Spring Break in Ruidoso, New Mexico

For Spring Break this year, we decided to take a vacation and visit some good friends that live near Ruidoso, New Mexico. So we packed up the kids and the car and headed west. We stopped in Roswell, New Mexico, for lunch. If you have ever been to Roswell, you know it is filled with aliens. They are EVERYWHERE! No, they are not real. It is quite humorous! If you have never been to Roswell, if it is on your way to somewhere or near somewhere you are visiting, you should go see for yourself. The mannequins in the stores are all aliens. The signs all have aliens on them. The street lights are all alien heads. Why? Supposedly several years ago, a UFO crashed near Roswell and the town has decided to take advantage of that in their "theme". There is even a museum that tells all about it. Here's a fun fact...I was at that museum the day Piper was born. And as you can see, even McDonald's bought into the alien story. My kids loved eating at the UFO McDonald's!

When we got to Ruidoso, there was a little bit of snow left. It is in the mountains, if you didn't know. Ruidoso is at about 5500 in elevation. It is so beautiful there! Piper, Seven, Tripp, and Thatcher had fun playing in the snow.

Bonita Park is where we stayed. They recently got a "petting zoo" that includes snakes, a frog, a chinchilla, a cockatiel, doves, a ferret, and a hedgehog. My kids really enjoyed holding the animals, well, Piper and Finn enjoyed it. Seven looked, but didn't want to touch. And Rilian wanted nothing to do with the animals.

I think it made Piper's day to hold the chinchilla. She really wants one, but we have enough pets for now.

Piper then decided to pet the ferret.

The first animal Finn held was the ferret. But we had to put it back in its cage shortly after since it wanted to get down. We could not let it down. Ferrets are really fast and believe it or not, they kill snakes. I did not know that, but thought it was very interesting. Since there were two snakes in the "petting zoo", so we could not let the ferret down.

This is the smallest snake that they housed.

Finn held the cockatiel and I was surprised how much bigger she was compared to Fluffy.

Piper held the cockatiel for a really long time.

Jeremy even got into the whole holding of the animals action. Do you see how big this snake is? Can you believe the ferret could kill a snake this big? Believe it or not, it is true!

Finn is such a cool kid! This is the same snake that Jeremy was holding in the above picture. How many of you parents reading this can say your 4 year old, or any of your children, whatever age they are, would hold a snake like this? Yeah, I'm proud! He's brave!

Finn also held the chinchilla. The chinchilla was incredibly soft!

One evening, we went to the indoor climbing gym. Look how excited Piper is! She has on her climbing harness and is ready to go! She is ready to do what she was naturally made to do...climb!

There she goes, up the climbing wall. She is a natural.

She is almost to the top! I guess I didn't get a picture of her as she touched the top, but she did make it. I'm sure you weren't questioning it, though, if you know her.

I like how Piper is using the wall beside her to climb higher.

A cool close-up of my 5 year old natural born climber.

I wish there was a place closer by so she could go rock climbing more often. This was her first time and I wasn't surprised at how good she was.

I managed to catch her on video so you can watch for yourself. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may also remember this video that was taken a few years ago of Piper. She hasn't lost her mad climbing skills.

Finn also got a turn. He doesn't look as excited as Piper was. I think he might have been a little nervous.
There he goes...
A close-up for your enjoyment.
And up...Finn made it to the top, too. He did a really good job!

Piper tends to get ahold of our camera when we don't know it. She took this picture of Finn. It is a cute picture, so I had to include it.

Now it is time to watch Finn in action!

I also climbed the wall. What fun! I hadn't been rock climbing since before I had kids. So it had been at least 6 years, but I still had it in me and made it to the top! One summer, we went a couple times a month with some friends to Mineral Wells and rock climbed there. We have also been a couple of other places. Jeremy said he took some pictures of me climbing, but I guess they were on his phone because I didn't see them on the camera. That's ok, I don't mind not posting them here because I am pretty sure it isn't the most flattering view of me.

Jeremy had his turn on the wall, just like the rest of us. This is at the beginning of his climb.And there he is touching the top. Go Jeremy! He still has it in him, too. I think it has been just as long for Jeremy as it has been for me to go rock climbing. If you look to the left of Jeremy's feet, you can see an overhang. After he came down from this climb, he did the climb with the overhang, and yes, successfully made it to the top.
Rilian wasn't quite walking when we went on our trip. When a baby doesn't walk, he crawls. This means that their hands are constantly touching everything that their feet touch. This can make their hands dirty. Sometimes, it makes their hands REALLY dirty. Rilian was crawling all over the gym and this is what he left behind when he crawled over to the mat laying below the climbing wall. But I am proud to say that at 14 months, Rilian finally decided that he could walk. He is our last child born and last child to walk (he walked at a later age than the others). Go figure.
I think I mentioned earlier how beautiful Ruidoso, New Mexico, is! This is the view we had from the playground near town where our children were playing. Even if you are not a big fan of mountains or the snow, you have to admit, the snow-capped mountains are beautiful! God is awesome!
We had a little bit of a problem with sharing. But I guess that is what happens when there are 7 children ages 5 and under and there are not enough of the same toy for all of them to play with. We took a trip to Walmart and bought some more buckets and shovels so ALL of the children could play happily in the dirt and gravel.
It started to snow Friday evening. I didn't think it would snow very much. So, I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw this Saturday morning when I stepped outside!
Do you see how the road is sloped downward behind our van? Well, there was ice underneath the powdery snow. When we backed out to go to our friend's house, our tires would only spin when we tried to go forward. We were stuck! Jeremy was able to back the van up far enough to get enough momentum to make it up the mountain, so we could go back down the mountainside to our friend's house.
After that little "adventure" we decided to stay one more day and head home Sunday instead. It didn't take too long for the snow to melt that afternoon when it stopped falling and the sun came out. We didn't mind, though. We got to enjoy one more day hanging out with our friends!