The grass is always greener

When McKenzie Ray plays make-believe, she dreams up a world that is as far from her everyday life as she can make it: she pretends that she works in an office.

“We write letters, put things in envelopes and send them out,” said McKenzie, 11, who with her 10-year-old sister, Maci, has a real life that is the stuff of fantasy for most children. For more than half the year, the sisters travel the West on the rodeo circuit. Their father, Lee, better known as Boogie Ray, makes a living roping steers. —NYT