Flying Saucers

Carlsbad, NM is only about an hour or so away from Roswell. Being a nerdy geek (is that redundant?!), of course I had to visit! So, our very first stop this morning was the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

To the Bat Cave

Months ago, I asked our cave tour planner to decide which one we should do during our visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. No surprise that every tour in which M was interested had "strenuous" in the description or involved crawling and/or climbing! Unfortunately, none were available during the time that we would be here. So I made reservations online for the 11:00AM King's Palace Tour, the only one we could do.

☑ National Park #29 (of 59)

Texas Two-Step

M and J have been keeping track of how many states they've ever visited and were debating whether or not to count Nebraska (slept through it overnight on the Amtrak California Zephyr) and Texas (layover at DFW). Even though we only spent a little time here today in West Texas, I think they should definitely be able to count it now.

From Las Cruces, it took us less than an hour to reach El Paso - gotta love 75 mph speed limits! We headed straight for the border and Chamizal National Memorial.

Rooms with a View

It was a bit chilly this morning when we headed up into the mountains on NM-90 towards Silver City. We crossed over the Continental Divide (twice) on our way to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. 

Easter Sun-day

HE IS RISEN!

He is risen, indeed!

We celebrated Jesus' resurrection this Easter Sunday morning with Calvary Chapel Tucson. They held their service at the Tucson Convention Center, with special music by Steven Curtis Chapman. It was nice to be able to attend church while on vacation, but we missed our #smallchurchbigfamily!

OCD Madness

Throughout 2016, the National Park Service is celebrating is 100th year. In honor of this milestone anniversary, Eastern National has issued a commemorative centennial stamp to nearly all of the 410 units in the NPS. Our current tally of units visited as a family is 115. So while we didn't check off any new units today, it was a successful day of stamp collecting for me!

Wait 'Til Next Year

Marking time. For my older son that means marching in place without moving forward. As parents we've marked the milestones in our kids' lives - first teeth, first steps, first days of school. And as a family, we've had to mark all the things we've missed sharing with R's brother K over the past year - a Stanley Cup for teh Blackhawks and a great post-season for the Cubs! Christmas. The March Madness (newly rechristened "Swordfish") Invitational for the guys in Vegas...

This spring break finds us on the road trip we planned to take before that late-night phone call came and we headed off to Chicago to be with K instead. Last year we were going to meet K here in Phoenix to watch a couple games together since he had never been to Spring Training. Fittingly, we started everything off this year by watching the Cubs play the Brewers today, the epitome of marking time - 108 years, to be exact!