Horse Riding

I'm not sure how I heard about it, but at some point before summer I learned about a horse ranch that offers sessions for kids for free in the summer. I tried to sign up online, but they didn't have a date that would work for us, so I put us on the waiting list. Last week we were notified of an opening, so we went over to Rio Rancho and spent the morning at a horse ranch. It is a great place where everything is paid for by donations and fundraisers and all the workers are volunteers. The kids loved it. They got to:
*Ride horses (the highlight of the day)- Nathan was so pleased with himself.
*Groom a horse
*Hold baby ducklings and chickens
*Scoop up horse poop - even this part was pretty fun for him.
*Pet goats and ponies
*Write cards to organizations that have donated goods and services
*Play in the play area which consisted of an outdoor kitchen, a saloon playhouse (with a tiny little piano inside and cowboy dress up clothes), giant tire, play trucks, playground equipment, a corn box (like a sand box, but with corn), water pump rubber duckie races and more.

I think all of the kids at one point that morning thanked me for taking them there. Good fun....and free. Can't beat that.

Hiking to the Cave

We had a fun family day on Saturday. We went up to Sandia Cave - short half mile hike up to the cave and then we went exploring inside. We tried to do some geocaching along the trail but we didn't have much luck. The kids loved it (except Megan who isn't so fond of close, dark spaces). We all came out with a yellow film all over our clothes and skin, so we stopped at the stream at the bottom of the trail and rinsed off. Nathan went in with shoes and socks on and everything.