Angel Fire

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation in the Angel Fire, NM mountains. I have gone to these mountains all of my life but we hadn't been since Princess was one year old. That was too long!! Once we were there, I realized how much I missed going and now that my kids have gone, I see us going back sooner than later. It was so nice to enjoy the cooler temps, family laughter and just take a break from our busy life for a few days. We golfed, hiked, explored and created many memories. On the way we stopped to explore the infamous "bear cave" along the road. I have seen, looked in and admired this cave many times but I had never gone all the way in. After some coaxing, the whole fam went all the way in and realized that it's not that bad. :) At least it wasn't full of snow like many times I've seen it!

Thankfully my brother had a flashlight and the water was way down so we could really take time to hang out and look around.

Once we arrived at the cabins, one of our favorite things to do as a family was to sit out on the decks and visit. We usually started the day at my grandparents cabin talking over coffee and ended the day at the cabin that was hosting dinner that night.

There was 19 of us in all (20 if you count the one in my sisters "oven"). I am so very blessed to have a family that gets along and enjoys each other. We laugh, tease and goof off all the

time. God is so good!

One day we went into Taos and visited the Pueblo Indian reservation. It was my way of getting "school" in during vacation. :)

The next day we went for a hike to see three waterfalls. I've been going on this hike for about 20 years and it was fun to go back with my kids and see them experience it for the first time.

Jerod's back was hurting him badly this day (that's what 2 days of golf does to a bad back) but he was a trooper and went with us anyway. He used a good sized walking stick and had lots of help from the other men getting up and down. But this did mean that he didn't chance walking down the steep hills to get close to the waterfall which meant I didn't either because I didn't want him to be alone. I did get some good pics from above though. :)

My brother was so good to help my kids so they didn't miss any of the experience.

Papaw and Little Man enjoying the second waterfall.

Always the spider-man monkey!

They made it!!

Even the smallest guest had a good time!

The last night we went driving around hoping to see some wildlife. We came upon this huge herd of elk walking the golf course. Just what we were looking for.

So now we're back and thankfully came home to some rain clouds in the sky. Cross your fingers and pray hard that those clouds produce rain for our very hot and dry city!! I very much enjoyed our vacation but I'm glad to be home and ready to get back into some sort of routine. After a few very busy weeks, we have a little time to get our feet under us before we're off to the mountains again for camp. I hope all of you are having a great summer!