Tex/New Mex for Spring Break!

Last Saturday, we left around 5:15 am and drove all day long through rain and a little bit of snow. The kids did really well - we only stopped twice in 18 hours!

 Plus one short stop at the Whataburger drive-thru in ABQ for the best green chile cheeseburgers ever!

 We knew we were in Texas when we saw this beauty! We got to Elaine's house in Dallas around 1:30 am Texas time. She got out of bed to get us settled in. She gave us the entire upstairs! Danny and Charlie slept in one room, and the rest of us slept in the other. Really nice accomodations:) She, Clinton, and her three kids all slept in the master bedroom downstairs. We slept to the sounds of a crazy thunderstorm.

 Sunday was relaxing. Elaine made us quiche and scones for breakfast. We watched General Conference, the kids played and watched movies, etc. The kids got along really well the whole time.

 Danny liked Oliver's baby jumper toy. Lunch was sandwiches made with Elaine's homemade bread. Yum!

 Clinton taught Paul the tricks of smoking ribs, which led to a delicious dinner! Elaine's homemade cheese bread and Texas sheet cake made us all stuffed! We had lots of fun talks throughout the day, and played a new game and watched Napoleon Dynamite in the evening.

Best cousins. I'm only 6 days older than her, so we've been together for a while:)

 Don't know how Clinton feels about it though...

 On Monday, Clinton worked (He's a dentist.). Elaine made us buttermilk pancakes with buttermilk syrup for breakfast, then we went to find blue bonnets. Elaine tried to take our family picture, but it was too sunny and our kids wouldn't keep their eyes open.

 Grace, Charlie, Ella.

Then we went to an amazing park in the rich part of town. The kids loved it! When we got back home, they played in the back yard. It was their favorite part because they love jumping on the trampoline. Leftovers for lunch (we had A LOT of leftovers from all the meals Elaine had made us!).

When Clinton got home, he volunteered to watch all the kids while Elaine took us to Babe's for their famous fried chicken. Fried chicken is my favorite food, and this was the best I've ever had. Wow! You can only order fried chicken or chicken fried steak, then they bring you a half chicken's worth, plus bottomless sides of awesome biscuits, country gravy, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and salad. It was so, so delicious and fun! Then Elaine took us to a really fancy grocery store in the rich part of town. It was really fun. We got Blue Bell ice cream on the way home to eat with Clinton while watching the last March Madness game. 

 On Tuesday, Elaine fed us monkey bread for breakfast, packed us a lunch, then we were on our way for a 4-hour drive to Houston. We stopped at Buc-ee's for gas, since Elaine said we had to. The drive to Houston was AMAZING. It was so green with so many wild flowers: purple, pink, yellow, orange, and white. Wow!

 We got to Whitney's around 2, and visited with her for a while.

 Charlie and Darius (and Danny) got along really well since they all love super heroes so much. We took them to a Filipino buffet we'd found online, and it was really fun and good! Too bad Adam was bishoping and couldn't make it. He met us for playing at the park afterward.

 Paul gave him some of his old Star Trek stuff. We married nerds.

 Blue Bell ice cream for dessert, then the boys had a sleepover in Darius' room. They talked until late. The girls slept on the hideabed in the toy room, and Paul and I got the master bedroom. Whitney and Adam were so nice to sleep on an air mattress in the living room. We had a fun time visiting with them in the evening and learning to play rummikub and blokus.

 On Wednesday, Whitney made us delicious nutella stuffed pancakes and bacon. It was so fun that Adam got work off for the day!

 Whitney asked me to French braid her hair:) Then we put all the girls in one car and all the boys in the other car, and we drove 45 minutes to the beach in Galveston.

 It was windy and kind of cold, but so fun! We brought a picnic lunch, waded in the water, built sand castles, and collected shells.

 There was a dry warm sandy area protected from the wind.

We had a lot of fun at the beach for 3 hours or so, but unfortunately the cold wind tricked us into thinking we wouldn't get sunburnt. Not so - we fried:(

 For dinner, Whitney made us a Mexican classic: espagueti verde made with poblano peppers and AMAZING parmesan crusted chicken. So good! The kids ate oreo bars outside after. Whitney took me to a Mexican grocery store for a few snacks for the road, plus more Blue Bell ice cream. I really like the coconut fudge flavor. After the kids were in bed, we fried candy bars and Whitney made guacamole. Fun visiting that night.

 On Thursday, Whitney made us pumpkin waffles with buttermilk syrup, then we said our goodbyes to the Ruiz. Poor Darius was so sad about it.

 Then we drove 13 hours to Socorro. The kids were not as good, with lots of sunburn pain, but we pushed through.

 Danny the alien.

 We drove through Roswell and got some warm cookies at the UFO McDonald's.

 We stayed in a really nice suite in Socorro that night. We loved not sharing a room with any kids.

 On Friday, we got up bright and early (the time change helped), and toured Socorro all morning. Sunny family and M mountain.

 We had a really nice hike along the Rio Grande. It was so fun!

 We even kissed under the mistletoe that we used to cut for Christmas:)

We all really enjoyed being out there.

 M mountain. (NM Tech used to be called NM School of Mining and Technology, or "Mines".)

 We did a driving tour, including Alice's birth hospital.

 Also Grace's preschool, the library, our church, Grace's pre-k school, and our old house.

 No trip to Socorro is complete without pictures at the old Catholic mission.

 Then we went to campus and ran into our old friend Junior Soto! You may remember he was our maintenance man when we lived there, we shared the gospel with him, he was taught by the missionaries at our house, and then baptized. He was so excited to see us, and so were we! It was really great.

NM Tech has a brand new mineral museum, so we checked it out.

 Five years after graduating.

Then to the plaza, where Danny made friends with a crazy drunk man named Danny. 

 The Socorro sculpture. Then we went to a gift shop for a chile ristra Christmas light. The shopkeeper kept giving us free stuff!

 Our New Mexico girl.

 Our final stop was lunch at Sofia's kitchen for New Mexican food. The kids loved the sopapillas, as always.

Good food, though my tamale was too spicy, even for Paul. It was a really fun nostalgic trip! Then we drove 11 hours home. It was painful, but we made it to bed around midnight, and we had a wonderful trip! Thanks so much to our hosts who took such good care of us, sacrificed their sleeping arrangements, and made us so much good food! We loved it all!