Amish Country

We left Cincinnati and started out towards Holmes County, Ohio where the largest Amish/Mennonite community resides. I have been wanting to stay in Amish country for a while and I wasn't disappointed. Theirs is a life of simplicity and peace. I loved seeing the horse drawn buggies driving down the same road as all the other vehicle's. I'm sure that those who are used to a fasted pace life become disgruntled with having to slow down for the buggies, but the way I felt about it was, we are in their part of the country and we can learn a lot from their way of life. Slow down and smell the roses!
For the most part, the Amish worship in their homes, but there are a few scattered churches about. So our family decided to go to a Mennonite Church on our first Sunday there. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was very excited about being able to worship with a whole different culture. I carefully chose my clothes, decided not to wear a watch, very simple jewelry and with as little make-up as I dared to wear out in public. Hmmm...how should I put this? I was slightly disappointed when we arrived. To our surprise there where high heels and mini skirts, a cappuccino bar (it was acceptable to take coffee into church), a full band with over-head and power point, and to top it off the church service started off with four men playing a game to see who could put the most noodles on a straw stuck between their teeth! What ever happened to the unspeakable holiness within our worship? I have a whole new appreciation for my church! Fortunately, while we were there we made friends with some of the old order Amish and the next time we visit, I'm going to church with them!
Since that first Sunday morning, we became more familiar with the difference between the old order and the modern. It varies greatly in both the Amish and Mennonite community. You can have old order Mennonites and modern Amish, but more often you would find the old order being Amish and the modern being Mennonite. The only way to know the difference is to ask, and we did a lot of that. They were all very willing to teach us about their culture.
The country side was beautiful with the perfectly manicured farms and homes. The food was fresh and home made. The folks were so friendly and visited with us and the children. While we were there, we avoided all of the "tourist" shops and went to the homes of the Amish who had business to get to know more about them. We also bought the kids clothing at an Amish second hand shop, so the kids strolled around town looking like they belong there and if it weren't for Steve and I, no one would have known the better. Steve fit right in with his beard, but I couldn't talk him into shaving his upper lip. I kind of like the look! We also saw the biggest horse in the.....maybe the world. The owner said that it still had potential to grow even more. I'll post a picture with Steve, notice that the horse's back is as tall as Steve.
I am often asked where my favorite place has been in all of my travels and up until now I have always said Death Valley. Now I would have to say that Holmes County is a place where I would love to live. And, if it weren't for the dress that I would have to wear, not baptising my babies, not having graven images, being a dispensationalist and not having electricity, I could totally be Amish!

Spring 2010

Once we left California, we had to decide if we were willing to brave the Northwestern winter or head back to Texas and wait it out. We headed for Texas and it turned out to be a good choice because the Oregon and Washington winter stayed well into the spring. It gave us time to visit with our friends, family and to get back into the routine of our wonderful Church.
We got back on the road in May and headed to Evansville, IN (with one stop off in Vicksburg, MS for a Civil War lesson) to my sister's house to celebrate a niece and nephew graduate from high school. We spent three weeks there visiting with family and seeing a few historical sites. One being Lincoln's boyhood home and the other, a Revolution War hero, George Rogers Clark memorial site in Vincennes,IN. We were there the weekend they were doing a Revolutionary War reenactment. It was really done well and the kids also enjoyed watching the participants show how life in early America was lived.
After we tore ourselves away from my sister and her family, we drove to Cincinnati, OH where I visited with an Aunt and got reacquainted with my cousins that I rarely get to see. My wonderful aunt spoiled us with tickets to the Ken Ham Creation Museum. We loved it. It was soooo nice to go to a Christian world view museum and get a full picture of our awesome world and it's Creator. While we were in Cincinnati, we also visited the former home of our 23rd president, William Howard Taft. Another interesting place we explored outside the city is called Big Bone Lick. Sounds funny, but it is the first paleonyologist sight in the world! Apparently, prehistoric mammals like the mammoths, mastodons, bison and ground sloths migrated down to this area because of the sulfer and they would "lick" the salt marshes. However, many of the mammals where too heavy to cross the salt basins and would sink to their deaths perfectly preserving their bodies. Unfortunally, most of the excavations where not done properly and much scientific evidence has been lost. It is also the site where President Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to bring back samples of these strange animals. And, if any of you have read the book, "Follow the River", about a pioneer woman, Mary Inglis, who was captured by the Shawnee Indians and later excaped, this is the place. Very exciting! While we where on a hike serching out the bison that still roam the land, we almost witnessed the birth of a bison. I started filming with my camera, but she was soon surrounded by other bison that obstructed our view. Plus, I'm not sure I could have waited that one out.
At this moment, we are on the road and headed to Ohio Amish country. This is a long awaited destination for me and I am sure to have a wonderful time. I will give you my full report in a couple of days!

