ear to ear!!
Daddy and Charlie
Landon giving Charlie a ride on Walt's backhoe
Landon ALSO gave Charlie a ride on the 4 wheeler
Posing on the tractor
Bear was completely obsessed with the cattle guard and talked about it for the next 2 weeks
Charlie and Boppa by the ranch owl
And then on the mule for a ride
Sign on the barn
In Charlie's eyes, Landon giving him a ride on the backhoe is better than any ride at Disney World:
His ride on the mule:
We loved getting to see family during our short visit for a celebration of Walt's life.
When we were riding back to FW we asked Charlie "what was your favorite thing about the ranch?"... his first response was "the ranch has lots of rocks" and then we asked him again and he replied "Landon." :) (it's because Landon took him on all of the ranch equipment... he knows how to win over a two year's heart)
