"Are those mountains? Those are so cool!"
-Ashlyn
To say this was a busy weekend is to put it mildly. It started with Ashlyn’s last football game of the year, a quick jaunt to the field in cold weather for the two teams who didn’t make it to the championship. Ashlyn had fun, but she’s glad she doesn’t have to stand in the cold any more this year.
Later that evening Ashlyn went to see Annie, where one of Ashlyn’s friends from school played the part of Annie’s best friend. Ashlyn was excited to see her friend in the program, and there were a few other friends from school there as well so they could get a group picture afterwards.
Then the real adventure began. Bags were packed, tablets charged, and we were off to the airport. A two hours flight later and we landed in sunny Albuquerque to see how many things we could do in a day and a night. The flight was fun for the kids, and Isla did great on her first plane ride. The suckers helped I think.
Since we landed in time for a late breakfast, we stopped at a local favorite called the Frontier for cinnamon rolls, pancakes, and huevos rancheros. It was at the Frontier that we learned the red sauce in New Mexico is much spicier than the red sauce in Texas. We would learn this lesson again in the evening when we had cheese enchilada that we could barely eat.
It was good that we had a filling breakfast because the next part of our trip was going to require some extra energy. We drove about 10 minutes away to a tram that took us to the top of the Sandia Mountains. The views were of the desert and surrounding mountains were incredible, and the kids has a blast hiking through the woods and exploring a quiet piece of nature. They didn’t even ask for their tablets once, which is saying something.
We had some in the afternoon to visit an interactive science museum for kids call Explora. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it ended up being an amazing place. James went nuts through two floors of activities, we could barely keep track of him and when it was time for the place to close down James asked if we could return in the morning. Isla, who loves sand, barely wanted to move away from a sand topology experiment. Ashlyn enjoyed everything a bit more calmly than her brother and helped both of her siblings with some of the activities.
That ended our Sunday adventure, turn in next week for Albuquerque part 2 and Thanksgiving!