Some Highlights

Damon's family planned a fun day at the park for us. Here's Grandpa giving Rock some walking lessons.

Isn't my Grandma the cutest? Actually she's the orneriest (that's her word). She's 92 years old and literally still works from morning until night. It was so special and wonderful to stay with her while in NM. She and Rock have such a neat bond (Rock is named after her husband).
One thing I love about the ranch is all the cool lizards that the kids catch. I walked outside one morning and saw this horny toad. I had to call Alex (the official lizard hunter) to come and catch it. Grandma was so excited because we haven't had a horny toad on the ranch in a long time. She is such a conservationist; she made sure Alex put it back where he found it and was so concerned about it the whole time he held it.

One night we hiked out to the petrified tree. There is this huge old tree on the ranch that turned to stone. Once again, check out Grandma - she hiked up to the tree with the rest of the kids. The tree is an OLD sequoia. The kids are sitting on what used to be the trunk and roots.

When it gets hot in NM we head to the mountains. Hallie is doing some rendition of "The hills are alive, with the sound of music."

We always have a game of baseball in the meadow. My niece Bella is able to hold her own with the boys!
And if you play baseball in a meadow full of cow patties, you'll probably end up sliding into one at some point. Zeke is showing off his stinky hand before he goes to wash up in the stream.
We always get a picture of all the cousins while we're at the cabin. It's never pretty, but at least is shows our growing numbers. This year we're up to 17!

The kids love playing by the lake. Zeke "jumped" off the swing into the lake for the first time this year. He actually was just swinging when we heard a huge splash. He came out of the water gasping for air; it's a huge shock to hit the cold, cold Vallecito water!

Here's how a pro jumps off the swing. Jonah is the oldest and coolest cousin! You can see why all the kids idolize him.


We also went to The Dove Ranch (My uncle Johnny's) to ride horses. Zeke loves being a cowboy. He had such a good time leading the "D" around and riding her.
Hallie was happy just sitting on the fences.
He looks good high on his horse.

There are five kids in my family and we each have one girl. So we thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of all the girl cousins together. Maybe it was a good idea, but it didn't work out too well.

This is the best we did, but Aimee Marie is missing. She prefers to be with her mom. And you can see why when you look closely at what Hallie is doing to her in the above picture.
My dad and I did a lot of running on the ranch. One of my favorite runs starts near this natural bridge. My mom drives us about five miles out and then we run home. One morning, some of the kids came to play. They must have stayed and played a while because we beat them home.

Oh fair New Mexico! I love the ranch and my family so much. I'm so thankful for the memories we created there. It's so cool for my kids to be doing some of the same things that were so special to me when I was a little girl.