Visit to the Carsons in El Paso and to Carlsbad Caverns

We arrived in El Paso on July 18th to spend some time with Tyler and Rachel's family.

One of our first outings was taking the kids to the library on the day after we arrived. 

 The kids found plenty to keep them busy, in addition to looking for some new read aloud books.

Almost every night I read books to the kids at bedtime.

That evening Rachel had planned an early 6th birthday party for Andrew.

We were glad we could be there to celebrate his birthday.

Andrew received several Lego sets, including one from us, which are his favorite toy right now.

Rachel made a fancy and beautiful birthday cake with layers of colored crepes and whipped cream in between each layer and on top.

 It was gorgeous inside and out and also tasted great!

Kent wanted the kids to pose with the wooden swords he'd made for them so he could take pictures to use when he prints out his dragon stories.

I guess Sylvia didn't want to take a picture with the sword, but the twins looked adorable in their pictures!

On Saturday afternoon we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which was about a two-hour drive away.

Granddad walking with his little buddy.

The kids looking at a display about some of the bats which live in the caverns.

This map shows the layout of the caverns very well. 

It's an amazingly extensive series of caves.

We took quite a few pictures but it was really impossible to show in pictures how interesting they were inside.

 The twins were pretty wiggly and didn't want to stay on the paths, so eventually Tyler and Rachel took all the kids on the shortcut out of the Big Room and waited for Kent and I at the end.

After we got out of the caves, Rachel took Andrew and the twins back to El Paso in their van, and Tyler, Kent, Sylvia and I stayed to watch the bats come out of the cave below.

Andrew said he didn't want to stay. Here we are waiting for the bats to come out, which happened at about 8pm. Because of the bats sensitive ears, the audience wasn't allowed to talk or to take pictures as half a million bats flew out of the cave and into the night to hunt for food. It was an awesome sight. We drove home in our van after we'd watched the bats fly out for about 20 minutes.

The following are just some every day activities while we were there.

Melody bonding with Grandma.

Christian and Melody looking very grown-up on their bikes and wearing their helmets!

A picnic outside for lunch

Kent had built a small Barbie "condo" to give to the granddaughters of our sons. Here's a picture of Sylvia wearing a dirndl I originally made for Lissa and standing in front of her new Barbie house. 

Granddad also set up a rope swing and Andrew and Sylvia really had fun with it. 

A proud papa with his brood, and the twins trying to help Granddad load the van before we left. Or was Granddad trying to get them smuggled in the van to take them with us??

It won't be too much longer that I'll be able to hold both of the twins in my arms, they're getting big!

Our traditional photo with the grandkids in our church clothes. It was tricky getting all four of them to look at the camera and to stand still! 

We packed a lot into our whirlwind visit to El Paso. We're always so happy to spend time with our grandchildren so they'll have good memories of us!