Birthday weekend!

Last weekend was my birthday and we decided what better way to celebrate than to head to the wilderness. Yes this was my decision. Stan even gave me an opportunity to say otherwise :) We went out to eat on Friday night to a delicious place called El Pinto...we took the camera with us...but forgot to take pictures :( We'll remember one of these days.

Saturday morning we woke up and Stan took Scott so that I could get a few more minutes of sleep while he made yummy German Pancakes.

We did what we needed to to get ready and headed out on our adventure.

Scott was, as always, super excited. Actually, let's be honest. His face seems to say "Again? You're making you go in this thing again?"

We drove to the forest by Mount Taylor. There were many beautiful views.  Our goal was to try and reach a mesa that we could then hike to a neat archeological site. Sadly, the roads were just too bumpy and we didn't make it the whole way.

Looking back at the road we had come over from Mount Taylor. Even though it looks flat, trust me, it wasn't. The tough volcanic rock sure doesn't erode away.

The sky was sure blue and beautiful that day with neat clouds!

Scott was such a good boy the whole day.

We decided to head to another forest close by and see what we could find there. We had never been to this one and weren't sure what it would be like. It was BEAUTIFUL! I think it's one of my new favorite forests here in New Mexico. We drove up canyon roads. I was in the back with Scott...

We stopped to have dinner, tacos (this time we remembered to bring our lighter!).

Stan did his manly duties with the stove and heated up the meat for us.

It was pretty windy and hard to protect Scott and eat a taco at the same time so...

We put Scott in his seat. This is how Scott roughs it

On our way out of the canyon, I saw what looked like an elk up ahead of us on the right of the road. I am known for thinking I see a deer or elk and then realizing it is tree stump...kind of embarrassing because it has happened a lot. Well this time, it really was an elk! Four of them!!!

A view of Mount Taylor coming out of the forest to the south. Pictures never do justice to what the eye can see.

It was a wonderfully fun birthday spent with my two favorite men. Stan said on the way home that we should stop at Smith's so he could look at guns (his code word for flowers). He came out with the most beautiful bouquet. (Picture quality is because it's on my phone :( they really were/are beautiful)

The lily in the middle bloomed a couple days later...

And on Mother's Day Stan made me breakfast again. :)

It was a great weekend!