Vaca in the Pines

As soon as camp was over, we headed a few minutes into the canyon for a stay at the Montandon Mountain Mansion.  For the last three years, this place has been our buffer between camp and going back into the real world.  It gives us a week of peace and quiet.  Except not.  This year was Loud. and Rowdy.  Our kids spent most of the time wrestling on the pull out couch in the main room or fighting loudly over who's turn it was to hold the poor lizard that wasn't fast enough to get away.  We still had a good week, but it definitely wasn't relaxing except for between the hours of 9:30 pm and 7:30 am.

We started with what has become a tradition of making S'mores around the campfire at camp with all the cousins.

We also got to bring a friend's four wheeler to her and Levi and Shawn drove it at night.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and took our traditional photo in front of Hermits, on our way to Santa Fe. 

After eating a delicious brunch at Harry's Roadhouse, we did some needed shopping and then headed to the square.  It took us about 2 1/2 minutes to walk the area where all the people sell jewelry. 

We did get off the beaten path just a bit and found a fun photo op.

Loved the set-up of this "shop"

After returning home, the Uno cards came out.  We played at least 49 games of Uno while at the cabin.  It's all fun and games till Levi gets involved.  Although he is fully capable of playing, there's a lot of directing.

Every evening as the sun was going down, we put in a DVD and gave the kids some kind of treat, whether it was icecream, popcorn, or cupcakes.  This was everyone's favorite time!

And I worked puzzles.  On this night I completed a 998 piece puzzle in about four hours....Yes, two pieces missing.  UUGGHHH!

We also took some hikes and had picnics out in nature.

They loved wading in the water, even though it was cold!

After hiking, we came back to the cabin only to realize we had left the keys to the cabin locked in the cabin.  Oops....thankgoodness I had left some windows open and we were able to pop a screen off and send Levi through!

Ava couldn't help herself.  She had to make a to-do list for one of our days.  She couldn't find paper so she wrote on a bowl.

This is what a lot of our hikes looked like.  One was dragging the other.  This was a very steep hill so I'm sure it really was hard for shortie.

We went to a cave not far from our cabin and it was FREAKY!  It had a tiny opening you had to lay down on the ground to go through and then it opened into a large space.

This was the cave entrance and was not in my comfort zone at all.

Us acting like bears outside the cave.

On our last day there, we took some of the cousins on a hike.  We stopped at one point and the two artists pulled out their paper and markers and started drawing what they saw.

This is the image I've always had in my head of what a little boy does for his mommy.  Roots and all.

On the last evening, we actually had a hail storm.  Lots of thunder and lots of hail.  It was awesome.

 This is what our car looks like on the way home.  It's a long drive, and it was so wonderful to be back home in our own house.  What a great three weeks!