Cemeteries

I have so much to share from our week at Philmont that I decided it might be best if I divided it up over this next week. Our church asked Beau to attend the LDS BSA (Boy Scout) Leadership Conference in New Mexico. This Leadership conference is a family conference and we had the option of attending as a family as well. We thought it was a great opportunity and the cheapest vacation we could get for 6 days - plus everything was taken care of. What better arrangements than that! We were also going to be attending with another family that has kids the same age as ours which we were excited about. We'd be able to learn some great stuff, spend time as a family and get to know this other great family in our neighborhood.

There is nothing like spending 12 hours in a car to bind or tear apart a family. Luckily for us we made it through alive. The trip down we split into two days but did most of the driving the first day. Although it was long, and we stopped plenty of times, we enjoyed new scenery of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The kids even survived with no portable DVD player. I think they actually were better because they found other things to do, rather than asking over and over when they would get to watch a movie.

On the way down we stopped in a little tiny town to search out a cemetery. Our friends had some ancestors that came from the area and they wanted to see if they could find any gravesides for them. We had no idea what a neat little place it was. It was located on the top of a hill and as we drove through in rain, puddles and washed out dirt roads, we wound past stucco walls, old churches, and came at last to this tiny little cemetery that had such a native Hispanic feel about it. The rain slowed, so while being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes we search for his family names, enjoyed the cactuses, red earth, fantastic tombstones and a double rainbow in the sky.

I have always loved cemeteries. They are one of my favorite places to roam, sit, and enjoy the peacefulness of them. What other place can you have so much history, stories, lives, and generations in one spot. There is something about them that I can't get enough of. In college if I needed peace away from roommates, or a place to write in my journal, I would hike to the top of the hill and sit amidst the old broken tombstones and wonder about the people while finding rest to my soul.On the way back down we passed this gorgeous adobe church, with it's three crosses. This whole place had such a neat feel of old mission homes and Spanish heritage.

Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. I love everything about this photo.
We drove a littler further and enjoyed an evening of amazing authentic Mexican food in the upstairs of an old Spanish house. What a great way to start of our vacation.