By Patty Wilber
We had the good fortune of having my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and my nieces here for a week!
The weather was lovely and we got to see some wonders of the Southwest.
We hit the Ice Caves and Bandera Crater. I was wearing my NM Buckskin cap, so it was only fitting that we ran into D.K. Brown along with his daughter and grand daughter, as it was at that NM Buckskin Horse Shows where I first met D.K.!
The whole family in the Ice Cave. Twelve feet of ice in the cave and 31 F, even in the middle of summer!
The ice cave is is in a lava tube. The lava came out of this crater, you know, a while back, like 10,000 years. Maryanne, Laurel, Me and Jim.
Then we went on to Canyon de Chelly. Last time I was there (May, 2013) I took a horse and rode. (And wrote a blog of course.) No riding horses this time. We took a jeep tour instead! We got to see a bit of both sides (Canyon Del Muerto and Canyon De Chelly) The Canyon is as spectacular as ever, but when we went in 2013, there was water running and now, the guide said, it is usually dry.
The whole group in Canyon del Muerto.
Canyon del Muerto. Jim, and in the back ground, L to R: Chris, my mom, my niece.
Pretty feral horses with nice Appaloosa markings!
Back at home, Laurel rode Cometa with me and Lucy (who is feeling much better).
Laurel on Cometa in the canyon east of our house.
We rescued some Spadefoot tadpoles for year two of trying to get them to mature. This time, I put them in our front yard water feature with some hiding places. Hopefully the snakes won’t find them. Last year, I put them in a big stock tank and they were all eaten in three days.
Maryanne getting the tadpoles.
We also went to a few movies and some members of the group did three escape room adventures. We liked Nefertiri’s Tomb a lot.
In between all that I did manage to ride most mornings!
I wish everyone lived closer, but I am awfully lucky to have family members that like each other and want to vacation together!
