More Visitors - Random End of Summer

One thing I have to say about New Mexico - there are some amazing sunsets here! We loved the sunsets in Carlsbad, and we love them in Las Cruces, too.

One Saturday we went to Elephant Butte reservoir with three other families. The water level is REALLY low (it was at 8.4% when we were there) so we had to drive down the beach to get to the water, but it was so fun. Between all of us we had a couple of shade canopies, a couple of paddles boards, and a kayak. The kids had a blast playing together all day!

Then in August the Sugiyamas decided to come down and visit, and they brought Mom and Bruce. Kylee and Connie decided to do their hair in a new cool way....

We decided to go hike up to Dripping Springs again because they all hadn't been there.

Colby asked me to take his picture, but then he wouldn't smile. I guess he wanted to document how unhappy he was with this long hike?!?

In house news: The rock wall behind our house got finished.

When it rains here it RAINS! One Sunday we decided to have a BBQ, so Andy cooked us some food and the sky was completely clear and blue. Then while we were eating I said "Do I hear thunder?" Andy was like, "Nah, there are no clouds!" Next thing we knew - torrential downpour. It turned our backyard into a huge puddle and made a river run down our street. The kids went out to play since it's warm rain.

Colby went and stood under the spout that was pouring water off our roof, and he told me "Mom! I take a shower!" He thought it was so funny.

In mid-August school started. We're 100% online here and it's been really frustrating to try to figure out all the stuff, but the kids are doing great. I, on the other hand, am going insane. BUT...it's getting better. As they figure things out it has become a *little* less parent-intensive.

We discovered that the dirt roads out behind our house are pretty much endless. There are miles of trails out there! It's the kids' new favorite thing to do in the evenings. We stuff Colby in his little seat on the back of my bike and go play! It has been really fun. I'm a little bummed because Colby is almost (or already) too big for his seat, but once we can't stuff him in there anymore we won't all be able to go out until he can ride on his own without training wheels. I'm not looking forward to that in-between time!

Anyone who knows Colby knows that stinky blankie is in rough shape. One day Colby showed me that the hole he has now ripped is soooo big that he can actually climb fully inside of stinky blankie. In fact, in this photo the blankie is completely inside out. We've tried to replace stinky blankie with other blankets we have in our house, but no luck. So, I searched online and found one that is blue fuzzy on one side and silky blue on the other side. Basically, as close to the original as I could find. It arrived in the mail, and Colby took it immediately. Hallelujah! When Andy arrived home that night Colby even said, "Dad, feel the front! It's soooo nice." Stinky blankie has now been washed and is stashed in a closet for memories sake.

Camping @ Cloudcroft

The week after Grandma Karen was here Andy had the week off work. We didn't do our normal long road trip this summer because we already moved to Las Cruces and Andy was tired of driving, so I decided we would just go camping for a few days at a place near our house. Cloudcroft is only 1.5 hours away, so we headed up there Wednesday-Saturday.

The campsites are all first-come, first-served and the campgrounds are only allowed to run at 50% capacity because of Covid, so we made sure to go early to get a spot. It was a close one - they were almost all full already! We ended up getting the last spot in our campground, but it was great. There was nobody else anywhere near us since the other sites were roped off, and we were right across from the bathroom.

The kiddos all pitched in to help Andy set up the tent.

It was so pretty up there! It's hard to believe that we lived in the middle of a desert but you can drive 90 minutes and be up in the pine tree covered mountains. It makes my heart happy!

They didn't have any wood for sale because their shipment hadn't come in, so we just gathered wood from around the campground. It was clear that were in the process of removing dead trees, and there were chunks of wood everywhere. Ally became quite the mountain woman and found all sorts of logs. There was a "Nature Trail" (legit, that's what it was called, I didn't even have to fib to the kids this time!) that went around our whole campground. It was .6 miles long and the kids did it 2x per day on all the days we were there. The very first time, Ally started collecting sticks/logs as soon as we started. About half way through I could tell they were getting heavy because she had a huge armload and she kept having to readjust them to add more that she found. I suggested she could put them down and find some closer to camp, but she thought those ones were perfect, so she carried them all the way back to camp. She actually decided that all people should just camp for their whole lives. Who needs houses!?

Thursday morning we went on a trail that had nice views of White Sands.

Then we stopped and looked at this old train trestle, and read the signs about the train that used to come from Alamogordo up to Cloudcroft, and how many trestles there were, etc. It was pretty interesting.

We spent a lot of relaxing time lounging around the campfire.

We also made s'mores every night (except the last night, because it rained!).

On Friday morning we went to a trail called Bridal Veil Falls (not the one in Utah!).

We passed another old train trestle.

There were a few abandoned houses/cabins up there. It makes me wonder what happened? Why were they abandoned? When did someone just decide to give up and stop caring for their property? It's kind of sad.

As we were hiking up we passed some older folks coming out and they asked us if we knew about the "new trail" that is WAY shorter to get to Bridal Veil Falls. Uh, nope! This one was long, and Andy was thinking that making the kids hike all the way back when we were done was going to be super fun. The old folks told us where to go and we figured we'd give it a try.

There actually was a little waterfall at this one, which is crazy because the hike out there was ALL desert. It didn't seem like we were anywhere near a place where a waterfall might be, but the suddenly you come around a bend and this little oasis is there.

After we were done at the waterfall we headed out on the trail we thought was the shorter one. I could see our dot on what looked like a little dirt road on google maps, so we figured it was fine. Ultimately we ended up at the parking lot but we were behind a locked gate with a barbed wire fence and the actual trail head was on the opposite side of the parking lot...so clearly the dirt road wasn't quite where we were supposed to be. BUT...it was fine! We carefully climbed through the barbed wire fence. Then we just had to walk up the road about 1/2 mile to where we had parked the truck. It was sooo much shorter and easier than walking back out on the trail we came in on!

Later that afternoon we drove up another road just to see some scenery. There were a few little overlooks that we stopped at, and it was so pretty!

On our way back to camp we saw these black clouds right over where our campground was. Yikes!

It ended up being rainy with hail, but we just made a run for the tent and hung out there for a while. Once the downpour was done we pulled out the camp stove and made some dinner, after which Andy spent an incredibly long amount of time attempting to build a fire with our soaking wet wood. He was determined to get it though, and eventually he did. Our chairs were soaked, so we sat around on little tiny rocks trying to glean some warmth from the fire before we went to bed.

In the end even Andy admitted it was a fun trip. He doesn't love camping, but there's just something so relaxing about being away from electronics and distractions and spending time out in nature. Skyler decided that all food tastes better when you're camping as well. We can't wait to go again!