5 minutes of Fall

Can I just tell you how much I love my sister? Whenever we're together it's nothing but high squeaky energetic voices and face rubs. She is one of my favorite people in the whole entire world and I was so excited for the chance to spend time with her and let our boys run wild. We had many adventures planned for the few days we were there, and the first was the pursuit of Fall. They live in El Paso so she shares my woes for missing Fall. They have some mountains a few hours away so we loaded up the kids in the party bus and headed out for a day trip to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. We found some changing leaves and enough chill in the air that after a brisk breeze blew through our picnic I declared that 5 minutes of Fall was enough for me. The boys had the best time playing on an old timber rail line. It was most likely full of splinters and they should probably get a tetanus shot afterwards, but it was the stuff that makes little boy's imaginations run wild. They had this whole pretend scenario and dialogue going on, it was fun to watch. Janessa and I were cracking up when Maddox came running up saying, "guys, there's a drug bar under here!". We asked him what he was talking about and where he heard about drugs. He responded, "from the movies you make us watch, like the The Greatest Showman". Ha! I must have missed the scene with the drug bar. 

The problem when we get together is that we both love taking pictures. And being together amplifies the problem times two. Usually we have our husbands to keep us reigned it, but without them around we were completely unleashed. Our apologies kids. We drove all over searching for small patches of aspens mixed in with the evergreens. We made them get out and frolic in nature all in the name of Fall photos. By the end they were good with only 5 minutes of Fall as well.

And to top off our big Fall adventure we just had to stop at the cute and charming Apple Barn for caramel apples and salt water taffy. Such a fun day!

Tombstone

Tombstone has been on my Arizona bucket list for quite some time now. I come from a long ine of cowboy stock, I grew up hearing stories of my great grandpa growing up in the same town as Butch Cassidy and running into him on occasion. The history of the Wild West has always fascinated me and the movie "Tombstone" was one of the first VHS tapes we bought as a married couple. Since the boys have an extra week off of school for Fall break then I decided to take them on a road trip to visit Aunt Nessa and their cousins in El Paso. Tombstone wasn't too far out of the way, so I decided to make a stop. It was also my first time doing a little collaboration with my travel site. I approached them for tickets to the OK Corral in exchange for instagram posts and stories and they said yes. I was a little nervous and even dreamed the night before that I had forgotten my camera, but it ended up being a lot of fun and saved us $40! The boys loved the gun fight re-enactment and getting ice cream at the general store. But truth be told, the rusty swings at the city park was their favorite part! It's a fun place to stroll around, I wish we had more time but the boys were antsy to get back on the road. The drive down was actually quite miserable, if I'm being honest. I took Jason's car since my Sequoia is such a gas guzzler. Three boys in a car for six hours in pouring rain was enough to just about do me in. Although I can now look back and laugh at the Wendy's escapade when we went through the drive-thru and rain was pouring through the open window while I could not figure out how the 4 for $4 deal worked out. Thank goodness I had Jayden there to explain that indeed the chicken nuggets come with every meal and it is not necessary to order them separately-ha! Thankfully we made it to Texas in one piece and the unforgettable memories we made that week made it all worth it!