Day Trips while in Nevada & Arizona

We had a good location while staying in Laughlin, Nevada. We were wedged in there between California and Arizona and were able to take short trips to interesting places. One thing we did was take a trip down Historic Route 66. I've always wanted to do that for some reason. Now that I've done it, I won't want to do it anymore. It's out of my system. It was fun, the road was very narrow and curvy, and popped in and out of small hills. I felt like I was on a roller coaster when Steve said he was starting to get sick. I thought he was joking, but Sami seconded it and before we knew it, Leo (our dog) threw up in Steve's lap. Yep, it all happened that fast!

We took the road to a living ghost town in Arizona called Oatman. It was an old mining town in the mid-1800s and when the mining ended, the miners just let their burrows go and left town. The burrows survived and hung around in the old ghost town that was nestled up in the hills. Their off-spring still roam the streets and folks go up there to see them and feed them carrots.

There is about 100 people who live there now and sell T-shirts out of the old, run down buildings that are still there. The most exciting thing that has ever happened there is Clark Gable spend his honeymoon in the hotel. It was a tacky little town, but the burrows were overly friendly and would sometimes follow you into the stores if you carried a carrot! One of them chased Samantha around until she threw her carrots down on the ground! She made a scene, but it was really funny.

Another activity we did from there was to hike a canyon called Grapevine Canyon. We had some folks tell us it was a good place to go, but we had no idea how incredible it would be. We took a wash into the canyon and at the mouth of the canyon there were hundreds (I'm not exaggerating) of pictographs all over the rocks. I've never seen anything like it and I doubt anything will impress me more. After we got home, I looked it up on the inter net and they believe that the pictographs have been there for 1000 years left by the ancestors of the Mojave Indians. The rocks were amazing, huge rocks that balanced on smaller ones. I think God did that just to make us wonder about it! The kids loved climbing all of the different formations, and looking at the pictographs left by the Indians. It was one of our favorite places to go while we were there.

I have long wanted to see the London Bridge that is in Lake Havasu City and I finally got to go there. Before we went, I looked up the history on it and was a little disappointed to know that it wasn't the original London Bridge. It was built in London in 1825 because the original tower bridge was "falling down", then again in the 1960s London needed to build another bridge to accommodate the larger flow of traffic and put this one up for auction. In 1968, a man in the US bought it and had it brought over to the States. Each brick was labeled and it was reassembled in the desert near a lake called Havasu in Arizona. Once the bridge was complete (three years later) they dug a canal from the lake to the bridge and now they have a nice little island city out there in the desert. It was still really fun to go and walk on and under it. Auby understands that we've been to the London Bridge, but didn't go to London, which is surprising because he thinks he's been to a birthday party in England, but it was only Marshall, Texas!

