Summer Vacation

We finally took our family vacation a week and a half before starting school. Talk about cutting it close! Initially, we were going to San Antonio because we still haven't been to Sea World in all the times we've been, but the thought of chasing Dravyn around in all that heat made us rethink that decision. We hadn't been to Ruidoso since Bon and Grandad John left, so off to the mountains we went.

Tiny's Burger Barn in Tatum, New Mexico

Dravyn spilled Baylen's Dr. Pepper

all over himself and needed the first of

many changes of clothes!

Refreshments at the cabin.

Like I said earlier, this was the first time we actually had to pick and pay for a place to stay since my grandparents no longer have an available b&b at the ready for us. It was hard to narrow it down at first, but this place had an indoor pool which we ended up having all to ourselves and the river was right across the street, so it ended up being perfect. It never got over 83 degrees and we even got to witness a couple of mountain rain showers. We packed almost everything in to these 3 days that we could think of: bumper boats, putt-putt, Monjou Lookout, a Misty Mountain candy store binge, buying junk trinkets at Thunderbird Curio, a hike around a lake, playing at the wooden castle playground, keeping an eye out for bears, both wooden and real, pointing out what's new and what wasn't there when we were little, for example the mountain my cousins, my brother, and I explored all over and rode horses on, is now a Wal-Mart parking lot!!!!!!, and finally taking their pictures in front of an indian!

I'm just so glad they fell in love with Ruidoso. The putt-putt down by the river is gone, but the one with the bumper boats is pretty good and Sayer even made a couple of holes-in-one. Baylen started planning the next trip and we hadn't even made it to the cabin yet. Dravyn asked me the day after we got home, "where did the mountains go, momma? I miss the rocks." I was afraid it wouldn't be the same, and while some things were sorely missing, (Bon's pancakes for one!) the spirit of adventure and the smell of the cool pine air remains.