Family Frenzy

Summer always brings us back to the mountains of home.   A break from the heat, air fresh and clean, and mama's cooking.   But best of all, visits home mean family, and family is something we have in abundance.

 Paw-Paw and Seth have some wrastlin' time on the floor.

Obviously, Seth won this match.  No title belt here, just a crown of Paw-Paw's hat.

         

Cousins....minus a couple, but still trouble.

We have a tradition with the cousins.   Each year, we have an all out, no holds barred water fight.   It is becoming more involved each year, and the older the boy cousins get, the more serious and planned this thing becomes.  I have a secret....I plan to ALWAYS put myself on their team.   I don't want to be on the receiving end of their business.  We will let Uncle Doug take that job.

     

Lesson learned....never sit on a tree stump with a wet bum.   The tree sap soaked right in.   Her cousins coined her "Sticky Buns" for the remainder of the week.     Take a guess at what they  offered her for breakfast the next day?

Uncle Tony, Aunt Alex, Izi and furry cousin, Charlie.  

Charlie is the only cousin we allow to lick Kaelan.

Izi and K

These two mountain girls love nothing more than spending time running around the mountains, playing in dirt, kicking pinecones and putting on fourteen layers of lipgloss.

Despite the dry conditions and the lack of rain, we spent plenty of time enjoying the cool weather and lovely scenery. 

Here, daddy and Seth enjoy the wonders of God's creations.

Actually, they were watching slurry planes headed to the huge fire that broke out while we were there.   The much needed rain came, but along with it came lightening.   The fire was less than 10 miles from town, and sadly caused a lot of damage and chaos.   We were actually glad to be there and know our family was okay rather than trying to contact them via phone.  

All was good within a few days, and the fire was contained.  

We are so lucky to have family that live and work right on site at the Sacremento Peak Obseravatory in Sunspot, NM.  Kaelan just loves studying space and constellations right now, so a night time trip to a place of space study was the bees knees.   The stars were unbelievable because we were at such a high elevation and there is an ordinance that keeps out unnecessary  light.   No street lights, porch lights, just dark, dark, dark and amazing views of space. 

Hiking up to some of the telescopes at dusk.

The crew at an overlook of the flatlands and White Sands.   Speaking of Whites Sands.........I have a few photos to share with you about that.  Or, maybe you are reading this in published order, which means I already shared them with you.  Either way, on to White Sands......