New Mexico 2011

For Dan's birthday/ Eric having a break from school, we decided to do a road trip to New Mexico. We left Tuesday night and, thanks to Eric staying awake and driving, arrived Wednesday mid morning in Roswell, NM. We hung out there for a while and explored the city and learned about some of the UFO/alien stuff at the visitor's center. We went to a gift shop to see if there was anything worth buying but aliens in liquid filled jars and pillows with felt alien heads sewn on them, aren't exactly our choice in home decor.

We brought all our own food so that we would only eat out if there was something totally worth it. This was a good choice. Typically I'm so sick of fast food by the time we're done with our trip, but this time we brought delicious selections of food and it felt so good to eat real food while on a trip. Here I am cooking our breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs outside of the Roswell visitor's center.

The worker at the visitor's center told us about a bunch of places we should go see while in Roswell. We skipped the alien museum and decided to head over to the free Zoo. Free Zoo? I know, I didn't know such a thing existed either.

So this is what you get when you attend a free zoo:
- A cougar staring down and smacking its lips at your child and another child holding a sandwich. It was in an enclosure that it EASILY could have climbed out of. FREAK me out!!!!


- A one winged vulture flaunting its one wing to the other vulture in the pen who had no wings :(

- A billy goat who stunk up a 12 mile radius with it's nastiness. It did have a really cool beard though!! So silky - Pantene Pro-V for sure!

- And then some really cool other animals, and only a mom and her two kids as fellow patrons.

Right outside of the Zoo was a cool playground. Check out the rocket ship slide. The slide was totally polished to perfection for sliding down at super speed and landing straight on your back, as was demonstrated to us by a 3 year old boy many times.

Reese decided that since her hands were pretty gross from the Zoo and playground, that there was no reason not to keep adding to the filth.


Our next destination was Carlsbad. Our main point for the trip was to go to the Carlsbad Caverns. We had to take a little longer route so Eric could go through a town with the same name as one of his favorite TV shows.

There was a cool old gas station in the town as well. I don't know why but I'm obsessed with old gas stations. They are always so sweet looking and make me feel like I'm living in the good old days.

We had to make LOTS of pit stops, seeing as Ivan is becoming a chunk-a-lunk and wants to still eat every 2 hours. Not complaining, just letting you know why so many pit stops. Reese needed to get some energy out and move her legs so Eric and her went on a little jaunt through the field while Ivan filled his belly.


To be continued...