Trip out West: Part one

Well, this was it!  Our "big" trip for the year!  We headed out to New Mexico/Colorado for some big events, Jake's grandma turning 90 and his sister getting married.  It was a busy, jam-packed vacation but we had a lot of fun!

One day I overheard Tommy telling one of his cousins how we got there, "we took a car, a train, a bus, an elevator, an elevator, another elevator, a plane, another plane, a car..."  Yep!  Traveling can be such a pain in the neck.

Here we are at the train station with all our luggage we "carried on"- 4 carry-ons, 3 car seats, 4 backpacks and a purse.  We go to great lengths to save $25.  I know, we're crazy!

 Something about this boy and his simple fascination of trains brings me so much joy

 Katelyn has become one of the kids these days.  I went out and bought a backpack for her so she could be just like Rachel and Tommy.  After paying for it, she looked up at me and said, "Thank you mom!"  $8 totally worth it!!  Plus, she is super adorable with it.

 We flew into Albuquerque (I think I can spell that right now) late one night and it just so happens that one of my best friends from high school lives there with her family.  We stayed at her house for the first couple of nights.  When driving there Rachel was looking out the window and asks, "is that snow?"  "No...that's dirt, a lot of dirt." 

The next morning we ventured out on a little day trip to Santa Fe.  My kids love Newsies the movie, so we just had to.  It was such a great day!

We saw the oldest house in America

 Walking down the streets and seeing these little markets was so fun for me!  I loved looking at the pottery and the jewelry and everything!! 

 We had lunch in this little square, and had a great view of the cathedral, and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful.  Not to mention we really enjoyed some good Mexican food, which is really hard to find out east.  It was definitely a highlight of the trip!

 These adobe buildings are everywhere!  Tommy even asks, "why is everything orange here?"  The dessert has really captivated us all, it is just so different from what we're used to.

 Once again, this boy is just too great!  He was in heaven with all this Indian and cowboy stuff.

 Santa Fe is known for their art.  We walked down this fun street and stumbled upon this great sculpture park.  Katelyn is very interested in what he is reading.

 Rachel being intelligent

 Ring around the Rosies

 Rachel made a really great discovery.  On the hands of one of the girl statues was a CTR (choose the right) ring.  Gary Price was the sculptor of all these amazing statues, and sure enough he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Pretty cool.

On the way back from Santa Fe we saw a sign for a "Mormon Battalion Monument" and being the ol' timers we are we stopped off.  Tommy's middle name Alexander comes from one of his great grandfathers that fought with the Mormon Battalion.

 We ended the day with pool and a barbeque with our friends.

 This is the view from my friend's house of her neighborhood.  Really beautiful mountains and sunset.  It amazed both Jake and I how many similarities there were to Utah.  But those homes, those are really something.

 The next morning we checked out downtown Albuquerque.  Every time we said Albuquerque Katelyn would always respond, "I want a Apple Cookie!"  We drove on Route 66 and really enjoyed the "Cars" like town.  We stopped and played on a playground and tried to beat the heat with some fun popsicles.

 A couple of our kids, with a couple of my friend's kids (she has 4)

 It just so happened that Eryn's sister was coming to visit her for the weekend and we overlapped by an hour.  She was also one of my really good friends and it was so fun to see these girls again!

Stay tuned...there's much more coming :)