May NM Trip: Memorial Day in Colorado

The weekend I was in New Mexico happened to be Memorial Day weekend, so I thought it'd be a great idea to go visit my Grandma just north of us in Colorado for the day. I also thought it'd be appropriate to visit a cemetery full of my ancestors on Memorial Day. It was a bit windy, but it was a good trip. 

 Here is Joshua with his great great grandma (my dad's mom's mom) Ethel Gertrude Mickelsen Thomas.

 This is a picture of all of us (except my mom...taking the picture) with Ethel. It's a 5 generation picture!

 Here is my Grandpa Christensen who passed away 2 1/2 years ago. There is a spot reserved for my grandmother as well. I think my parents have a spot reserved just next to this, too. 

 We got someone to take our picture so we could all be in it. Left to Right: Mommy, Grandma, Uncle Wayne, Daddy, Joshua, Me, Daniel.

 Here is a picture of my dad and Uncle Wayne with my Uncle Francis who died before I was born. If Uncle Kent were there, this would be the 4 boys. 

 On the way back to my grandma's house, we noticed some funny looking cows. I think they're yaks!

 Of course while we were there Daniel had to pull out the riding lawn mower and take it for a spin.

 Joshua met Uncle Wayne's bangle cat named Jillian (Julian?).

 Ok, these are a bit out of order because they're from my camera and the previous ones are from my mom's camera (distinguishing feature: shadowy part to the left...not sure why, but it always does that now...boo). This was a little grave of Joshua's great great uncle Grant (my dad's mom's brother) who died shortly after his mom moved him and his 5 older siblings from Mexico to Colorado on a train by herself when she got sick of living down in Mexico by herself with her husband up in Colorado. (In the last of lds polygamy)

 Here he is with his great grandpa.

And here he is with his great uncle Francis.

May NM Trip: Joy's Wedding

At the end of May, my friend and neighbor Joy got married and I thought it'd be a perfect excuse to go visit New Mexico for a little while. So, my mom, Joshua, and I all flew down to New Mexico!

 Ready for takeoff!

 Sitting with Grandma.

 At Joy's wedding. She was trying and trying to not cry!

 And the groom was as well.

 It was a beautiful wedding. They had a part where they both poured sand into a jar to make a design, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Man and Wife. They were both so happy. :)

May: Rachel's Dance Recital

Ok, the main reason my mom came out in May was my niece's dance recital. Here are some cute pictures from it!

This was the youngest group at the recital and they were SO CUTE! They danced to the theme from Ducktales and it was stinkin' adorable!

This was Rachel's group. She is the tallest (third from right).

It was a cute jazz routine to some song. I don't remember what song.

Joshua and his cousin Abby. They're about 8 months apart.

Rachel with the flowers we got her after the recital.

What a cutie.

She insisted on having a tea party on the little table on stage with her mom when everything was over. It was the perfect tea party setting.

Her brother Justin wanted to go up on stage and dance the whole time and he was so sad when he couldn't!

Look at that toothless grin! :)

May Camping 2

I already posted about when my mom was in town. Well, we also went camping with her when she was in town. We also invited Alex along. It was a fun little camping trip. We just went up the canyon a little bit and found an empty site. It was pretty easy to find an empty site since it was a Wednesday. Dave has Wednesdays off instead of Saturdays like most people, so it is fun to do weekend type things on a week day because it is never crowded. Ok, I confess, my favorite part about camping is setting up the fire. Call me a pyro, but it's fun to build it so that it catches without any "boy scout water." It's a great challenge to get the tinder and kindling and wood all set up just right so that it has enough oxygen but enough fuel to get it going. So, don't be surprised when I am tending the fire in most of these pictures. It's what I do. 

Setting up the teepee style fire.

Joshua helping me with the wood.

Inserting the newspaper. Ok, I know it's a little bit cheating using newspaper instead of leaves, etc., but I allow it.

Dave chopping up a random log at the campsite. He likes to find a log and drag it into the fire...and I mean the whole tree...and scoot it in as it burns off. Not my favorite use of fire, but fire is fire, so I allow it.

Joshua liked to help with the wood. We never let him get too close of course.

Fire!

Me still tending the fire.

Dave still hacking at the log.

Alex and Joshua watching us work our magic.

Ok, it really didn't take that long, there were just many pictures taken during the fire start-up. I even didn't include half of them.

I think now Dave is trying to chop a piece of wood apart that we brought with us. It never split because we didn't have a good chopping surface, but we burned it anyway.

Beauty.

Sitting back, enjoying the fire.

Now this is a funny picture. My mom had on a head lamp and she was eating a hot dog. You can't tell from this picture, but take a look at the next.

Hehe! Nice do!

All better. :)

This is the camping trip where I discovered the deliciousness that is S'mores made with peanut butter cups. Oh so tasty!

Another thing that happened on this camping trip was that we were all just sitting by the fire, when I saw a little shiny thing out in the forest, and for some reason I thought it was the reflector on a backpack, so I said "hello!?" a little bit alarmed. Then there were two shiny things. Yes, they were EYES! Don't worry, it was just a little pack of deer that were grazing their way around our camp site. They tromped through the forest all night long. You'd think deer would be better at walking quietly.

May Camping 1

We went camping twice in May. Once it was just Dave, Joshua, and me. We headed south for about half an hour up to an area that Dave had been camping before, but the road was still closed for the winter so we just pulled off into a parking lot and hiked in a little bit to find an area good for camping. We forgot our box of flashlights, batteries, and other important things, so we headed back north to get it and come back.

When we first got there, Joshua was ready for some dinner, so we opened up a can of peaches. He and Dave ate them sitting on the tailgate. "What do you have there?"

"Oh! peaches! with a fork! let me see that fork!"

"yum!"

Since Joshua isn't good at keeping his covers on him, and he isn't old enough for a sleeping bag yet, we bundled him in a ton of clothes. A onesie, tight cotton pjs, warm fleece footie pjs, and fleece sweats and a jacket over those. Then we wrapped the bottom of his pack N play in a blanket, and covered him with two more blankets once he was asleep. I don't think he got cold.

In the morning, Dave took Joshua on a little hike (just wandered around the meadow a bit).

We brought Joshua's little camping chair, which he had a fun time sitting in.

"Gimme that camera!"

I think this is when some horses went by. 

Joshua sitting in his little camping chair.

Joshua sitting in Dave's big camping chair.

Just hanging out by the fire in the morning.

Marshmallows for breakfast!

After we ate breakfast and packed up camp, we went on a little hike on a trail nearby. I was feeding Joshua a sandwich, bite by bite, as we hiked.

The trail ended up being a dead end about a quarter mile in, but we had fun exploring none-the-less.