"Using the force is a little hard for a baby."
-James
Texas does not get snow very often, rarely enough to actually play in, so we had a goal over the Christmas break to visit snow. Luckily there was a good place a short flight away that we knew the kids would enjoy. Bags were packed and off we flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We spent the first day visiting some of the local fun places for kids, including Explora and a trampoline park with a climbing wall.
On the second day we rented an all wheel drive SUV and drove up into the mountains, stopping to rent some ski gear to see what the kids would think about skiing. I’ll admit the skiing did not go well. We didn’t sign up in advance for ski school, and trying to ski for the first time with only was not the best idea. Isla gave up pretty quickly and chose to roll around in the snow. James and Ashlyn did better, but I we definitely learned a few things before trying it again. After coming down off the mountain we stopped off for a warm dinner before heading to bed.
Ashlyn had James both had sleepovers this weekend and we wanted to do something fun with Isla. There’s a neat drive through Christmas lights display near our house we decided to drive through it since it was still up. When we stopped to explore a little deeper (they had a walk through area as well), guess who we ran into? Ashlyn happened to be there with her friend, so we paused to take a family picture. James was having fun playing video games with this friend while we braved the cold.
If you didn’t know, Grandma is great painter. She came over this to give Ashlyn a lesson and they chose an apple on the counter as their subject. Ashlyn’s came out great, and she was deservedly proud of the final result.
This was the first year all the kids stayed up for New Year’s. We went to a friends house where they could play with the other kids and got to do both the countdown at midnight as well as some sparklers afterwards. The next day was rough, but they at least they got to it.
Happy New Years!