Mother's Day in the desert

Mother's Day last year was spent laying on the beach.

Remember the beach house?

This was after a long day at the beach


Mother's Day this year was spent on a train in the desert.

It begin with an early morning wake up so that we could catch the first train to Santa Fe.  Aaron lives 2 minutes away from the Los Lunas train station, so off we went and of course had to document the start of our day with some pictures!

 

Waiting at the Los Lunas station

 

 

The train ride to Santa Fe took about 1 1/2 hours, but we passed a lot of scenery on the way. 

 



This old trading post was at one of the train stations.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but didn't get time -- so I'm settling for one off the internet.  I just love photos of old buildings!

 

Enjoying the train ride with two of my favorite guys (wish the 3rd one had been here)!

 

The shopping plaza in Santa Fe was a short 10 minute walk from the train station and it was a gorgeous day.....so we walked it.  The main mission of this trip was to get some beautiful New Mexico pieces.  I just love the pottery.  The little plaza was absolutely beautiful and full of great shops to investigate.

 

 

 

Beautiful old churches also seemed to be popular.

 

We took a break for lunch and found a New Mexican food buffet in the lobby of one of the hotels.  We feasted on Green Chile stew, Red & Green Chile Enchiladas, Tostadas, Rice, Beans, homemade tortillas and fabulous salsas.  We stuffed ourselves.....and then we were off for more shopping!

 

Along our travels we discovered the famous church (Loretto Chapel) with the spiral staircase that was featured on Unsolved Mysteries.  The inside of the church was beautiful and the staircase was certainly amazing!  Paul opted out on this adventure and chose to shop at a open air market next door.

 

 

 

 

After filling up several bags with our the treasures we found, it was time to get a cool drink and head back to the train station.  We couldn't miss this train because there was not another one coming back to Los Lunas that day. 

 

It was nice after a long day of shopping to sit back and enjoy the train ride back to Los Lunas.  We could nap or just look out the window and not have to worry about traffic.

 

 

View from the train window.  Tomorrow we'll be on top of that mountain!

 

We headed back to Aaron's house to enjoy some beer and some green chile bratwurst!

 

 

It sure was nice having these two guys do the cooking for me!

 

We ended up kicking back after our feast this night and rented a movie on cable to watch.  It had been a long day and it was nice to just sit and spend some time together. 

 

It was a fantastic Mother's Day!

 

No time for day 2

I have so many pictures to edit and download that I am truly sorry that I haven't had time to spotlight day 2 of our journey to New Mexico.

Let me get the payroll finished and a couple of other things off my desk and I'll try and find the time.  Trust me, I want to get back to the story myself.

But for now......here's a little preview:

It truly was a fun day!

Mother's Day......New Mexico 2013

First of all......let me start off by saying that I never in a million years thought I would ever be celebrating a Mother's Day in New Mexico!

Second of all.....let me tell you that I really had a great time.

We left on a Saturday morning and luckily didn't have too early of a flight and a short layover in Dallas.  Ha Ha....once again American Airlines thwarted our travel plans and had a broken plane in Dallas, which delayed us by 1 hour.  No problem.....I'd rather find out the plane is broken BEFORE we take off in it.  So arrival into Albuquerque was 2:30pm.

Aaron met us at the airport and the adventure began.  His first task was to find a good pizza place that had green chiles so that we could sample what EVERYONE in New Mexico eats at every meal.

He found this pizza place right across the street from the University of New Mexico.

He did careful research and found the BEST tasting pizza and a great way to start off our visit to Albuquerque!

This was green chile's on the whole pizza and sausage on half and pepperoni on the other half.  Needless to say, there wasn't any leftovers.  It was nice to just sit, enjoy a cold beer, and catch up!

After our delicious lunch, we headed to Aaron's apartment.  But first we had to stop at the meat market and buy our green chile bratwurst.  Cooking those up was definitely something I was looking forward too!

After giving Paul the grand tour of Aaron's house, we just sat, talked, and chilled for awhile.  There really wasn't a plan for the first night.....but after a lot of arm twisting......we were headed to the casino!  The Hard Rock Casino on the Isleta reservation was only a short 10 minutes away.

We stayed and played for 3-4 hours and then headed to Walmart for our gourmet dinner of hot dogs and chips (it was only 11pm).  We had to get to bed because we had an early morning wake up for our Sunday adventure.

Aaron was gracious enough to let us have his bedroom......so off to bed we went!

Stay tuned for Day 2 in New Mexico!

Remembering your travels

My traveling partner and myself always like to bring something back from our adventures. 

