Confidence building

Parenting is tricky. Parenting teenagers is downright perilous. A big part of our motivation for taking our "Big Trip" was to get in some true bonding time with our kids. We recently stayed and Oliver Lee State Park in New Mexico, near Alamogordo. State Parks are great places to camp because they are more roomy and not as crowded with snowbirds, even if they don't always have all the amenities.When we pulled into the park, which sets in the shadow of a mountain range, we noticed a door shaped cave part of the way up one of the mountains. We took a look at the cave with the binoculars and saw it was just a small cave, but Blake and I decided we wanted to climb up to see it the next day. It looked like there was even a path hewn into the side of the mountain meandering up to the opening.

Once we got under the mountain it was hard to spot the cave. We thought we spotted it, but without a path, so began the arduous task of climbing up the side of a mountain covered with loose rocks and tons of cacti! Both Blake and and I made it to a ledge with several cactus scars on our hands. From here we saw the path to the cave, which was over about 100 yards from where we were.

We made our way over there and began climbing up the rough path. The air was thinning fast and dad was sucking it in deeply. Blake kept encouraging me to continue on. I thought the view was pretty good from where we were, but I was not going to let my 13 year old son see his dad give up, so on we went. We finally reached the cave on a ledge. Blake was pumped.

"I can feel the adrenaline rush" he screamed.

He was so proud of himself and could not wait to tell his mom and brothers about our experience.

There was a bit of a high we both felt was we looked out over the valley and could spot Howard down below. The cave was pretty small, but it was the prize we had set out after, so we both felt like winners. Not only was this a good memory we both have shared now, but it was a much needed confidence builder in a young teenager's heart. I would love to hear some of the adventures you have shared with your teenage son to help them discover their untamed heart God put inside us!