Day 15 – Sigh

For the first time in my life I find myself dreading the end of a vacation. I’m usually SO ready to be back in my CLEAN home after these camping excursions. I’ve spent a lot of time today evaluating what is going on in my heart. I’m not totally sure at this point. Here are a few things I’ve pondered:

I enjoy our town in TX….I enjoy our ministry….I enjoy my friends…I enjoy my home and family….so WHY do I not want to go home???? Why do I tear up as we get closer to “home”?

“Home is where your heart is” and my heart is split and in several places. I can look ahead to next summer very easily, as we realize our vacation next year will be wrapped around a MOVE…and we’ll leave one or two more children at that time. In a very strange sense I felt more at HOME at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, or at the USAF Fam Camp, than I do in our home of 3 years. I LOVED all 11 of us together again. It’s such a blessing to watch adults interact with pre-schoolers…love, concern, joy, laughter, grumbling…it’s good. I laugh about how much MORE food it takes when we are all around….and I enjoy cooking for a crew that includes two teens and four adults. I love having Mike close and available for discussions. I love having two adult daughters to discuss “life” with….I enjoy more one on one time with my 11 ½ year old daughter… I don’t feel ready to get back to our “new normal”.

I suspect it’s all about surrender, once again. This IS the phase of life and family season that I am in. I must surrender and walk in joy and contentment. They can’t possibly stay young forever…and some day in the next decade they’ll begin to bring home spouses and grandbabies and I’ll wake up in a new season once again….and need to remember the lessons I’m learning this week.
Breaking camp - beautiful wooded camp!

Jamin finished editing his second novel late last night in this bldg

Pueblo, CO

Clayton, NMNO DILLY BARS - Stacia's 1st ice cream cone Playing at our home for the night



"Dog Walk"

This water is COLD!!!!

"C'mon, Zanner, C'Mon - I will help you"
Corn patch

Games




Gotta run and listen to, "Kerplunk" by Patrick McManus!

©2008 D.R.G.

Rosita & Rancher Caches

These are more photos from Day 6 (click to read the stories).

Rosita is an old, historic mining town. This is where we saw the snake.














This was the last cache of the trip. Stacia found it but was not sure she wanted to open it. ::snort::





Another rancher drove by at this point. We "formed up". The poor man thought we were insane to be taking a photo in front of his neighbor's tree. ::snort::

©2008 D.R.G.

Music Pass or Me and My Ford

Here are some photos from our adventures on Day 6. Click the preceeding words to read more.

We love Senior Citizen RVers.....with ATV's. ::snort:: Our neighbors told us there were a couple of rocky spots but we should be able to drive to the top of Music Pass just fine. I should note that we do NOT have 4 wheel drive. This was a grand adventure....full of frigthening moments, screeching branches and sliding wheels. ::snort::

Stacia is not so sure

Better take the tow hitch off

What WAS the big clunk - all looks fine

Maybe this is one of those rocky spots?

We had to back down several times as we met cars coming from the opposite direction.

We found a GREAT meadow at the top for our picnic lunch

It began to rain and we thought we'd best head DOWN before the road got muddy. First, we took some

Me and My Ford shots!



We laughed when the GPS told us to head NE - "you're on your own!"

This does seem to be the best way to take this road. LOL






We stopped at Grape Creek State Park. This is the very campsite that we camped in 22 years ago with Mike's parents and BreAnne (1 year old at the time). This is the spot where Mike carved his initials in 1977. We found them in 1986. This time I found an M....but the E. G. was gone.

Mike took the opportunity to call his folks

Goofing off





The girls brought a CD that two young men in their Master Commission group made. It is satrical. It pokes fun at the MC experience. One line is "go do manly things like burn something..." so our new line is "go do manly things". I explain that as sometimes when I talk about the things our young men do, I'm taken to task for somehow devaluing or not counting things our daughters do or may want to do.......

All had fun doing "manly things"...





See our daughter does "manly things". ::snort::

They got really GOOD at posing for group photos! ::snort:: Note the dog and Stacia aren't looking.



©2008 D.R.G.