Ruidoso, New Mexico

Our family adventure in January was a trip to Ruidoso, NM. It was a fantastic birthday weekend with the people I love the most. Ruidoso is the closest ski resort town, only about a 4 to 5 hr drive, and so its very popular with the Texans who want to get away and experience a little bit of winter. Oddly enough, it was in the 60's when we were there! Luckily the tubing park we went to makes its own snow. What a great place for families -see the link here
My girls all ready to go! We got there right as the park opened.

Lydia and Claire spent a lot of time in the "Kiddie Korral" that just had baby hills. Josh and I took turns pulling them around and pushing them down the slopes.

Scarlett napped for most of the morning, and then wanted to get out and see the action.
Fortunately Lydia was tall enough to go on the bigger slopes too, so we each took turns riding down double with her. First daddy...look at that air!And then mommy...Poor Lydia had to sit in the back. The guides said that if all the weight's in the back, we'd just spin around.

After a morning of tubing, we went back to the hotel for some R&R...but the girls had a different idea. They wanted to swim. I think swimming in the hotel pool was the highlight of the trip for them. Summer can't come soon enough for these little fishies!

That evening we wanted to explore one of the lakes, so we took a "picnic" of Happy Meals up to Lake Bonito. We underestimated how cold it was going to be! There was still a layer of ice on top of the lake, so we played a game of "who can break the ice" and threw rocks onto the ice to see if they would break through. Lydia got some good-sized rocks that punched holes in the ice, but then daddy had to go and get a boulder and shot-put it out into the lake and crack a whole slab off!
The next day we did a little more swimming, and then did some shopping around Ruidoso. It was a beautiful weekend in a beautiful place, and it was especially fun to take our first family trip in Josh's truck. It's actually very spacious for our family of five! He even fit the truck bed with a cover, so that we could just throw all our muddy gear into the back, and then head out.
Scarlett was a little restless on the drive home, so Lydia sat in front with dad, and had fun with my pocket camera. She was also perplexed by the vast desolation that is West Texas.
Best quote: "Daddy...are we lost? Or is this a short cut??"
Daddy: "Nope, this is just Texas. There's a lot of nothing. Everywhere"