Spring Break

This year we were fortunate to be given a spring break!!!! Wednesday we had a huge STEP 1 practice test, and they gave us Thursday and Friday off. A group of us decided to escape hot, dusty, windy, flat, no-trees Lubbock to go camping in a place even hotter, dustier, windier, flatter, and with less trees: Carlsbad Caverns! 

We left Thursday morning and spent the day swimming at the campground's swimming pool (we camped in style this time), shooting, and having fun. Katie tied for first place in the girl's category in skeet shoot; the winner was decided by who did better in the handgun competition, which she lost. 

Friday all of us headed to the Caverns. They are pretty incredible. Out in the middle of nowhere, a HUGE hole opens up to these massive caves. Although I wouldn't use the word "beauty" to describe them, it was one of the most incredible things I've seen in my life, and I would say that everybody should go see them once. Its just the sheer monstrosity of the caves that make them so impressive. They go for 30 miles, with the big room being able to hold 14 football fields. After the caverns, all of our friends left to go back to Lubbock, but we stayed an extra night. 

Saturday we went to Guadelupe Mountains National Park and did a hike. We had heard that there were some very green oasis-like hikes there, but I think we went at the wrong time of year: all the trees hadn't gotten leaves on them yet. 

Overall, it was a really fun weekend.

 Maggie and the Andersons' kids hanging out at the campsite.

 Us posing with the guns.

Maggie and Katie in the tent. It got so cold at night. The first night the forecast said it was supposed to get down to the low 50s. It actually got down to 35. Poor Maggie, she was an icicle when we went to get her in the morning, she just snuggled with us until the sun came up. 6 hours later, it was 92 degrees outside. That's the joys of camping in the desert.

 Maggie walking around the campsite. Riggs found out early in the trip that Maggie would laugh histerically at whatever he did, which I think was a big confidence boost for him. He followed her around the rest of the trip.

Us at the mouth of the caves.

The caverns were lit up perfectly. I guess when they lit them they brought in lighting people from Hollywood to chose the locations of the lights.

 Katie and Brooke.

 I think we ran Maggie ragged. Her sleep schedule was completely thrown off, but she made up for it with naps in the backpack.

 But she loved being outside.

 The Guadelupe Mountains hike. To be fair, we hadn't gotten to the oasis part in this picture.

 Maggie loved being outside so much that when we got back and started to get things cleaned up, she walked over to the door and whined for about 15 minutes for us to let her go outside.