Spring Break 2016

My mom turns 60 this year and asked if we could come out to Alb as part of our spring break to celebrate. We decided to add some extra stops on our trip to NM including Carlsbad Caverns.

At the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns

Cameron hated the hike down because it was so dark and scary. He complained that he wanted to go home basically the whole time, but both boys made it all the way down to the Big Room. Kimball is very into the National Parks Junior Ranger program and was working on his book the whole time and got really good at finding "popcorn".

Lily got to walk for a while around the big room before she had to go back into the backpack for the trek up.

Dale was Super Dad carrying Lily the whole time and got lots of compliments and comments from other dads:
"You're a better man than me"
"Dad, would you have done that for me?" "No, I would have paid someone to babysit you at the top"

The elevators were broken, so we had to hike all the way back up. Kimball practically ran the whole way, and we were all tuckered out by the end.

We made it out!

That night we drove to Roswell and stayed in a Motel 6. The boys loved finding all the aliens around town. We went to the UFO McDonalds for breakfast

Then went to the UFO Museum. Sadly, it was not kid friendly as most of it was newspaper clippings on partitions to read, so the boys got bored quickly.

We spent way too much money shopping for souvenirs and were on our way to White Sands.

Thankfully the sand was nice and cool, and perfect for walking barefoot. Duke did not appreciate Cameron making him a sled dog! After a while we found a dune steep enough to sled down and wore ourselves out climbing up and down. Kimball wanted to be buried so we obliged...

And Lily loved to "go go go" down the dunes after she got over the initial unsteadiness of walking on the sand.

That night we drove up to Albuquerque and got into town at 10:30. The next day was Mom's party. I made her a poster of 60+ reasons we love her, which all the guests got to write on. Lily finally started warming up to my parents and didn't scream every time Dad looked at her.

On Saturday, we went to a function for families with members who have disabilities where anyone could go up in a tethered hot air balloon. Both boys decided not to go up, but they enjoyed going in the Balloon Museum

Sunday morning, we got up early and drove home. I'm amazed on each trip what good travelers our kids are! Lily hardly cried, though she randomly threw up. Cameron passed out for a while...

And Kimball got bored, so he decided to make himself into Iron Man using a ball-point pen. Sadly the picture doesn't do his "artwork" justice, and he went to school the next day with some ink still on his face.

Now to finish unpacking and recovering from our trip!