Death Valley California

We left Death Valley two days ago and I loved it so much it hurts. It has been my very favorite place to be on this trip. We were only there for three days and hiked 5 different places that just take your breath away. There was so much more to do that we didn't have the time for, I wish we had two weeks to enjoy it all. One of the hikes we took was to Bad Water Basin. It is 280 feet below sea level, the lowest place in the Northern Hemisphere. Temperatures can reach over 200 degrees in the summer, fortunately, we were there in the spring and the weather was great. It's very interesting to walk out on an empty sea bed and as a SCUBA diver I can totally visualize this area being the sea (the visibility was great), but what's really interesting is to see the salt flats that remained after the water evaporates. It's endless. I tasted some of it, it's very salty! Auby felt free as a bird on the wide open terrain and would just run and run.
Another joyful place we hiked was Artists Palette. It was a short hike, but very colorful. You would wind in around a small canyon 20-30 feet high and see mounds of color. Really. There was a purple mound, a beautiful sea green mound, burgundy, a yellow mound that Auby profoundly said looked like egg-yellow, and of course browns and tans, but even they looked colorful there. It's very easy to see how it got the name Artists Palette.
Then there was the Natural Bridge Canyon hike. Amazing rock formations everywhere. It, of course, had a rock arch over a part of the canyon that earned it's name and there where many dry water falls 30 feet high, some of them had natural stairwells that wound up around them. Nature can be so amazing, God has such an incredible imagination! This hike was about 4 miles long but you could keep going forever and ever if you had the mind to. It's hard for me to tear myself away from the next corner. Fortunately for me, I have to stop due to the kids ability.
One of my two favorite hikes was Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch. Gower Gulch was just an extension of Golden Canyon. This was a longer hike and if there was ever any doubt as to how long the kids could go, this hike tested their limit in durability, strength and stamina. We walked on skinny ledges, climbed high mountains and explored caves. There were many hikers at the beginning of the hike, which included canyon narrows and dry water falls, but once we started towards the highest lookout, we were all along the rest of the way! That was where the fun began and the terrain became more challenging. Towards the end of our hike, when it was late and I was beginning to wonder if we were lost, I finally spotted a car traveling in the distance and knew we were close to the parking lot. The next little water fall that I thought I was going to scamper down wasn't little at all, but a 30 foot drop off! For a minute there I was thinking it was the only way down and I wasn't going that way, we finally spotted a small trail that lead us back to the car, thank goodness!
Our last hike on Sunday was Marble Canyon. Guess what the canyon was made out of....marble! I've never seen marble in its natural state and it was fantastic to see walls of it. It was so smooth that you could slide down it. It was also one of the two of my favorite hikes because it was so unusual and curvy and long. We were expecting a 5 mile hike so we packed in a lunch to have a picnic at the end of the trail. Once we started back out of the canyon, everyone we passed were surprised on seeing the kids with us and commented on how good they were doing. I know they are my kids, but they really are great kids! They are just troopers, they would hike places adults would be afraid to go. All of that hiking and not one injury. Only a small hand wound Auby received from falling down. Nothing a band-aid couldn't fix!
We had a GREAT time and would go again in a heart beat, if you ever get the chance, don't pass it up.

The Grand Canyon

We were able to go to the Grand Canyon a couple of weekends ago. Although the weather was cold, we decided it may be our only chance to see it on this trip. The kids earned another Jr. Ranger badge by completing their required course which consist mainly of desert life and different colors of rocks and their formation. Samantha was quite taken back by the size and beauty of the Canyon, but Auby thought it was just a big hole. I don't think he had as much fun on this field trip as the others because Steve and I kept a tight hold of him the whole time fussing as to how close he could get to the edge. I'm sure you can imagine the scene.
It was beautiful indeed. Words fail me when I try to describe it. I came to the conclusion that my mind can only absorb so much and looking out at the Canyon, I can only take in so much of it. So, all I can tell those of you who have not seen the Grand Canyon is this, it's beautiful, it's big, breath-taking, and you must see it for yourself because imagination is not enough!
We had to drive the North Rim instead of hike it because it was very cold and windy. That was a bit of a disappointment, but we stopped at the over-looks to take pictures and enjoy the view. Our pic-nic lunch was eaten inside the truck instead of at the tables that looked out over the beautiful Canyon.
All in all, we did enjoy our trip and I believe it made an impression on the kids. We have decided that the next time we go to the Grand Canyon, we will hike it from the bottom through an Indian Reservation. We wanted to do that this time, but thought Auby would have a hard time hiking the 8 miles into the Reservation at the bottom of the Canyon. He'll be ready to do it one day and until then....we still have great pictures!

The Four Corners

I forgot to mention that on our way out of Colorado and into Nevada, we stopped at four corners. It was a little out of the way, but the kids thought it would be neat to be in four different states at one time. It was a week day and a little cold, so not many folks were out. There were not many merchants out selling their goods because that very weekend the Tribal Committee had plans to tear down the outdoor market buildings and rebuild with nicer, enclosed stores for the tourist. So, if your planning a trip to the four corners, you might want to wait a while. I, for one, am glad we made it before the old is replaced with the new. I like things less commercial and more authentic.
The Indians were fantastic! They were so willing to show us their craft and how things were made and where they got the material, which most of the time it was right out in the reservation, they would point to this mound or that ravine. We bought an arrow from a Navajo Indian who had been taught how to make them by his grandfather. The trade had been passed down from generations past and he was teaching his 10 year old son. It took him 2 weeks to make the arrow, from finding and curing the wood all the way to shaping the arrow head. It's pretty cool!
On our way out, we saw Monument Valley in the distance, we didn't have time to drive through it because we had to get through Flagstaff before a snow storm hit and we would be stuck in the cold again!

