For the past several years, we have spent the week of the 4th in Tennessee with all the Justice family. Unfortunately, this year with Jeff being so sick and still in the hospital we weren't able to hold the reunion as planned. So as a plan B, we met up with Greg, Steph and the family out in Taos, NM for a long weekend away. We rented a house there and had an absolute blast. We love that we live close and can get together with them more often.
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| The car was loaded to the brim with clothes, games, food, children and everything else we could fit in there. |
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| The view from the front patio of the house was beautiful. Almost every afternoon/evening we could watch a storm roll over the mountains. It was so pretty. |
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| We got there one night before Greg and Steph, so our little family had fun exploring and enjoying the outdoors around the house. |
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| The neighborhood had a really nice indoor pool that was next to the house, but the kids were way more content in the warm water just out our back door. It was perfect. |
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| Bentley and Olivia made sure they still got plenty of snuggles in. |
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| The following day, after Greg's family arrived, we went to Taos Cow to get some ice cream. |
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| We finished off our ice cream while the kids played in the little creek out back. The weather was perfect. |
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| Mason is always so sweet and helpful with the kids. |
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| On one of the evenings we lost power for quite a while because of a storm. For the first hour or so, it was really fun. The kids played a hide and seek snipe game and loved dancing around in glow sticks. It became pretty late though so we put them all to bed not knowing when the power would come back on. We ended up scrounging up some candles and the remaining glow sticks to play games. It made it pretty fun actually. |
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| The following day we went to downtown Taos and looked through all the fun shops. |
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| One of the stores there had a huge playground in the back of the store which was the perfect break for the kids to play and the adults to hang out and visit for a bit. |
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| We ate lunch on the patio of an interesting mexican food place. |
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| The hot tub probably could have been just a touch bigger. That would have been nice. :) |
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| Water weenie wars! (Griffin and Brad) |
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| The kids got some down time to watch cartoons. |
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| I'm pretty sure I was asleep. First trimester still people.... I was always so exhausted. |
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| We got lots of games in though after all the littles would go to bed. It was much needed adult time. |
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| The kids got to decorate "treasure bags" so they could go around and find cool things to put inside. We came home with lots of rocks and pinecones. |
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| Olivia rocked a cool new hairdo. |
The following morning, we hiked down the side of a mountain to find some hot springs that were near the Rio Grande. I wasn't sure how the kids would do with the hiking, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed it. Going back up was a little rough. Brad carried Olivia, but Eden and Bentley were champs and hiked the whole way back up. They were very relieved to get back to the car though.
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| Behind Steph is the beautiful, clear watered Rio Grande. It was fun to wave at the many river rafters that went by. |
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| Hiking back up. Brad and Olivia lead the charge! |
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| Mason showed us all how to make tie-dye shirts for the kids. They were excited to wear them the following day for the 4th. |
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| Steph made lots of delicious treats throughout our time there. |
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| I can't get enough of these two. They have the sweetest relationship. |
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| Bentley loves when Olivia shares her blankie. |
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| What a cute family! :) |
On the morning of the fourth, we went out to the Taos Gorge and hung out on the bridge above. It was a long way down! Olivia had no fear and kept trying to fit between the bars and climb over the railing. That girl will be the death of me...
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| Eden was nervous and wouldn't get too close to the railing. |
After we left the gorge we went to this really strange place to see earth ships I think they called them. Basically, you can pay a ton of money and have a house built out of all recycled materials that allows you to live completely off the grid and be self sustaining. It was interesting for sure!
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| Oh Olive, you little cutie. |
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| We saw a handful of snakes around the house. Brad eventually caught a little one and Eden was really intrigued. |
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| We had firecracker floats (soda floats with pop rocks). It was so fun. The kids thought the pop rocks combined with carbonation from the soda was a bit much in their mouths, but it was fun to try. Bentley's face in this picture is perfect representation of how he felt with that in his mouth. |
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| One of the best parts of the whole trip (if you ask Bentley and Eden) was on the night of the fourth. There was a firework show downtown, but we decided to just watch it from near our house instead of going into town. So we all loaded up into one car, with Brad, Mason and the little kids piled in the back. It was pitch black, they had glow sticks, and Uncle Greg blasted the music and they had a killer dance party. The kids still talk about this and think it was the best night ever. |
Unfortunately though, the time came to go home. Everyone was exhausted and slept pretty good during the car drive home.
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| Eden went through cousin withdrawals for a couple days after getting home. She had so much fun with Griffin and Maddie and missed them so much. |
It was such a fun week and such a fun trip with family that we love so much. I'm so grateful we were able to get together and experience a new place while celebrating such a fun holiday!
