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I had the good fortune to be invited to my fabulous and glamorous friend Silvia’s twenty-fifth (plus or minus) birthday which took place in Wapiti, Wyoming on the uXu Ranch. The ranch, run by a friendly cowboy named Tuff, his father Curly, daughter Tara and a couple of nice cowboys Matthew and Jon, is on the eastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Ten of us went for a weekend of horseback riding, shooting guns, fly fishing - but mostly sitting around in a gorgeous place drinking and gossiping and talking about how fabulous and glamorous our friend Silvia is. Oh, and there was that one night of drunken charades by the bonfire - which I think scared our cowhands a bit.

And despite my cabin - the Moonlight - having two mice smushed dead in traps, the place was exceptionally nice for a rustic dude ranch on the eastern entrance to Yellowstone.

My horse, Kilowatt, lugged me around those mountains for three days without a wimper. And every few minutes we’d hear our city-slicker birthday girl refer to her stirrups as pedals or foot rests and her horse alternately as a cat, dog, friend or airplane (as in “when I got off the plane today”).

For the record - for those naysayers - people there really DO wear cowboy hats, belts and boots. And now, so do my kids… (but THIS is what Caleb and Tobias were up to while I was gone).

See the photographic evidence of our attempts to ride a horse here or here (gisela’s flickr) (or slideshow here).

• Sara’s photos: Wyoming
• Gisela’s photos: Wild Wild West

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