Nevada and Arizona/Hoover Dam

We have had enough cold weather and snow to last us a life time, so we headed for the desert. We are staying on the Colorado River that separates Arizona and Nevada on a Mohave Indian reservation. The weather is great, 70s in the day and a little cool at night. I hear you folks in Texas are having snow, sorry 'bout that! We spent the first week just getting outside, running and playing in the nice weather. We even braved the pool, still a little cold! Over the weekend we visited Hoover Dam and Lake Mead National Park. What a great time! The dam is big, lots of concrete but the history behind it is better. I've heard that the government will at sometime stop visitors from crossing and touring the dam. So, we thought we would grab a little of our American history while we still could. They are in the process of building another road and bridge that crosses the Colorado River, so I assume once that is complete, the traffic across Hoover Dam will cease. After the tour of the Dam, we headed to Lake Mead Nation Park for our little Jr. Rangers. This is just as much fun for me as it is for the kiddos. After they went through their program on desert critters and lake history, we hiked an old train trail that was used in the construction of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. After the Dam was finished, there was no more use for the train track to run through there and in recent years, the National Park has tore out the rail road and allowed hikers to use it to hike the 4 miles to Hoover Dam. I really wanted to do this hike, but was afraid that Auby couldn't do it. So we decided we would do just a little of it. There are 5 tunnels cut out of the mountains that you go through on your hike, my goal was to reach the first tunnel so the kids could see it (about a mile in) and hike back out. We reached the tunnel just fine, the kids are having a good time and no one was whining yet. But, once we reached the first one, the kids wanted to go to the next one, and so on it went until we hiked through all 5 tunnels! We ended up hiking back to the bottom of the dam! The tunnels are huge, you just can't imagine how big they are, I hope the pictures do them justice. Everything was just beautiful, the trail ran beside Lake Mead and the evening sun was shinning on the mountains and after a long day of touring, the kids where hiking champs!

Skiing in Silverton

Silverton is where Steve and I spent our honeymoon and is one of our favorite places to visit. Although we used to come every year, it has been many years since we had been in Silverton and a few things had changed. The city has put in a ski lift and has a couple of slopes to enjoy. It probably wouldn't appeal to the adventurous skier, but for families with children who are skiing for the first time, it is great! Steve worked with Auby who was skiing for the first time. Samantha had been through ski school, but that was three years ago and needed to get the feel of it again. She when up the ski lift with Steve once and it took them forever to get back down the hill. But, by the end of the day, she was getting the hang of it again. We really could have used another day to have fun with it. Auby did well, he kept his skis pointed straight down hill and never really learned to stop. Needless to say, when he and I when up the lift, it didn't take us long to get down. If it weren't for his skis coming off, then my skis coming off, then me being down hill from my ski poles and having to crawl up hill (on my rump) to reach them while hanging on to Auby, we would have made it down in no time! It was a little nerve racking, but we did get down. That was all the skiing Auby was interested in for the day, and I was a little worn out myself!

1800s, steam-powered train ride & hot springs!

We had a very full weekend, too full actually, it was difficult to get out of bed on Monday. But it was fun! We got up very early (5am) to catch the train in Durango at 7:30. It's a bit of a drive from Dolores to Durango. But, we arrived on time and boarded the Narrow-Gauge coal-fired, steam powered train through the back country wilderness of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. This was a special treat for Auby, what little boy doesn't like trains? This train is one of very few left that are still running. It was build in the 1800s and with the exception of the onset of the Depression, it has ran continuously since, carrying passengers and supplies to the bustling mining town of Silverton.

Our trip was held on the Snowdown weekend, which is the city of Durango's big, yearly celebration. After we boarded and rolled out of town, the train stopped, let the passengers off the train to watch hot-air balloons ascend above the mountains. We had hot chocolate and donuts, then re-boarded for the San Juan Mountains. Once we reached our destination, we unloaded once again to take pictures of our surroundings and the train. The employees of the train were great and showed anyone interested how the train ran, and showed us where they kept the coal and how the coal is used to operated the engine. Very dirty!

