New Mexico – hihosilvers

After leaving Sante Fe we headed north to Los Alamos to visit my cousin David and his family. We arrived and were immediately struck by the roving mob of kids that were playing on their street. We parked and introduced ourselves to David’s wife, Jessie and their three children, Maren, Charlie, and Ollie. Within minutes, Liam and CJ had joined the gaggle of kids while we went inside for a drink.

Los Alamos is largely composed of scientists who work at the National Laboratory and is the kind of place where people don’t lock their doors. Accordingly, its citizens appear, in a throwback to an earlier time, to be more comfortable giving their children much more freedom than most modern parents. During our stay with David, our kids spent the majority of the time on their own playing at the neighboring park or at a neighbor’s house. After 3 months in close proximity, the separation was good for all of us.

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After spending a couple of days with David and Jessie at their home, we all decided to go camping in nearby Bandalier National Monument which was established in 1916 to preserve the ancient cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pubelo people. Liam and CJ really enjoyed exploring Bandalier with Maren and Charlie and we enjoyed sharing our lifestyle with David and Jessie who had recently purchased a camper van of their own.

Liam and Maren regularly disappeared from the campsite, exploring the woods or playing games on their own, while CJ and Charlie enjoyed listening to CJ’s library of audio books snuggled in bed together. Maggie thoroughly enjoyed bedtime when the four older kids piled into bed with her for storybook time.

Story time!

Charlie and CJ listening to some stories

View from the Falls Hike

Practicing to be lumberjacks

Waterfall in Bandelier NM

Lots of ladders! The kids loved these hikes

Our last hike was particularly special, ancient pottery shards were EVERYwhere

Rock star!

On our final day in Bandalier we did one last hike and began the four hour drive to Durango, CO. About an hour or so into the drive we came across a random, but idyllic picnic table on the side of Hwy 84 and decided to pull over for a rest. The kids were asleep so Maggie and I decided to enjoy a glass of wine and rare quiet moment. A bottle of wine later, we decided to spend the night. On a totally unrelated note, I woke up at 6am with a pounding headache. Unable to sleep, I decided to clean up the area surrounding the pull off which was littered with an obscene amount of trash. I was able to get everything picked up except the big screen TV that was lying in the pastureland (Maggie refused to help me lift it over the barbed wire).

Plenty of expansive views from the mesas

View from our roadside stop

The otherside of our roadside stop

andddd one more shot

Rick’s morning accomplishments

In the course of our travels we’ve had a few short layovers in some cool places that didn’t warrant their own blog post, but we’d hate not to mention them at all. Here’s a quick re-cap:

LBJ National Historic Park –

IMG_E4745 (1) — Liam and CJ learned about cattle branding – LBJ preferred to brand the horns which was more humane.

We made an impromptu stop at LBJ’s ranch on our way to Big Bend. The park encompassed a working homestead that replicated life for early German settlers to Texas, LBJ’s birthplace, a one room school house LBJ attended, and the family ranch where LBJ returned to after his presidency. The kids enjoyed seeing the long horn cattle and Rick and I enjoyed learning more about both Texas history and our former President.

Living Desert Zoo State Park –

While in southern New Mexico we stayed at two state parks, which on their own were unremarkable, BUT we made a side trip to a third state park – Living Desert Zoo which was definitely worth the stop. The kids loved getting up close with some of the native animals. The mountain lions and bobcats were particularly excited to see CJ. The mountain lion came charging down from his perch when he saw CJ and continued to pace, agitated he couldn’t get closer to her, while we watched him and his mate. Next door at the bobcat enclosure the male bobcat came up to see Cora Jean and proceeded to try and pee on her! Needless to say, we left the cats alone and went to check out the prairie dogs after that!

Nose to nose with a porcupine

The infamous bobcat

We loved watching the two panthers climb around their enclosure, until we realized the one was stalking CJ

Bat cave!

The campsites weren’t much to write home about, but Bottomless Lake SP did provide some fun in the sun.

Carlsbad Caverns –

After Guadalupe Mt we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns on our way North. This is an incredibly unique National Park and walking deep within the caverns was like stepping into another world. We had fun making up stories about what the different cave formations were, although we had to give everyone a pep talk before making the 2 mile trek back out of the caves, it was a long way up!

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Santa Fe –

The city of Santa Fe was a welcome stop after several weeks in the boonies. We enjoyed the luxuries of city life – a dinner out, a fully stocked grocery store and…ice skating! We spent a full day at Santa Fe’s community center, first swimming at their large indoor pool, which included water slides and a lazy river, and then testing our skills on the indoor ice rink. No one was pulling any triple salchow jumps, but the kids enjoyed their first time on the ice – Liam is even thinking of taking up hockey!

Our final stop in Santa Fe was to Meow Wolf – the coolest and most bizarre art exposition I have ever seen. The easiest way to describe it is to say, we stepped through the looking glass. Artist took over the old bowling alley and have built and entire new world inside, including a house in which you can slide through washers and walk through refrigerators. Giant rabbit statues, mammoth skeletons you can play with drumsticks and treehouses built on chicken legs are all inside. It’s really too bizarre to describe, but if you find yourself in Santa Fe we strongly encourage you to check it out.