New Mexico and El Paso March 17-25, 2018

Crossing the New Mexico/Colorado border was a very neat experience for the kids. I kept saying that we will see a sign and the kids were so excited when we finally made it to the New Mexico sign. We stopped to get a picture and laughed because we saw a man stopping to get a picture of his new car in front of the sign.

After passing the sign, we saw mirages on the road and had a long conversation about why it looked like water was on the road. Tomasitas was the best Mexican food we had ever eaten.

Their sauce, chips, and chili rellenos were delicious! My Mom then asked me to drive to Las Cruces and I was almost responsible for us almost running out of gas. I wasn't watching the gas gauge. This is not the first time I have done this! My Mom's GPS also kept telling us we were gonna get there an hour earlier than we actually did. By the time we arrived in Las Cruces, we were all exhausted and crabby.

Then, we saw that the wind was gonna be terrible the next day and that was the day we were heading to White Sands. So, we had to get up really early to beat the wind. The White Sands were amazing! We learned all about the animals and plant life. We also saw that it was a missile testing site. We got a sled and had fun sledding down the sand.

I also did a lot of writing in the sand. It was so peaceful with white all around us. We ate Mexican food for lunch again and then headed to El Paso. El Paso had a lot of farming areas and signs in Spanish. Our place was in a cute little neighborhood and the lady had it decorated in Chic style.

There were lots of cacti in the backyard and a clothesline. We hiked the Aztec cave in El Paso, which was really pretty, but very rocky and hard to get good footing.

We also went to the El Paso Zoo, which had some dogs and wolves that were native to the area.

We shopped in a Mexican grocery store so the kids could practice their foods in Spanish. We also went to the Border control museum and learned how the US protects it's borders. It is a dangerous job!

We went to a archeology museum and learned about the Native Americans of Texas. After spending a lot of time in El Paso, we drove to Albuquerque. It was a little more rough and unsafe than the other places we had been. Our hotel had to kick out people that were not paying their bills. We went to a pretty place to watch the sunset called Los Poblanos.

We were pretty tired of Mexican food, at that point. We ate Subway and Little Caesars. The petroglyphs were my favorite part of Albuquerque. We hiked and tried to find as many petroglyphs as we could.

They were such cute drawings and it was fun to figure out the meanings. Sandia Peak was so gorgeous! It is one of the highest trams in the world and it is scary to look down. People ski down it in the winter. This trip was such a special time for our family. We had many laughs and fun times together!