The Boys Missed Mom

After I left the mountain house early last Friday morning, Dad and Collin missed me too much that they did come home four days early. Apparently, after I left, Collin was so sad that he went downstairs and slept on my side of the bed where I had been sleeping during our visit. This, of course, broke Dad's heart. I am glad I didn't find out about this until much later or I might have turned the car around. They made the most of it by laying around all day that day watching movies. Collin did not want to do anything else.  The next day, they played at the local golf course. Collin was looking forward to playing his first golf game. From what I heard, they both had a really good time. Even the animals got involved in the game. 😎 

The next day, they went horseback riding for an hour and a half. The pictures were amazing that they sent me while they were exploring the area on horseback. They both separately mentioned how sore they were and that an hour and a half is too long on the back of a horse especially if they had not done it in a long time. 

 

      

We are all home now and cannot wait to go back to the mountain house again. What a great time and wonderful memories we created with everyone. 

Disc Golf at 10,700 Feet

Because we knew the boys would not be excited about another hike, we thought they would have fun playing 18 holes of disc golf at the top of Angel Fire mountain. Knowing it we would have to walk the entire course while they played each hole, we could get in at least a 2 mile hike along the summit. 

They took a few holes to get used to throwing the discs but quickly got the hang of it. I was shocked the discs did not get stuck in the trees or get lost in the rocks more than the 3 times it happened. 

At the 7th hole, one of the boys yelled out "Bear!"  He had to be joking. It was 1pm. I thought bears were out at dusk or dawn. Not this one. There was a bear! We quickly and quickly backtracked and skipped 4 holes to loop back around to miss the bear. Otherwise, they played the rest of the course. I thought for sure they would give up by the 6th or 7th hole. Nope!  They were too competitive to quick. After each hole, they wanted to know who was 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Collin ended up 2nd. 

 

       At the 15th, I noticed it was getting dark and it looked like it was raining just over the mountain on the other side. The wind was also picking up. So that we did not get stuck in top of the mountain in the rain, I gently pushed the boys along and made sure they stayed focused. By the time we walked back to the chair lift, the wind was blowing up the dust all around it, the the chair lift was still open so we all got on. It was windy and getting cold as we went down the mountain. Just as we were lifting up the chair lift bar, it stated to sprinkle....and then pour!  

 We had a great lunch at a local brew pub because all of us were tired.  While waiting for our food, Collin asked if we were going hiking later. I explained that we just did. He reaction was priceless. I could see him thinking about what I said and then realize we did just hike the top of the mountain for the last 2 hours. Sneaky mom!  

Red River Mountain Time

We spent the day on the Red River mountian. First, the boys spent an hour tubing down the lower portion of the mountain. They carried their tube to the lift, got on and then had to carry their tube to the top of the tube track. Th fist time Collin went down, he did not go as fast as the other boys because he kept spinning around and around from hitting the side of the tube shoot. The next time down, he figured out which lane was faster and how to go straight....so he beat Foard several times down. He had so much fun that he was the last one to finish. The other two boys got tired and quit with about 10 minutes until their turn to as over. 

 

      Next, we took the Platinum chair lift to the summit of the mountain to have lunch and to walk around. During the 30 minute ride up the mountain, we took in the sites and answered Collin's questions about the snow making machines, the beads thrown in the trees (yeah, unexpected for sure) the hiking trails and which one of the tails might be the green ones. 

At the top of the mountain, we had a decent lunch before walking around for about 20 minutes before Dad, Collin and I headed back down the mountain to do the aerial ropes course and zip line. The rest of the crew did not want to do it with us. 

 

       I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of Collin doing the aerial ropes course. Not only was he the youngest on the course, he completed the easy level AND the intermediate level. Because I did it too, I can tell you it was not easy. Plus, being in the air and really high up was a challenge too. We were allowed 1 1/2 hours to do as much of the course as we wanted to. I finished the second level and watch Collin finish the first level for the third time and then start the second level. When he was halfway finished, he wanted me to start the hardest course and not wait for him. I think he did not like me watching him. That third level was tough. I was breathing really heavy and my hands were really hurting at this point. I did end up finishing it though and was excited to complete the entire thing. We then had to wait for the wind to die down before finishing with the zip line to get off the course. We could have chosen to walk down by neither of us had done a zip line before. That was fun!!!

 

        

Red River Shopping and Off-Roading

We had so much fun the last time we took the Jeep off on the trails that we decided to go to another area and do it again. This time, we went to Red River and hit some of the trails in the Carson National Forest. These trails were not a challenging but, due to the multiple rocks on the trails and the drop off, I was a little more scared this time. They were more trees that had fallen on the trail but somebody before us had either move them or cut them so we could pass. The views from on top of the mountain were amazing! At one point, we could see the Red River ski mountain and Wheeler Peak behind it. At one of the trail crossings, there was water flowing fairly quickly across the path.  Dad asked one of the people that have just crossed over how deep the water was and they said it wouldn't be too bad for the Jeep. He started to attempt to cross and the rest of us told him to stop. Foard and Collin we got out to start walking in the water to let us know how deep it was. The water was freezing me sad and I quickly ran out once it got to their knees. I thought it might be from lacrosse, so I got in the water and walked as far as I could before the water got to the bottom of my shorts which were not that long.  I looked back at dad and he said come back knowing that the water would be too deep for us to cross. We hit up another trail thinking it might take us over the mountain like the map said but it didn't say we had to turn back around. 

We spent about four hours driving along the trails before heading back to town and do a little shopping. I needed out of the Jeep before heading back to the mountain house.  Collin, Foard, and I bought baseball caps that said Red River on them. We walked around for another 20 minutes or so before heading back to the house. I was a little road weary and had to take a rest before trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner. Despite being exhausted, I think we all had a great day.