Andersen Reunion

We took a break from travels the second weekend of July so that we could attend the sealing of a friend here in Albuquerque. The following weekend, we headed for a quick hot trip to Mesa for a family reunion. It would have been my grandparents 70th anniversary. I'm sad to say that we didn't take far enough pictures.

We spent the few days there learning about the lives my grandparents lived and their example of love and faith. Grandma died when I was almost 12 and Grandpa when I was newly 14 so while I remember lots, there is also a lot I learned as stories were told. Of course we had the usual fun, contests, and games with cousins as well the enriching Spirit-filled meetings. I feel so blessed to learn from such incredible people and to call them family is even more wonderful. We enjoyed a talent show, a scavenger hunt that took us to various places in Mesa that had significance to my grandparents lives', a swimming night at the local junior high/high school (Stan even won the big splash contest!! My husband is talented :)), and lots of good food and company.

We did capture this awesome video during the family talent show. Scott will stop whatever he is doing to dance any time he hears anything close to music. His up and down bounce with his fingers in his mouth is his only move but it never gets old :)

Here is a family picture with the majority of those who were able to make it to the reunion. There were still many, many of us who couldn't come.

And the last picture is one my cousin took standing in front of the Mesa temple looking out. This was a view my grandparents had on the eve of their wedding.

4th of July in Angel Fire

On July 2nd we took off mid afternoon for a fun weekend in beautiful Angel Fire, NM. Our friends, Brian and Dantzel, invited us to join them at Brian's family cabin there. Brian's parents, whom we also know, would be there too. It was a wonderful get-away!

The girls, plus Scott, headed up to Eagle's Nest to check out the boutiques and stores there. Probably our best find was the chocolate store, they had delicious fudge!

We all enjoyed lots of laying around

Scott loved his play time with Brian. Brian is one of his favorites.

The boys did some clearing of the trees.

And of course they did some programming...

We were super into a show called Stargate and Stan tried almost all one night to get it to stream with no success :(

We ate lots of good food

And saw some wild turkeys

And beautiful scenery

View of Angel Fire from the mountain just north of it

There was a random spring coming out of the mountain on our drive

And we had awesome seats for the fireworks.

I love this handsome man!

Scott had fun finding all kinds of random things around the cabin to play with. This was one of his favorites. A very large potato masher. He sure loved playing with Brian.

These purple flowers were EVERYWHERE! And so beautiful

This lake was right near their cabin and we captured this picture on our way out Sunday afternoon.

We had such a great time with the Adams' and were sure grateful they let us join in their fun. We are blessed with wonderful friends.

Morphy Lake Camping and a hike to Enchanted Lake

Ever since we first moved to New Mexico, Stan has dreamed of hiking to Enchanted Lake. It was a little too far for us to hike the same day we drove up, so we planned a camping trip to Morphy Lake, a state park type spot. We got there on Thursday evening, Stan took a couple hours off work so that we could there in time to make dinner.

Setting up camp

Scott got right down to business by finding good sticks and rocks

Stan tried a little fishing that evening. They weren't having much for what he was offering though

Scott wanted in on the fishing too :)

We went on a drive to check out a possible hiking trailhead

The meadows were beautiful

Scott LOVED the fire, we had to make sure he didn't jump into it again this camp trip. 

We hit the hay fairly early so that we could get up nice and early for our adventure the next day.

It was a beautiful day and Scott was pretty happy.

The forest was so beautiful everywhere we went!

We crossed a couple of streams, they were so beautiful

Stan, right after we crossed the above stream. We were so alone the whole day, it was so serene.

We were almost at the top on this picture. You could see quite a long ways out and it was stunning! We had just walked across some crazy huge boulders.

We finally reached the lake and Stan set off to see if he could find some fish. Scott and I hung out and ate food. Scott was pretty funny with the beef jerky. He would suck and suck on it and then give it back to me.

All of Stan's gear spread out as he set up.

Enchanted Lake: We had dreamed and dreamed of getting to this lake. It was very pretty, but sadly no fish :(

The sky and clouds were perfect all day long

He was just so happy to not be in the carrier anymore

We started to head back down the mountain, this is just below the lake. It was SOOOOOO steep. I was standing just five feet up the trail from Stan and this is how much lower on the mountain he is. I huffed and puffed all up this trail.

As we hiked back, it started to rain pretty hard. We hid under a tree for a little bit, Scott was snoozing on Stan :)

Stan on our way back

In the end, it took us 12 hours, and was 12 miles. Scott fell asleep on the way home and he was so tired he didn't even hardly rouse when I put him in the tent. When we went to join him, he had quite the crazy hair-do:

Saturday morning we took our time and slowly packed up.

Scott and Stan played in the tent. Stan would make the mattress bounce and Scott would laugh and laugh each time.

Scott played in the driver seat while we cleaned up. He loves "driving".

We headed up home and stopped for lunch on the way. It was a super fun trip!