Taos Summer Vacation 2021

 We went to Taos for the last week of July as is our tradition. There was no cooking camp this year, but there was a LOT of fun! We drove down with three additional boys. We took Davis's friend Alex and his brother Aidan, as well as Sam's friend James. We also brought all three dogs and five bikes. We met the Rileys down there where they stayed for the first half of the week in their rig, Gus. We had 8 kids for maximum fun.

We built a potato cannon, and shot many potatoes. The kids (except for James, Sam and Emma) went to Angel Fire twice to ride downhill. They all (except for Emma) rode the new Taos Green Chili Flow trail (while Tanya and Emma and I hiked Williams Lake- so muddy and green!). We all hiked Gavilon trail and picked wild strawberries. I drove through a terrible rain storm to get the kids in Angel fire and almost washed away. We played lots of ping pong. The kids shot a POV nerf war and played many games of oli, oli oxenfree. We had sandwiches from Taos Cow (the brie/turkey/honey mustard will always be my favorite), tamales from Leonel's, lunch at La Cueva. I cooked SO MANY meals. Marcie came for a visit, we grilled a lot. We celebrated Alex and Donovan's birthday with a party on the porch and balloons and fireworks and cake. The kids played much music on the piano. 

Then the Riley's left and Joel and Abby arrived! The party continued. We had lunch at Orlando's. The boys rode a cool rim trail on the Rio Grande. We shot the potato cannon some more. We visited the plaza and attended the farmer's market and shopped the shops. We went white water rafting. We ate dinner at Azteca Grill. We finally let the kids watch deadpool as we all piled up with pillows around the living room.

It was an incredible week with monsoons in the afternoon, cool evenings and lovely warm days. There were regular rainbows. Doors slammed, cannons boomed, dogs barked, kids laughed, piano played, grownups chatted, bikes crunched on gravel. It was a GOOD time.