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On this day it is I who received the very best gift.

Happy Birthday my sweet Angel.

Let Heaven keep you safe

...'til we meet again

Goodbye Summer...

...although it's going to be summer temperatures for another 3 or 4 months (ugh!)

First Day of School (for two, at least)

#3 and #4 are starting 2nd and 3rd. Old. So very, very old (them, not me. I'm in denial)

Balmorhea State Park

I am scared, truly scared, of one thing. Fish. Not cute ones. The ones who jump up around you when you're in waist deep at the beach. Can't handle it. In the past I've been fine in nice clear water with small fish (i.e. Mexico, swimming holes in earlier posts). This place has BEAUTIFUL spring water, a fabulous set up, and the largest concentration of fish EVER! Even big black catfish. My kids loved it. Robert loved it. I was horrified. I did jump in once only to prove I wasn't a chicken. I was a chicken. I would have screamed, even under water, had I not been afraid to swallow one of the 200 fish that stood, well, swam, between me and the step ladder to get out.

Fort Davis Historic Site

Nothing makes my history loving heart happier than a bunch of little history buffs who actually enjoy going to old ruins. Ty and Bailey even did the scavenger hunt through all of the restored and unrestored buildings and earned a patch for their efforts.
On the way out of the area we stopped by a snake house that was lined with venomous snakes, scorpions, and spiders in the least secure enclosures available (I keep legos in more durable containers). It did add to the excitement, especially when Jack bumped into a big white storage bucket and it started rattling. Apparently that snake had just gotten pregnant and was about to be moved to the back cages. Trey enjoyed a conversation with the owner (who under any other circumstance we would have avoided for fear of our lives-lesson learned, don't judge a book by it's tattoos and personal hygiene). They had a good deal to discuss about all of the early model Suzukis in various stages of functionality that lined the entrance to the snake house.

Carlsbad Cavern

This place is AMAZING! (and for the record, Jack walked all but the last 5 minutes of the loop)

White Sands National Monument

A week's worth of exercise in 1 hour.
Out in the middle of nowhere are these massive flaky white sand dunes. Next door is a military missile testing site which temporarily shuts down sections of the area every day for testing. While at the nearby petroglyph site we saw two different jets fly by and a minute later heard the massive boom of a blast.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Home to thousands of petroglyphs, this site was a fun stop. We made it through most of the route. We turned back when a step toward a large rock by Bailey signaled a warning rattle.

Ruidoso & Cloudcroft

These two little mountain top towns were crisp and cool and really hard to leave. Our stroll down a Cloudcroft trail was made even more exciting after passing several "Bears have been sighted in the area today" signs, although if you were to ask, the kids would probably say they were more hoping to see some mountain lions.

Bottomless Lakes State Park

These giant sink holes are spring fed and have a system of underground tunnels that take the water to who knows where. Really. No one can figure out where the water empties. When we got to the state park, we were the only ones there. It stayed that way for nearly 3 hours- we had the entire lake to ourselves.

Roswell

A real place that really believes aliens landed. There is an honest-to-goodness museum that scientifically documents the alien events that occurred around Roswell. And down the street, there's the Alien zone, where you can pose with these creepy guys... We ate at the spaceship themed McDonalds, stayed at a nice hotel whose sign was held up by an alien, and got gas with little aliens looking down on us.