For the first time in several months - I am trying to post pictures again! We'll see if it works.
To catch you up - I have to go back to August before school started. We were in the thick of the remodel - the floor company came in to scrape and refinish all the floors, so we had to be moved out...everything - furniture and all had to go. So we moved the house, packed our bags and headed for the mountains. On the way, we picked up our dear friends, the Madsens. Brian and Rodney are best friends from high school and still keep up with each other. Jackie, Rodneys wife and I have become close over the years as well. They have two wonderful boys, Evan and Tyler. They still live in Lubbock where Brian grew up, so we broke the trip in half and picked them up on our way to New Mexico. Brians family has a cabin there - Glorietta, actually..where his mom and her sisters spent most summers growing up.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous - such a change from an august summer in Texas! We actually wore jackets throughout the day most every day we were there. There is a pretty little lake on the campus and we fed the ducks ( and the fish) - we went paddle boating - and enjoyed the scenery.
One morning the dads left to go golfing and we stayed around the cabin to be adventurous! The kids worked on painting treasure boxes all morning to take with us on our nature walk. They had a blast and of course left there mark on the cabin when it was all said and done! ( Hopefully, Jackie and I cleaned up all the marks!) My kids had just seen Spiderwick Chronicles, so everything we found was a fairy or a goblin or something from one of their houses...so fun!
We played on the playground and ran up and down the paths...even when it started raining. It was so sweet to our kids connecting with our friends children. They had a ball!
We also went to Bandelier mountain where the indians carved dwellings into the sides of the cliffs. We climbed up huge ladders to discover their homes and how they lived so many years ago. Austin came home with a very loud drum made of animal skins and Annah Grace walked away with a sword made out of animal bones.
We all, of course, ate tons of great mexican food while taking in the beautiful weather and fantastic views...it is easy to know God and his wonders when you are at the cabin...they are so obvious!
Our friends headed back to Lubbock after a few days and then in came Brians sister, Jenny with her boyfriend, Andrew and Brians parents. Jenny and Andrew had just gotten engaged - so the wedding planning began immediately, of course! It was fun to spend time with them right after their special moment.
We drove home from this trip - thankful. Thankful that we had such good family and friends to spend time with, thankful for the cabin and the views, and thankful that we did not have to spend 2 weeks in a hotel right before school started. By the way - we drove in at 10pm tuesday night and school started at 8am the next morning! We squeezed the last vacation in just in the nick of time!