Lake Mead Day

Pete left town for his cousin Jacks wedding in California. Because it’s summer and we wanted Pete to be able to enjoy and not be stuck in the phone dealing with work, we decided it was best he went alone.

BUT... when dad leaves town, I always make sure to spend time enjoying these kiddos.
I offered a hike or lake mead.. they all voted the lake. So Friday night we went to Walmart and bought lunches and floated.
Saturday Kade has tumbling and then after it was off to the lake.
It’s been a few years since we went and we were pleasantly surprised. We did boulder beach and while there was a few yuckier spots, most were pretty decent.
Granted it’s rocky, so water shoes were a must.
We set up our shade but caught some winds and decided to just take it down. Later the breeze died down and it was prefect.

The kids had a blast and asked if we can come back a FEW times before summer is over.

Kade goes to Ruidoso

My parents have a time share in Ruidoso New Mexico. They have gone every years for probably the past 15 yrs at least.
Both our boys went when they were 2 and 3 years old with Pete and I. Kadence wasn’t born yet. Work always is busy and All 4 of us (mom dad Pete Tara) can never all leave for a week in june in the ac business, so we, and her have not been back.

This year Gary, Lindsey, Alyssa, Kenadee and Autumn all went. My parents invited all my kids but with basketball and not wanting to add chaos, we decided to just send Kadence.

She has never been away from home that long and I was worried she would back out last minute. The night before she did get pretty nervous.

But.. she went and didn’t look back ;).  She was having so much fun every day that she did not miss us at ALL.  Haha

They stopped in Arizona one the way there and back.
She went horse back riding, fishing, bike riding, golfing, lots of swimming, rafting in the lake.They drove to some amazing caves 3 hours away. She also cried when she saw the police shoot a elk after it had been hit by a car.

She had an absolute BLAST!!!

Thanks family for letting her tag along and have an unforgetable trip!!

Hiking

A few weekends ago we hiked Cold Creek.
This has become our go to hike. We have done it probably 4 times but it’s like a 12 minute drive from our house and we can easily bring the dogs. Ending at water is always a plus. It’s before red rock so it’s free. And it’s easy.. it’s actually mostly a longish walk on a dirt trail and isn’t super spectacular but we still love it.  We always seem to miss the turn off down to the water. It is not marked and is so crazy to me that the trail keeps going past it. I am sure most people who do it miss out on it totally.

We took a picture at the turn so we can reference for next time ;)