Beauty, Family Time, and Great Country

We are coming up on the middle of July and things are just now slowing down enough to get recorded here.We had a lovely time visiting family and traveling to our places that we love in the West. We have had a drought here pretty bad. Our lawns are turning yellow and we are restricted to watering twice a week. My folks kept our new sequoia trees we planted this spring a live and my favorite hibiscus tree as well. On our trip to the cabin, we encountered all sorts of rain in Nevada. It made for a nice green view like I've never seen in that dry state. In Utah we arrived on fourth of July and to our surprise there was a gauntlet of fireworks it seemed. We drove from Salt Lake to Payson and saw fireworks going off on both sides of the freeway the entire way! What a great site to behold. It was the perfect ending of a great first day of vacation. I loved that we talked about our country. We took our usual route through Gunnison and the blue Mesa Reservoir . I never tire of the beauty there.

We did a few things a little differently on this ride to the cabin. We stopped at Chili's For dinner in Alamosa. Spencer has been doing so well in public places. I love our family time and it makes me happy when we can all be together out having fun and eating out.  I noticed my battery light had come on an my engine light that day, but we had made it. We took the long way to Taos and saw wild horses, we visited the cure town square and shopped at the shops just in time. There was rain incoming and the town closed up fast. On the way back we visited the Rio Grande river gorge. This time Spencer didn't throw anything off it. We are finally wise to his intentions of doing that on every bridge he visits. Joseph and Celia got neat stones and souvenirs from a friendly street vendor there.

The next day we went to Zapata falls. It was still a rough road too the top and Spencer didn't quite know about this hiking business, but we made it as a family. Celia Emmy and I got a little wet and climbed on rocks and walked through the river to get a closer look of the falls. It was so loud and misty. the water was barreling out of the sky and hitting the rocks below. I loved it! We had every intention to go to the sad dunes after, but our tire light turned on. We decided to go into town do some laundry and get the tire fixed. We ended up at Pizza Hut(tradition after any sort of difficult hike). Little did w know the alternator on our car had was tiring out. It wasn't to bad we rolled into antonito called AAA ad after a long while we were delivered to the cabin and the next day it was taken to town and fixed up. We visited Chama Trujillo Meadows and our new fun spot cliff view of the Brazos. Of course we visited many family dollars and little shops and restaurants throughout our visit. I wrote down a list of cabin activities and I think we nearly did them all! We even discovered the best Pizza ever and the cutest Lodge gift shop around. We drove up the Alamosa and down the Platoro which is backwards from our normal trek and we saw  the cutest fawn you ever laid eyes on. Celia was in the back of that van saying He aren't I as cute as the Fawn? Of course she is, but you can tell how we were ooing and aahing over that beautiful creature. We tatered at Tater falls. I think the rocks are getting more smooth and slippery each year. Extra clothes is a must for everyone next time!