So to celebrate my new found unemployment, Lisa and I packed the car, packed the babies and headed to New Mexico and Colorado to camp for a few days. The kids did great, they loved the camping and hiking, although Lily was already a seasoned pro at camping. We met up with Ivy and Tom and Anne (Ivy's mom) at Jemez Springs, NM for our first night of camping in the Santa Fe National Forest, northwest of Albuquerque. John Milo and I took our first hike in his awesome hiking backpack early in the morning before anyone else was up (JM wakes up when it is light out, hence why he has heavy dark curtains in his room at home).
Then we headed to Durango, where we camped in the San Juan National Forest. We took the kiddos on a day hike to Engineer Mtn, which is a 12000+ peak between Durango and Silverton. We couldn't find the correct turn-off for the trail we were looking for as directed to us by the land management people, so we just hiked along a riverbed instead. Yes, I'm training him early to become a geologist!!! I made him memorize the stratigraphic section of SW Colorado before we left. Mostly he said "ga-ga-na...lola...", but I'm quite sure he was saying "Look at this fine example of the Fountain formation". And that last picture is of him holding his yellow bear bell...yes, we hiked (probably unnecessarily) with a bear bell!
John Milo shows his sensitive side by giving Lily hugs. Notice that Lily is not exactly sure she is okay with this situation! They were also quite helpful at unpacking the car.
Clearly we had many more adventures than this, hopefully I'll get the rest of the pics put on here before I have to deal with all the pictures I'll have of Brazil! Those will be less exciting though, since little buddy won't be making the trip with me :(