This was a special occasion for Steve and I because we stayed in Silverton on our honeymoon 12 years ago, road this same train and took pictures in front of the same steam engine. Now, we were doing this with our children, maybe one day we will get to do this with our grandchildren!

On our way back to the train station, we seemed to draw the attention of everyone in our passenger car when we mentioned what we were doing with the selling of the house and traveling the country with the kids and all. Everyone thinks what we are doing is great and seem to be very interested in it. I have found it is a great opportunity to tell others of our belief in Christ and wanting a different life-style than what the world has to offer. I've been pleased to be in a position to offer hope to someone in need of it. Our God is an awesome God and works in mysterious ways, does He not?

After the train ride, we headed to Ouray for the much needed hot springs. I think it is the first time I have been warm since we left! You can imagine how much the kids enjoyed the heated pool area. If you've never been to the hot springs in Ouray, it is a real treat. The town itself has earned the nick-name Little Switzerland because of the mountains that surround this small city. It's just a beautiful feeling to be in natural hot springs in the chilly weather looking at snow covered mountains! The hot springs were wonderful and relaxing, there was a problem though, we had a long drive home!

Mesa Verde

We finally left Eagle Nest, New Mexico and are heading toward the Grand Canyon. We stopped off in Dolores, Colorado for a week or so to do more exploring in American History. First, we spent the day at Mesa Verde, which has to be one of the coolest places on earth! If you have never been there, it is a must see. There are literally hundreds of dwellings hidden in cliffs and they believe there are more undiscovered. There was so much mystery surrounding the first Indians who lived here around 1,400 years ago, but they now believe they are the ancestors to the Pueblo Indians, who now reside all in the Southwest. Some of the very same ancestors of the Pueblos we visited in Taos! It seems that at different times through out history there would be a group of Indians live there for a few hundred years, then they would move on and another group would come and stay. Sometime in the 1200s the Indians left permanently and left a wealth of artifacts behind that told how they lived, what they ate, a lot about their daily lives, but no clue as to why they up and left. The Indians left so many artifacts that (Mesa Verde National Park) after filling the museum and storing a lot and giving some to other museums around the Nation, they still have more that are just "out there", still in the dwellings. They don't have a place to put them all, so they just leave them!
The dwellings are amazing! The original wood beams are still there holding up the clay structure. You can see that they painted and decorated the walls of their homes with intricate designs and hand prints. There are many kivas that you can climb down into. A kiva is a place of worship used by individual families, it is also a "gathering" place where women may weave or make jewelry. You can see the stone mill where women would grind corn. You can see where they would sharpen their tools and start fires. Fire marks are still on the ceiling of the caves! It's like stepping back into time. Hand and finger prints still in the mortar from them building their home. It's amazing!
Our Jr. Rangers earned another badge after exploring the cliff dwellings and going through the museum, watching a film and taking a test. Auby really loves this, he takes it very seriously and has a great respect for the Rangers. I believe that Samantha likes it too, but won't admit it. She has a pass port that she can stamp at the National Parks, but she still goes through the Jr. Ranger program to get a badge and it is part of our schooling.
This weekend we will be riding through the San Jaun Mountains on a 1800s, coal-fired, steam-powered train, so check back with us for our next adventure!