There are some required items that are brought back from each new destination:  plate, shot glass, and a shot glass for my eldest child.  We also try and pick up something that reflects the area of where we visited as a reminder of our fun trip.  We also try and bring back a small token souvenir for our managers.

This last trip to New Mexico included buying so much stuff that we actually had to borrow a suitcase from Aaron to bring it all back!

Here's some of our recent items:

 

A new welcome sign to hang out in front of our house

 

My Indian bowl and little Kachina doll

 

 

And our souvenir plates from Albuquerque and Santa Fe

 

We love to stand in our kitchen and look at each plate and remember the trip that was associated with it.  We have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to visit so many places.  These items are a constant reminder to us about all the exciting journeys that we have taken and all the future destinations that are still left for us to explore.

 

 

 

Looks like I'm going to need a bigger kitchen!

Something I've learned

I had another amazing Mother's Day vacation.  I don't have the time yet to stop and download and edit all the photos we took, so I thought I would stop and reflect on some of the things I learned this weekend.

1.  My son really can live and function without me :-)

2.  My son has FINALLY crossed over to the other side and is willing to try new foods.

3.  My son has an incredible love for green chiles.  Must be that New Mexico life.

4.  You really have a different life experience once your children grow up and are adults.

There is so much more that I can elaborate on each and every one of those statements, but for now we'll just leave them be. 

We truly had a great time visiting Aaron in Los Lunas and I am so grateful that we can all come together now and be a family without all the stress and tension that we once had.

And last, but not least:

5.  I have the best husband and kids in the whole wide world.  I am so lucky and I thank God every day for the wonderful things he has given me.  Paul, Cris, and Aaron.....I love you all so much and I am so glad to be the "boss" of our family.

So until I can sit down this week and catch up on our trip, here's a little piece of the fun that we had!

 

P.S.  I don't know why we are not smiling.  This was at the Los Lunas train station waiting to head to Santa Fe.  Maybe we were afraid because Paul was on the train tracks taking this picture "-)

 

Our last day

Sorry to disappoint you..............but I'm still on vacation. 

Real life begins again tomorrow!

Move along folks.....there's nothing to see here!

Okay, here's a picture of Albquerque that I did not take because I am still not back from my trip.

It's the best you're gonna get for right now, because I am out having a good time!

Mother's Day!

We should be taking the train to Santa Fe today to celebrate my Mother's Day!

But first, I have to wish my very own mother a Happy Mother's Day.

Thanks for being a great mom and putting up with all my crap throughout these years.

Hope your day is special and I'm sure I'll be talking to you (that is....if I'm not too busy having a great time)

Sorry this is so lame......but it's all I had time for!

We're gone

Hopefully there are no storms in the area and we are GONE!

On our way to a fun trip in Albquerque!

I was going to post some pictures of how we spent our last Mother's Day in Surfside, but alas......I am completely out of time and need to do some other things.

You'll just have to see them some other time or look back......there was probably a blog post about it!

Wish I had the time

Wish I had the time to do all the things that I'm passionate about.  You know, those things that always get the back burner because there are already several fires burning out of control that need to be taken care of first.

Some days (most days), I feel like I've lost my identity.  I'm just this little robot doing the same old thing day in and day out.  Not really thinking about the tasks because I've done them a million times before.  Not able to do some of the "creative" things I love to do.  My only "creativity" these days is designing a flyer for the schools or a sign for the stores.

Somehow I need to find the time to juggle all the balls in my life and still make time for some of the other things I am passionate about.  Like writing -- this blog specifically.  There are a MILLION things in my head that I want to journalize here.  Not only for those of you taking a peek into my life, but also for me and my family.  To look back on the things we've done and the places we've been. 

So, with that said......my first priority when we get back from our Mother's Day trip....is to start blogging regularly again.  I still have the passion and the desire to write a book.....but at this point in time, I'll be happy with blogging one day at a time.

P.S.  Stay tuned for the next few days while we're gone.....I'm not gonna let you down.  I'm going to do a few days of bloggin in advance so you don't have to wait until I return!  Enjoy!

A brief synopsis

1. End of the Quarter
2. First of the Month
3. Deposit stolen from car
4. Cris going on a cruise
5. Taxes due
6. Going out of town
7. Trying to buy tickets
8. Trying to lose weight
9. Trying to manage life

Ok.  Lots of stories attached to each of those (of course).

 Just maintaining a normal life and trying to work hard and of course living the "ups" and "downs" of life.

Things a little rocky right now.  But things will get better again real soon.