Animals of New Mexico

We saw lots of wildlife on our trip.  This guy was hanging out in The Great Sand Dunes Camping area.

There was a whole village of Prairie Dogs by our hotel.

This one has has his mouth open.  He was making all sorts of noise.  I think he was warning the rest of them to hide because I was watching them.

This mountain goat was hard to spot.  He was on the rocks on the side of the Rio Grand River.

A herd(?) of antelope were alongside the road.

Tent Rocks and Earthship

The following are some pictures of Tent Rocks near Santa Fe that Steve hiked. Outside of Taos there is a subdivision of sorts called Earthship.  The houses are all made of recycled material.  It was pretty interesting to see.  The houses that I'm showing are made of bottles. Like soda and beer!

New Mexico

Steve and I took a trip to New Mexico.  We've been to Albuquerque many times but never north of there.  This time we went to Santa Fe and Taos.  Charlie was very excited to stay in a hotel.  He packed his bag and was ready to go!

First stop was Liberal KS.  They claim to be where Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had her house.

We met some of our friends who just recently moved to New Mexico.  They all hiked Tent Rocks.  Charlie and I stayed at the ranger station waiting for them.  No dogs allowed!  

Charlie played a little poker while in Dodge City.

This was in Eagles Nest, NM.   A very pretty small mountain town.

Our friends Dave and Andrea are presently living in their families mountain cabin while building their house.  They  have hummingbirds that swarm the feeders and will sit on your hand.  Incredible!

Across the street from their cabin is a hill that we hiked and hidden back behind all the trees is an old church.

We visited the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge.  It was beautiful and extremely windy! I couldn't believe how high above the gorge the bridge was.

Add caption

New Vacation Spot

Steve and I got the bright idea to buy some property.  Oh, my!  What were we thinking?  We bought 16 acres in New Florence next door to my cousin.  The property came with a house!  We promptly tore it down!

It also came with a shed.  Some of it was laying on the ground.

Steve finished tearing up the sub floor.

We got electric!  Yeah!!!

Steve got a new toy.  He is thoroughly enjoying it.

We have a pond that we drained.  It  needs to be re dug due to silt and we want to make it wider.  Each of the grandkids took a turn using the excavator.  Here is Michael, Jr.

Bye bye pond water.

This is a small portion of the garbage that the previous owners left us and what we have so far pulled out of the fields.

We rented a dumpster and filled it with all of the garbage piling up.  

Tour of Florida

Steve and I took a 2 week trip around Florida in February.  Our first stop was Panama City.  The sand was a beautiful white and a joy to sit on and enjoy the sunsets.

We stopped next in St Augustine.  Loved the historical area. Lots of great shops and restaurants.  We spent one evening with my cousin Mary and her husband Mark.  We took a fun trolley tour around the area.

Apparently I took no pictures while we were in Daytona Beach so here we are in Miami.  This is a view of the downtown area from a boat tour we were on.

They told us this was the house that Viagra built!

One afternoon we rented jet skis and drove around the island of Marathon down in the keys.  You can't tell from this photo but we are standing pretty far out in the gulf.

Mangrove trees.  They apparently make islands.

Beautiful evening.  Sitting outside eating at a restaurant.

Relaxing!

These guys were everywhere.

So were these guys!

Strangler fig.

As you can tell this is the Southernmost Point in the US.

Tried to take a picture of the 7 mile bridge to get to Key West.

Catherine is 10!

Before I put Catherine's birthday photos up I am adding a couple that I haven't shown you yet. After Christmas Aunt Jena and Olivia made cookies.  But first Aunt Jena  put their hair up in cute buns.  It sure is nice having an Aunt that likes to cook and give fashion tips at the same time!

We had an ice storm and the next day joined Chris and Olivia for a hike on the Katy Trail.

I cannot believe that Catherine is 10!  Time sure does fly by.  She is such a sweet girl.  Here she is letting Edie help her open her gifts.

The last couple of years we have taken her out to eat.  This year she picked burgers.  We had a fun time taking selfies.

After dinner we went across the street and got ice cream.  She ate half of hers and generously took the rest home and shared with her siblings.  I told you she is pretty great!