Ft. Garland and the Great Sand Dunes

We had an awesome weekend! Our mission was to visit the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, but along the way, we wandered into more great history. One was Ft. Garland, which Steve and I had already visited, but we wanted to show the kids, plus, I've become interested in Kit Carson (why can't I remember studying him in high school?), he spent some time at the fort with his young wife and children. This is also one of the forts where the famed Buffalo Soldiers stayed. I'm am reading a great book called The Forgotten Heroes based on the history of the black soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War. After leaving the fort and on our way to the Sand Dunes, we happened upon a family who's mission in life is to preserve Colorado's history. They had reconstructed every living habitat of different tribes of Indians, along with a sheriff's' office (which the "boys" slept in) and plains animals, including bison. They actually lived on this land, inside the tee pees or the hogan, or whatever suited their fancy, without electricity or running water. Needless to say, these folks where pretty interesting! Very educational and exciting for both the kids and Steve and I. Finally we headed toward the Dunes and were a little distracted by the ever present mule deer who seemed untroubled by our presents. (Someday, you should get Steve to teach you how to "speak deer".) Once we were finally on the dunes, the kids had a wonderful time. They are already experienced sleighers, so this was a piece of cake, even a little on the slow side for them. If you have never been there, it can be a little unsettling at first because the dunes seem so out of place. It's like Auby said "it's a beach without water!" And of course, there are the beautiful Colorado Rockies in the background, I've never seen Switzerland but I imagine it looks a lot like that. The sky is so blue in contrast to the sand, it almost looks as if the backdrop is fake. There are seven insects that live in the dunes and nowhere else on earth. And a kangaroo rat, creepy! Auby went through the Junior Ranger program and earned himself a badge. You can see his ranger hat in the pictures, he is very proud of that, he even has to be able to see it when he goes to bed. He is really taking his new job seriously! We spent the whole day exploring God's wonderful creation and we needed much more time.
The next day, we went back to Taos to tour Kit Carson's house and get a little more background on him. If anyone has a book of his life, I'd really like to borrow it. The tour guide we had was the niece the Kit Carson's wife, Josephina. She was born in the house that they shared and the family passed it down through the generations honoring the wishes of Josephina herself. She was a great guide because she had so much personal and family history that had been passed on to her.
It was a GREAT weekend, what will we do next weekend?

Fall in Tennesse

We wanted to see really great colors this fall and Tennessee was a wonderful choice. We decided on Dickson, Tennessee, partly for the foliage and partly because it is a town named after my ancestors. Don't hold me to this, but I believe my grandfather was the great nephew of the founder. It was founded in 1899 and it is a wonderful little town. It was kind of strange to see your name on practically everything! It gave me a sense of family pride. Very neat, I would definitely go back. Who knows, maybe even find some long lost relative.
We stayed in a great National Park outside of Dickson called Montgomery Bell. It had awesome hiking trails from one to twenty miles in length. It was actually raining the day we went hiking with the kids but all of the trees worked as a "canopy" for us and kept us from getting wet. That was really neat. There were many holes along the way where miners used to mine for ore, some small, some very large. One of the neatest thing we found on our hike was an old church and parishioner's home. If I remember correctly, it was the first in Tennessee. Everything was just beautiful with stone pathways and wooden bridges that crossed over creeks. It was so serene that I toyed with the idea of wanting to live like this in an old two room cabin. But, I came to my senses when I thought of things like bathrooms and Wal-mart! There was so much history there, but unfortunately, we didn't stay long enough to research it.
One our way home we stayed on the Mississippi River at a place called Tom Sawyer's. It was right on the Mississippi and we could sit and watch the tug boat push huge barges up and down the Mississippi. It was fun for the kids because they are fans of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. I think that is one of the best things about traveling, the kids can really relate to books and characters (fictional and non-fictional) and it just brings things to life for them (and me!).

Summer in Florida

I started my post at the beginning of the year when I created the blog. But, let be back up to this summer when we first purchased the motor home. We picked it up in Florida, so that's where we started our trip. We were just getting used to the new home and did the usual Florida vacation scene. Sand and beaches and fun in the sun. We stayed on a beautiful beach, St. George Island, at the very end where you could see beach on all three sides. It was at the end of summer and all vacationers were gone by then, so we had the whole beach to ourselves. It was so perfect, that it didn't seem fair to the rest of the world! We had first choice of the beautiful treasures that the sea would bring us every morning, we would have sea gulls dive into the waters for their catch only a few feet away from us, and I think our very favorite was watching the schools of dolphin dance around like a backdrop to a perfect scenery. The kids chased sand crab across the beach and built sand castles. It was a great beginning to a new life.
Once we left St. George Island and headed back, we would stay a day or two at National Parks along the way and enjoy how well they preserve nature. Samantha was particularly concerned about the warning signs to stay on the board walk due to the alligators. The land was very marshy and board walks had to be built for visitors to walk across the park to the beaches. We happened upon one that had a very small beach area but after the endless miles of sandy beaches we had just come from, it was no more than a wading pool. So wade we did, and on closer observation of our surroundings, we started noticing the most wonderful aqua life! We had to be careful not to step on jellyfish. But, the little hermit crabs were the cutest! I was so excited to see one, then two, then more and more. We began to pick them up and they became so abundant that Steve had to pull off his cap and we used it as a "bucket" to hold all of them. They had the most beautiful shells and it seemed they all had a personality of their own. We were enjoying them so much that we failed to see that we were walking down the narrow beach area with water on one side and tall, marshy grass on the other side, just perfect for alligators! All was well until I noticed that we were walking along side alligator tracks, headed in the same direction! I tried to alert Steve without completely scaring the kids, so we carefully made our way back, watching back and forth from the grass to the waters. Before we reached our "small beach" we could see the alligator tracks emerging from the waters and walking in the same direction we were on the beach. After we pulled our heart back into our chest, we decided that maybe we should stay on the board walk. Samantha agreed.

