New Mexico Weekend

We had a great trip to New Mexico for the long Memorial Day weekend! And of course, our weekend can probably best be told through the pictures we took!

We drove over Friday evening and Carrie was awesome in the car! Even though she's not a baby anymore, 6+ hour trips can still be stressful, but this one wasn't! She did great! By the time we got to Justin's parents it was late enough that we pretty much went straight to bed. Early Saturday morning, Justin and his dad went golfing while the girls slept in ;) When they got home we headed to Denny's for a huge delicious breakfast. I love breakfast.... Then my mother-in-law treated us to pedicures at her local nail salon.

In the early afternoon, we headed down to Elephant Butte lake to visit Justin's sister Alysha and her family at their "home-away-from-home" trailer by the lake. The kids had a blast playing on the swingset. Especially with Nana pushing them super high!

 They had fun playing on the little slide

But going down normally soon became too boring... ;)

Popsicles on the porch. Yummy!

And then it was time to bust out the kiddie pool! Don't you love her new hat? 

I don't know if they were playing ring around the rosie, or what, but these cousins sure had fun playing together

Especially once aunt Alysha brought the slide over to the pool!

The adults were kept busy playing cornhole. The wind was quite an interesting factor in our games!

I think this one looks like Carrie and Savannah are making mischievous plans for something...

Watching the grownups play while she dries off

Hanging out waiting his turn. Slowly getting eaten by the sun.... 

And by the time we got back to Nana and Papa's around dinnertime, Carrie was TIRED!

Sunday after going to church, we took a drive up through Winston and headed to "the box". Driving on all the dirt roads got the best of Justin's dad's truck though.... SUPER flat tire... In the middle of NOWHERE. 

While we were waiting for Justin and his dad to change the tire, we hung out in the middle of the road. Who's going to get us? The roaming cows?....

Carrie's little Stonehenge... She was very proud of her rock collection and made me take a picture.

Once we got to "the box", we hiked for about 1/4 mile on a very skinny trail that crossed the creek 7 times...

Before eventually bringing us here. Beautiful natural hot springs. (Though they were definitely not hot)

But Carrie got in anyways

And Justin and I joined her! 

I told you Justin was getting slowly eaten by the sun. His poor red feet....

Hanging out in the shallow water - with lots of dirt and scum and bugs. It was a very outdoorsy experience ;)

Once we got dried off Carrie found a great walking stick and went on a little hike in the meadow

And again, was completely wiped out!

She stayed asleep all through our stop at "the old place" (a big storage warehouse filled with old keepsakes from Justin's family). We were fortunate to inherit a cute little kiddie sized chair that was Justin's dad's as a kid. It's a very awesome hand-me-down, but it really needs to be cleaned and re-upholstered. As soon as it's done, I'll post a picture. It's not really the highest thing on my priority list right now, as you can hopefully understand.

Monday morning after visiting with Justin's Grandma, we were headed off to the lake to hang out on Michael and Alysha's houseboat.

Waiting on the beach for them to come get us with the boat

Daddy-daughter beach walk

Hanging out on the houseboat roof with Savannah

We all went out on the giant tube they like to call "the island". The bottom is mesh, so the water comes up through a little.

Don't worry, we were tethered to the houseboat so we wouldn't float away!

And before we left, Justin had to try the big jump off the houseboat roof! He said it was fun, but scary!

Carrie's last minute beach art project before we left.

We headed home that afternoon, and boy, did we mis-time potty breaks! We pulled over to the side of the highway three times on the trip home for Carrie to use her little pink potty because we were nowhere near any towns. (I'm SO glad we brought that!)

By the time we got home we were all super tired. We had cold cereal for dinner and Carrie fell asleep before we could even say prayer and read a story. Justin had to get up early to go to work, but Carrie and I thoroughly took advantage of our vacation hangover and slept WAY in! We woke up around nine, but didn't get up and going until almost 11..... Now to clean up the vacation aftermath! We had a great time, and it's not going to be fun getting back to reality!