New Mexico Vacation 2013

I haven't done as thorough a job as I would have liked documenting our summer but LB started preschool this week so I'm feeling the need to move on. However, I can't move on without posting about the absolute highlight of our summer. At the end of July, we boarded a plane for New Mexico and LB had the time of his life. We met my parents and my sister there and we all stayed in a rented house together. This was our first real vacation with LB. We have a traveled a ton with him but mostly for visits to my parents, which is like a vacation but not officially, and he's been to Pennsylvania for my cousin's wedding and St. Louis for my sister's graduation and we went to Florida when he was 11 months old but none of that really counts. This was a true vacation. LB experienced so many firsts and he still talks about them. I think it helped for it to feel like a vacation for D and me since we had three other adults, who happen to love LB and he loves them, with us. I highly recommend the 5 to 1 adult to child ratio when going on vacation, especially since some of his favorite people were with us. I was usually number 5 on the adults he came to for something. I was able to read a whole book. I read, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which I highly recommend. It was one of those books that I didn't want to end.

LB did great with all the traveling it took to get to Taos. We decided to take a direct flight to Denver and then drive 5 hours to Taos rather than take a connecting flight into Albuquerque and drive for 3 hours. We're still not sure if that was the way to go since the Denver airport was such a pain but that's what we did. LB had a moment during the drive that was unpleasant because he had to go to the bathroom and there was no exit in sight but other than that he handled it all like a trooper. Air travel isn't so bad when you have a child obsessed with airplanes. There was even a time on the plane where I got a glimpse into the future. I hadn't brought anything to entertain myself on the 3 hour flight to Denver because I assumed I would be keeping LB happy and occupied. Well, at one point I looked over at him and he had the Ipad in his lap and some pretzels in his hand and he was perfectly content. I thought to myself, "I should have brought a book!" and "I could have bought a trashy magazine!" It was a crazy thought. But one I welcome. Oh trashy magazines, I have missed you.

The house my parents rented was gorgeous and ended up working out perfectly. LB called it "New Mexico." He is still a little unclear on the whole concept of geography. We we would be out and about somewhere and he would say, " I want to go back to New Mexico." And when we'd pull in the driveway he would say, "There's New Mexico." It was so cute that I hesitated to correct him. 

LB woke up the first morning at 4:30am. That was not fun but we expected it would take some time to adjust to the 2 hour time difference. The second morning he was up at 5:30am and by the third morning he was up at his normal time of 6:30am. So it wasn't too bad. That first morning he made himself right at home and set up his planes on the table on the patio outside. His New Mexico runway had much better views than his Ohio runway.

That first morning he was also very eager to check out the hot tub. I think he convinced my dad to get in with him before 8am. He loved it and I'm not gonna lie some days the hot tub served as his bath.

The hot tub was one of several firsts for LB and he responded to all of them with such joy and excitement. He saw a rainbow in the sky, a glider and a hot air balloon. The below picture is right after the rainbow. You can't see the rainbow but you can see the happiness in his smile.

He went on his first hike, saw a waterfall, got to sit in a helicopter and saw all sorts of new bugs. The rest of us had been to Taos several times so I think we all enjoyed viewing it from his first time perspective. He also forced us to notice little things that normally we would walk on pass, like butterflies along the trail or a "really big rock." Some days we would be driving and he would shout "Look at that really big mountain." I loved being there with him.

The food in Taos is amazing and D and I were talking about it before we even got there. Since Taos is such a relaxed place most of the restaurants are very chill and kid friendly. Several of them even have these big outdoor areas where kids can run around and play while the adults finish their beers. And, of course, they all have amazing views.

LB really had a blast. He wasn't perfect. He is three. There were some bedtimes that were challenging and a few times he wanted things he couldn't have but those aren't the moments that I think of when I look back on our trip. I remember the good stuff because there was so much of it. My mom and my sister both came armed with bags of tricks for downtime at the house, which helped tremendously. I was really happy that he was so happy. I guess that's how it works.

On our last night there we went into town to the plaza and there was a bluegrass band playing. LB didn't hesitate and went straight to the area where people were dancing. My mom danced with him for a while but mostly we just watched him.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from the week.

Hopefully, we'll go again next year.