Desert oasis

Colby and I took a quick 2 day trip to the Fort Davis Mountains and to the Balmorea Springs. We had a really great time and enjoyed the nice cool weather. It was perfect for camping, hiking and swimming! Balmorea is a spring that has been in the Texas desert forever!! Its a little oasis in the middle of no where and gorgeous. The water is perfectly clear and has tons of tiny little fish! I can't wait to go back.

Hammock naps are my thing

The Davis Mountains

At the top of an of an igneous intrusion. It gave us a 360 degree view complete with cross sections for my geologist! 

At the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis.  This area has some of the darkest skies in North America! It's a great place to see stars!  

We went to a star party, but unfortunately it was too cloudy, so we took a rain check! I can't wait to come back and look through all their  HUGE telescopes! 

The next day we headed to Fort Davis which is one of the "best remaining examples of a frontier military post in the southwest." 

  

The original mud blocks they made and used to build their buildings for the fort. 

This is the Commanding Officers home where he lived with his family. The officers were able to live with their families at the Fort and the enlisted men had to live in the barracks. 

I was sad because this horse refused my apple. What kind of horse refuses an apple!! 

The next day we went to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Center and Botanical Gardens. This place was mostly a garden for desert plants like the cactus.  

We are hiking along and they have this sign about  the largest wildfire in Texas and it happened to be on the day we got married! We thought it was an interesting! Colby say's it was because of our burning passion and love! hahaha

Cactus Green house. I didn't really know what to think....It was super hot because they have to keep the greenhouse super, super dry. I did not stay very long. 

The prettiest plant we saw in the gardens. 

Las Vegas

For the past 10 days I have been living in Las Vegas watching my nephew baby John. My oldest sister and her husband went to Hawaii! I'm so happy they could go, but also jealous because I want to go to Hawaii...who doesn't? But I was glad to help and watch my nephew. My little sister came to Vegas for about 6 days with me, so I wouldn't be alone. I was really grateful she was there. We took my nephew swimming a few times and went for walks everyday in the late afternoon. We had a great time and I can't wait to see baby John again!

Little tickles! Look at that face! He has the most contagious laugh!

Nitzen and my little sis enjoying their morning cuddle time

Learning to brush hair

He loves the park and going down slides

I just can't get over how cute he is!

He has learned to climb up the slides better than going down :)

He would rather play two sports than one

Mom and Dad are home! yay!

But their plane was a red eye hahah all they really wanted to do sleep, but John would have none of it!

I'm going to miss hanging out with the boy!

Lately

A few weeks ago our computer gave us the blue screen of death!! It was a sad, terrible day. Since then I have had to go to the library to update the blog, but obviously I have not gone a lot because I have not been updating. So here it is! The past few weeks we have been same old, same old. We have been hanging out with friends, working, exercising and being together. A few weekends ago we met up with some friends and went to hurricane harbor and six flags in Dallas. While there we stayed with Monica and Jake Evans! They live in such a cute neighborhood and have such a cute house! Then Aunt Lynette and the gang came over and we played games. It was really good to see them. They introduced us to a new game called "Wits and Wagers" which is now on my Christmas list! We can't wait to go back and see them again!

Mitchell took this picture! He accidentally "cut off" his own head! 

Next, the ladies in my ward at church introduced me to a new game called pickleball. Have you heard of it? I hadn't until I came here to Texas! It is a really fun game with a cross between tennis and ping pong. I know that sounds weird, but it is sooo much fun! I didn't realize how fun it would be and the ladies in the ward play once to twice a week! It is a big thing here to do! 

Last weekend we were suppose to go to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, but due to bad weather and rain we decided not to go. It made me sooo sad not to go. I had been planning that trip since February when I made the reservations for it. So instead we drove up to Colorado to climb the 14ner Humboldt and go camping and fishing by the lakes. It was a great camping trip and I am really glad we went. We didn't get to climb the 14ner which I am not to happy about, but that's a long story. I'll just say that we hiked 12 miles and got caught in rain and couldn't finish because of rain and lightning, but would have if several guidebooks and internet posts had the right mileage!!! Anyways, it was still a fun time!

Mt. Crestone Needle behind us. It is another 14ner in Colorado, but a very difficult climb. 

Finally made it to the Lakes!! 

Colby doing what he loves to do! And then...the rain came :( 

Hiking back another 6 miles in the rain. Colby wanted to be a unicorn bahahaha and my dad  a bull elk! 

Mt. Humboldt peak in the background

None of us knew this picture was being taken as you can tell..except my lil brother spence who doesn't look to happy. My dad was showing us where to find the herd of Big Horn sheep up on the mountain. 

Found the Big Horn Sheep, but then Colby got in the way with the camera! 

Colby caught several fish in the creek that followed along the hiking path we were taking. 

Beautiful wildflowers everywhere! 

We bought a double hammock and its awesome! 

Colby being his usual hilarious self!

I even caught one fish..finally! 

That's it for now!! Ta Ta for now now! We wish we could have enjoyed all the family reunions this year! There were 3 reunions and a backpacking trip that we both really wanted to go on!