The first two weeks of our trip where spent at our first two destinations, which left five stops for us to hit during week three. We moved around a lot that week, saw some beautiful places and lots more family.
After the 4th of July, we drove from Steamboat south through the Rockies into the Sangre Cristo mountains of New Mexico. There we met up with my sisters family, my parents, and Uncle Greg and Aunt Michelle to camp for a few days.
My whole family is an outdoorsy kind of crew, so we had a great time fishing, hiking, lounging around, playing in the river and being in nature together.
And not to call favorites, because I am sure my kids are excited to see all of their Kimble side family members, but Ethan and Kelsey loved getting to camp with their cousins Anni and Kate. Loved, loved, loved it.
They had five days of laughing, jumping, following, fighting, pretending, learning...
And it was fun for the rest of us to sit back and watch them do it.
They are a cute little rat pack!
Cole isn't old enough to run with the crew yet, but he was happy to have so many people around to entertain him.
And for me, I grew up camping with my family but haven't been able to do it with them since high school, which made spending this time with them extra special.
The only one who tried to pout while camping was Malley, because she had to be tied up most of the time, after two weeks of running free at the grandparents houses. But seriously, look at the princess. She didn't exactly rough it out there...
Camping New Mexico:
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After camping, we drove down the road a little further to spend a few days exploring Taos and Sante Fe, NM.
This is such a beautiful area of the country with a unique culture that is very different from where we live, so we enjoyed our time soaking it in.
I believe we thoroughly explored the region in the best ways - first we hiked the surrounding mountains and then we found a few of the local breweries.
We then visited some of the traditional tourist stops in the area,
some of the less traditional,
and a little of the natural wonders.
After we visited a few of the very cool art galleries in Santa Fe we drove down the road a little further to stay a few days at my sisters house in Sandia Park.
The kids got two more days to play with their cousins and all of their cousins' cool toys and chickens and run in their cousins' woods.
It was fun and relaxing and neat to see where my sister and her family lives...but I didn't get a single picture of it. These pictures are of our days in Taos and Santa Fe. Doh.
My sister did sneak one picture in of the kids eating ice cream in the artsy town of Madrid where we met up with them.
So you just have to trust me that the rest of our time with them did happen. And it was good.
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After three weeks, it was a little painful to pack up one last time and drive down out of the mountains back into the Texas heat. To ease our way back into it, we made our last stop on this epic road trip on the journey back home.
We spent an afternoon and evening exploring Palo Duro State Park, Texas. It is a beautiful, completely random canyon in the middle of West Texas' plains.
We stayed in the cutest little cabin, and enjoy a last little bit of nature before we came back to the city.
At least a few of us were happy to be out of the car exploring again!
Through all these travels, our kids were fantastic and impressed us with how much they enjoyed the adventure and seeing new things.
Our little man Cole was the only one ready to come home. We didn't get as many of his wonderful smiles and laughs while we were gone and he didn't get to be on the ground exploring as he does at home.
As we were driving through Texas I asked the kids if they were ready to go home and both Ethan and Kelsey said no!
And then Ethan asked why we don't just live in the mountains. I dunno buddy, because we sure do have a lot of fun in them! Maybe someday... ;)
And thats a wrap for Summer Vacation 2014! Three states, thousands of miles, most of our entire family and so many good, good times.
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