Cloudcroft in Photos

I took fewer photos than I thought during this trip because I was more focused on taking videos. I'm glad I made video my top priority because it's so fun for me to compile all the clips and make something fun to watch. It definitely gets my creative/artistic juices flowing, these days! Photography will always be important to me, but video editing helps me tell a story in a different way, and that's exciting. Enough about my love for video- here are the photos! 

CONFESSION- I did not take the rest of the photos in this post. Everyone went on a hike the last full day we were there... except for me! I stayed behind to take a much needed nap- I had a headache and I slept terribly the night before. I totally played the pregnancy card, but I have no shame. I asked my father-in-law to take my camera and snap some photos for me while I stayed behind. So the rest of these photos were taken by my father-in-law or Ryan. I edited them, though! 

I'm really glad they took these photos for me! Looking at them now, I feel like I was there. Like I didn't miss out on too much. I'm so happy we were able to play with most of our New Mexico family. And I'm doubly happy that Gwen was able to play outside in decent weather! 

Camping in Cloudcroft

I've been wanting to take Gwen camping for a while. Now was the best time to do it because I'll soon be too large and uncomfortable to want to camp, and there's no way I'd want to camp with a newborn, so we took advantage of this small window of time that we have. 

We arranged a camping trip with our family in New Mexico since I knew we wouldn't see most of them until after Christmas when the baby is born. It was wonderful to get out of this Arizona heat for a few days! Gwen loved climbing up and down the hill were we on. She fell countless times (nothing too serious!) and ended up with a ton of bruises and a few scrapes on her legs, but this relentless toddler didn't cry about it once. She was too busy exploring to care. 

Enjoy the short video of some of my favorite moments from this trip! 

Cloudcroft

Some of my favorite photos from the weekend. 

In other news~
I was released from my church calling yesterday. I was an advisor to the Mia Maids (14-15 year old girls) for a little over two years. Yesterday I gave my last lesson and I even cried a little bit afterward. I will miss those girls! I'm anxious to find out what my new calling will be...

Camping

That's right, we went camping. This was our first little camping trip together. It was nice to have some secluded alone time with Ryan after five days without him. 

The highlight of our trip was this hike we went on. It was a little over four miles, but it seemed longer at times. 

It seemed like it took forever to finally reach this halfway point. 

Dinner. It tasted like Chef Boyardee. There were all sorts of other goodies in there too! A pudding mix, "snack bread" with peanut butter, a pop-tart, fruit punch drink mix, and stuff to make coffee. All prepared without fire or a stove. Chemistry, man. 

It wasn't my idea to sleep in the back of the truck (we lack a tent), and it was as comfortable as it seemed (it was a little bit terrible). But it was pretty cool sleeping under so many stars. 

Breakfast: soyrizo, eggs, and green chile for burritos. 

Although we weren't completely prepared, I'm glad we went camping together. At least we know better for the next time. And if possible, I'd like to go once more before summer ends.