Fun with Family!

By Patty Wilber

This past week saw the annual 4th of July visit (except last year because we went to Ireland) from my sister, brother-in-law, brother, niece, and parents!

It sure was fun to have such a great group of people happily cram into our house. We managed the Electric Playhouse (light-based interactive games–really fun!), Jemez Box hike (cliff jumping for Jim!), Range Cafe in Bernalillo, Lilo and Stitch (nearly all of us cried), an escape room (we were really bad this year), hanging out, and three horseback rides for my seven year old neice.

Chris (BIL), Kathy (sis) , me, Mike (bro), Avery (niece), Jim (better half) at teh Jemez box.  Picture from Chris’ phone.

Same fine group, but this pic has my mom and dad, too! This was after we devoured our dinner at the Range Cafe in Bernalillo. Photo by Chris.

Cometa, age 28 on July 9, (and still working in the back country with Jim), was the mount of choice this year.  Said neice had not ridden much, so day one amid thunder, was grooming and poking around under cover of our barn.

The braided tail, with the green kochia decoration!

Cometa is quiet, but he is not above taking advantage, so leading him to the arena on day two went really well unless he got too close to anything green.

Leading and staying away from green stuff!

If we had a fenced arena, I’d have let them ride off line, but since we don’t, Avery steered around and I tried to keep up so Cometa wouldn’t go too far afield.  (The round pen was being “guarded” by a herd of six pesty steeds, so we didn’t go out there.)

We even did a little trail ride out on the road, on two days.

I can’t really put into words how wonderful it is to have family that is there for each other, no matter what. Thanksgiving will be our next big get together!  And 4th of July 2026, of course!

Happy Friday!