Pajarito Trail Fest

Last Saturday was the Pajarito Trail Fest. I ran the 10k, which has 1600 feet of elevation gain (and then loss), so "running" the race may be a bit of an overstatement. I jogged when I could and hiked the rest. I wasn't in as good of shape as I wanted to be in, but I finished it 5 minutes faster than my goal, so I guess that means I was successful. And as Aaron pointed out, I could still smile for the camera at the finish line, which means I must have had fun.

Autumn Colors

 Last weekend's hike was in the Sangre de Cristos outside of Santa Fe, where we went to see the changing leaves. The aspens are always so gorgeous at this time of year. Even though Alanna and I had colds, it was worth the journey and the experience.

This is Daddy's self portrait with Alanna. Lookin' good!

Camping at Heron Lake State Park

We had a blast!

.....Our campsite.....

.....Rhys looooooved swimming in the lake even though the water was cold!.....

.....Alanna would have spent more time swimming, but as I said, it was cold!.....

.....The view from our campsite.....

.....Los Brazos from across the lake.....

.....Blue skies, great tent, perfect spot.....

.....ahhhhh.....

Weekend in Pagosa Springs

We spent a couple of days in Pagosa Springs, CO and had a wonderful time. It was wintry and our cabin was toasty. We walked around town and ate ice cream cones, just because Daddy and Rhys are suckers for ice cream, no matter the weather. We also went for a spectacular cross-countyski using a new-used sled we picked up from my Uncle Paul (thank you!!) after having breakfast with him. The snow was thick and fluffy, and it continued to snow gently on us as we skiied. We were the only ones on the trail, too. It was absolutely lovely.

Our skiing odyssey:

 

.....Rhys evidently thinks the sled is as much fun as we do..... 

  

.....Daddy hauls Rhys behind him (Rhys giggled while 

dragging his mittened hand through the snow)..... 

 

.....The wintry trail ahead of us.....

 

.....Rhys was pretty cozy in the sled as he napped.....

.....My self-portrait of Alanna and me.....

.....Scoping the scene– we had two asleep kids so we 

wanted to go farther than originally planned. 

We decided to summit the (small) hill in front of Aaron.....

.....Alanna and I gear up. Alanna snored pretty loudly the whole time.....

.....Descending the (small) summit.....

Autumn Images

--Happy Fall!--

--Pressing apples into apple cider at our friends' house--


--Napping on Daddy while he's on the phone--

-- Napping on Mommy while she does housework--

--"No, Mommy, I'm not really sure how this sand got stuck to my snot..."--

--"I'm funny!"--

On the last photo: Rhys's sense of humor is really developing. He's experimenting with what other people might find funny– and how he can get them to laugh. He'll do something, such as putting on Daddy's shoes and clomping around the house, and then inform us, "That's funny!"

Scenes from Camp

We had a lovely weekend! We finally managed to go camping, and we had a blast. In fact, we're all fired up to go camping again as soon as possible, but due to other social duties, we won't be able to until the end of the month. We had such a good time!

We stayed at Jack's Creek campground north of Pecos. The Pecos Widerness is all around, which is a beautiful mountain area of the Sangre de Cristos. We stayed close to camp on Friday, and on Saturday after packing up, we went fishing/hiking in along the Pecos river. We went with some good friends of ours, so we had even more fun than if we'd gone by ourselves!

Alanna puts on a silly face as we unpack everything around her.

Rusty waits patiently as we unload (he was such a good camp dog!)

Rhys and Daddy get the tent ready.

Krista cooks dinner: flank steak, calabacitas, and corn on the cob. Yum!

Alanna sleeps in on Saturday.

The guys take the dog for a morning walk.

Ryan and Emma back from the walk.

Alanna decides she likes camping after all.

Rhys finally stops moving long enough for me to take a picture.

Krista and Emma hiking by the stream

Rhys wasn't so sure what camping was (he went 3 times the summer he turned one but not since then), but took to it like... well, like a boy in the woods. As we were loading up to head for home, he got upset and told me, "No! Camping in the mountains! No going home!" (He was a very tired little guy.)

We'll definitely go again soon.

Recent Images

Busy August Days:

Brother and Sister playing together

Napping with the Dog

Garden Harvest– Blackberries, Green Beans, and Tomatoes

Hiking in the Sangre de Cristos (one of our favorite activities!)