Tee Pee Camping

Have you ever slept in a tee pee?  I rented a replica Sioux Indian tee pee as an alternative to just camping in a tent.  A little apprehensive to what this experience might be like, I booked our tee pee and packed for our camping adventure.  Upon arrival Teagan says "This couldn't be more perfect."  She was absolutely right.

We spent our days playing on the beach and  the late afternoon and into the evening the girls played with new friends on the jumping pillow, playground and oversized games. We read ghost stories and played games by campfire or flashlight great memories and family time. In the morning we were surprised to see all the peacocks wandering the campsite as well as up in the trees above our tee pee.

 Take a look at our Tee pee adventure:

At the beach we spotted 4 dolphins not far off shore.  Though we were thrilled, another mom spotted them too and freaked out, thinking they were sharks! I just had to giggle inside. She probably thought I was crazy, to allow my kids to swim with the sharks. I could go on about that being a life lesson...but this time they were swimming near dolphins.  

A great week!  I hope you had one too!  

Sputnik with some Colossal Cuties

What I love about summer is the freedom, so today it just felt like a day to get out of the house and hit the road.  We made a day trip down to Tucson and enjoyed a day at Colossal Cave.  It is the perfect first cave experience for the younger set and still enjoyable for us grown up kids.

Waiting our turn and enjoying the view

Here we go!!!!

Love all the history, beauty and mystery

After enjoying the 71 degrees in the cave we headed out to continue our adventure:

Panning for gold, Sadie was disappointed to learn she had
been fooled by the fools gold!

1930's Fun House Mirror
Hilarious

Our damsel in distress.
Where is Dudley Do Right?

Until Next Time..........Have Fun! 

Summer Nights

I love the summer, summer nights are filled with late night swims, games, movies and just a relaxed energy fills the house.

Swimming with glow sticks adds to the fun

Its too hot during the day, so in Phoenix we become children of  the night!

The best part of summer nights are the quiet summer mornings that last a little longer with sleeping children!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta II

The wake up call came at 3am our body time, 4am Albuquerque time...yikes! The sacrifice of sleep was definately worth the glorious sights.  If you've never been to the fiesta, I strongly encourage you to experience 500 balloons from all over the world! 

Dawn Patrol lights up the "night" sky!  Stunning!!

It starts!

Love all the overlap and colors

Told you it was out of this world!

Folks come from distant galaxies!

The kids and I loved the special shapes

Now they all want to go up, up and away!

Albuquerque has a lot to do, we spent the rest of the day at the aquarium and the butterfly and childrens gardens. The girls really enjoyed this special day!  Thank you Colleen for inviting us out!



Travel Lessons Learned

I enjoy traveling to see new parts of the country. I always learn a lot. Our journey to Mt. Rushmore was no exception.  Beyond some history lessons, like did you know Mt. Rushmore isn't done? I didn't know that before our trip, nor did I know South Dakota was so beautiful and green.   This suburban mom learned a few other life lessons on this adventure:

* Small towns really do close in their entirety promptly at 9pm. 

I did not feed my kids dinner out of the hotel vending machine.

*My bank and credit cards really do care about me.

They protected me from unusual spending and closed my debit and credit card leaving me with $7.00 dollars, 6 kids and 3 days left to drive home! They graciously let me have access to $600 dollars out of my own bank account! Lesson: Let them know before you head out of town.

*My gps found roads, through peoples yards, that I couldn't see. The upside, we saw some parts of the country, we'd never thought to venture too.

Explore America, we are lucky to have such a wonderful country.

~ DeAnn

Are We There Yet?

On the road again...seems to be the theme song for the last week as we headed to Mt. Rushmore! What a wonderful trip to see family, friends and new parts of the America!  America is truly beautiful, loved Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. Though I'd have to say South Dakota was truly my favorite!

Here are a few highlights of our journey:

In Trinidad, Colorado we stopped at the Baca Home-Museum, to see the home of our ancestors. This was fascinating to see how they lived way back in the 1800's. 





The wild life was incredible!

 We saw Buffalo, wild turkey, deer, prong horn sheep, prairie dogs, and wild horses.

You have reached your destination

~ Thanks everyone who we visited along the way, it was wonderful to see spend time with you!

DeAnn