New Mexico Road Trip

We took a road trip to New Mexico last week during the kids' spring break. It's the longest road trip we have done yet with the kids and it went pretty smoothly. Tablets in the car helped with that but the kids enjoyed the scenery too. It was fun to see the changes in terrain along the way and the hundreds of wind turbines in central and west Texas. We could see a few turbines pretty well because they were right by the highway.

We drove to Santa Fe first, where Michael's aunt Sylvia graciously let us use her retirement house for a few days. It was a 12-hour trek to Santa Fe if you don't include the hour we stretched our legs in Roswell. We really enjoyed Santa Fe where the majority of houses and buildings are adobe, the sunsets and surrounding mountains are breathtaking, there is art everywhere, and they put chiles in all the food (even McDonald's has an 'add chiles' option). Okay, Michael would have liked to have toned down the chile heat a little but we did enjoy some delicious local eats such as Harry's Roadhouse, The Plaza Cafe, The Shed, and Loyal Hound. Just north of Santa Fe we day-tripped it to Ski Santa Fe.

We spent the second half of the week at the Angel Fire Resort. We were literally there the last weekend they were open for skiing. With lows in the high 20s at night and afternoon temps in the low 60s there was icy snow in the morning and slushy snow in the afternoon. We all enjoyed the snow, tubing, skiing, and a magic show by Mysto. It was a 13-hour drive (with stops) from Angel Fire to Austin. Even though the snow on the mountain wasn't powdery, the roads were clear and dry thanks to the spring weather and that made it a much easier drive.

All smiles as we set out on our journey:

Rain Game

It rained pretty much all day today, including during Tyler's soccer game. The boys loved it! I think they were competing to see who could get the most muddy. Every time it was time to sub in and out the boys coming in grinned and cheered.

Daphne loved the rain too. Thank goodness for rain boots!

Team Argentina: Ryan, Beckett, Gavin, Esteban, Ryan,
Tyler, Lincoln, Jacob, and Coach Shawn

Tyler's Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated Tyler's birthday with a dart gun battle in our backyard. There had been a high chance of rain but we got lucky that the rain held off. The kids played a few team battles, capture the flag, ran an obstacle course to see who could get shot the least amount of times, and a free for all shoot out.

Team Neon Ninja

Team Raging Red

Capture the Flag

Our makeshift fortress to help compete against the play structure

Karen and Matthew

Birthday success!

Blue & Gold Banquet

Our cub scout pack's annual blue and gold banquet to celebrate the birthday of scouting was last weekend. Wild West was this year's theme.

Den 7 cowboys: Jackson, Ryan, Matthias, Tyler, and Roman

Keep an eye out for Jackson

Antique technology show

The scientist set off the fire alarm
with this fire stunt. The kids thought
it was pretty cool.

The scientist brought some hands-on
fun for the kids too.

Bryce and the boys came in from Houston for the weekend
because of Tyler's birthday party.

Noah and Tyler playing bingo for prizes.

Daphne, Micah, and Damon were more interested
in the tech toys than in playing bingo.

Micah and Damon photobomb our shot with cuteness!

Posing

Tyler's first soccer game of the season was last weekend. Although we didn't snap any soccer photos, I found these gyms of Daphne on Michael's phone from either before the game or half time.

Happy Birthday Abuelito and Tyler

Abuelito's birthday was on Thursday and Tyler's birthday was on Friday and so we celebrated their birthdays together on Friday night. Can't believe my baby boy is 8 years old!

Daphne insisted on getting Tyler this longhorn.
Thankfully she still wears Aggie shirts!

Pre-K

One day last week another mom and I watched Daphne's pre-K class for two hours while the pre-K teachers went off campus for teacher appreciation lunch. Those 4- and 5-year olds are exhausting!!!! Luckily we started with recess, which was the easy part. The kids got to watch a movie afterwards but only about half of them were interested in the movie and the others were like a swarm of ants that kept running away from the main mound. I don't know how those teachers handle a whole class by themselves every day!