September always seems to be filled with camping weekends. This year was no different. Our ward's annual camping trip is always in September. This year we decided last minute to go (just like last year) because the weather was questionable again. It was supposed to rain the entire time, but after hearing other families were still going, we decided we would too. We didn't even take a tent. We planned to sleep in the van thinking that would be better if it rained all night. Well, it hardly rained at all, so the weather held out and clean up in the morning was so much easier without having to put up a tent. The girls stayed toasty warm in the van (except for Abby who was next to the back of the van), so even sleeping in the car wasn't bad.
The girls got to spend time Saturday morning running around with their friends and as always doing the little zip line. The bishop's daughter celebrated her birthday while we were all up there, so we had cake after breakfast and the kids got to break open a pinata. They had a lot of fun.
On our drive back home, we decided to stop at the little zoo in Alamogordo again like we had a couple years earlier. With our El Paso zoo membership, we even got in free! Abby liked the bald eagles and Aubrey liked the huge tortoise. (That's also Tessa's favorite animal.)
The girls also really liked the playground and would have stayed there a lot longer if we hadn't rushed them along.
We were excited to hear that the kangaroos had new babies, and we even saw the baby joeys sticking out of their pouches from far away. We really liked the deer too because they came so close to the fence. Tyler even helped feed it the leaves that it was trying to reach through the fence.
A couple weekends later, we decided to camp again. This time we went just as a family into New Mexico because it was their other free fishing day for the year. We went to Ruidoso again (like we did in the summer) and we camped the night before. The most exciting thing that happened that night was when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of heavy animal breathing and stomping. I was scared that it was a bear, but it sounded more like a horse from how it was breathing and walking, so I figured it was a big buck or something. I thought I was the only one awake and I was trying to be super quiet so I didn't say anything until the morning, but when I did Tyler said he had heard it too. He thought it might have been a wild horse, which signs had warned us about on the drive up the mountain. He found a few tracks in the mud around our tent that made him think that it came around the trees and had had to slide to a stop when our tent was right there. It was crazy.
We got there too late to take any pictures in the evening, so while Tyler put up the tent and all our stuff in the morning, the girls played on these logs that were right behind where we put the tent. My phone had also died so I had to take all my pictures on my iPad. I was glad I had that, so I could get some pictures. They loved this big trunk that had a little step and perfect seat on the back side.
We even had to take videos of the girls walking along the fallen tree like a balance beam. The best video was of Abby who slipped and fell half way through. She even loves rewatching it and laughing every time.
After leaving the camp area and finding donuts for breakfast, we headed to Grindstone Lake. This is where we fished over the summer when they had a huge kid's fishing day. Tyler was hoping with less people this time and getting there earlier we would have a better time of catching fish, but it was still kind of busy and we had to walk a quarter around the lake to even find a spot. It was right near a lot of rocks so at least the girls had fun playing on the rocks, using chalk, and helping Tyler fish. I only took a few pictures but this first one of the girls helping Tyler fish is one of my favorites because you can also see the view we had.
Unfortunately, we didn't catch any fish this time either. Tyler was a little bummed. On our way home from the lake, we stopped at a pistachio farm where they have a structure of the world's largest pistachio. Of course we had to take a picture. The girls were having fun pretending to hold it up. They had a lot of flavored pistachios to sample, which the girls loved trying.
We really enjoy making these family memories and doing outdoorsy stuff together like camping and fishing. We've been having a lot of fun.
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