Some things we do

Well, we spend a lot of time snow sleighing since it doesn't cost anything and the kids are getting pretty good at it. Although we are all getting a little careless! That's how it goes, right? We keep climbing higher up the mountain so we can go longer and faster down. This Sunday, we climbed up to the top of one mountain but were a little disappointed in the view. We were not disappointed with the ride down though, much less work and a little faster... no, a lot faster!
We always tell the kids to bail out of the sleigh if they think they are going to hit a tree and can't turn in time. Samantha flew down the mountain on one ride and Steve and I had to jump to get out of her way. Me, with my cat-like reflexes was able to move out of harms way. I'm not sure how Steve managed it, but she flew between his legs! Oh, how I would have loved to have a camera on that one! After Samantha had overcome the shock, she hopped on the back of Auby's sleigh only for them to crash. Auby's face was crammed into the snow as Samantha rolled over him. He was so angry with her until he realized the had an Anakin Skywalker scare on his face. Did I mention he uses the "force" to guide himself down the hill? So far, so good.
Anyway, we decided that it was time to load up and go home. Better stop while we're ahead!

Winter in New Mexico

We have finally hit the road again after Samantha finished her Christmas play, "It's a Wonderful Life", in which she played ZuZu. We left the week before Christmas and our first stop was Eagle Nest, New Mexico. We plan to stay here for a month. When we arrived, there was plenty of snow already on the ground, but we are still waiting for a good fresh snow. The kids have enjoyed snow sleighing and hiking through Carson Nation Forest. We have visited Taos, Red River, Cimarron, and Angel Fire. The weather here is super cold, dropping below 0 at night, during the day it will range from a few degrees to 20 or 30 degrees. I have found I can jog in most temperatures as long as the wind is not blowing. The elevation is 8,238 feet so the wind can get pretty nasty up here. The town has plenty of activities like a snow man contest, which I can proudly boast that our family took first place, the Polar Bear Plunge (which our family did not participate!) where volunteers jump into a frozen lake. Folks come from all over the US for this!
The owners here at Golden Eagle RV, Bruce and Bridgett have a great set up. They have a club house where we can have a FREE breakfast every morning, big screen TV, plenty of games for the kids, a library and movie rental. I totally recommend anyone staying here while visiting Eagle Nest.
Our Christmas was GREAT. We went to Mass Christmas Eve at St. Mel Catholic Church, the next morning we opened gifts and by lunch we headed to Taos Pueblos. There we were able of observe the local Indians celebrate Christmas with their traditional "Dance of the Deer" in their 13th century pueblo that has remained unchanged for nearly 1,000 years. This was a great experience for the kids who were surprised to see that Indians are still around and some still live the old way. This would have made excellent pictures but the Indians believe that photos capture their spirit and won't allow cameras or cell phones. I was able to get the top of the bell tower in the cemetery on our way out and bought a picture of their church and homes which I will try to have for you to see. The Indians here are Catholic and were converted to Christianity some time back.
The week after Christmas we were all ready to get back into a routine, so we started back to school and Steve went to work. School is going well in the motor home, we are all packed up with our supplies and I just take out what I need when I need it. After school we take a break and go to the club house for hot chocolate and cookies, visit with Bruce and Bridgett and plan our next activity. Cooking has been an adventure but we have managed well in our small space with what few pots and pans we do have. Then I put the kiddos down to bed and I read them a book (we just started Anne of Green Gables, also reading King Matt the First).
All in all things are working out and we are having fun with it. We're not sure where we are headed next, but we will keep everyone posted. Until then, happy New Year and God Bless!