New Mexico vacay

New Mexico vacay

• 5.08.2013

We're back from vacation in New Mexico over a long weekend and are getting back into a normal routine, which is always hard. We haven't been on a real vacation together since our honeymoon in 2011 so this little family visit to a new, sunny place felt totally luxurious! Mostly we hung out with our little niece and nephew, and my husband's sister and her husband, in their little place on the New Mexico State University campus.

It was definitely relaxing to hang out on kid time most of the weekend and play with puzzles and the new baby.

When I travel I'm always interested in the local architecture and history, tells you so much about a place! It was crazy how many very old homes we saw in El Paso and parts of Las Cruces/Mesilla, but all such different styles than the ones we see in Portland. Almost everything one-story, and obviously a lot of adobe and stucco, and for the most part big lawns and not a ton of landscaping. Makes sense, since there's not much rain!

More cool buildings (and church) in downtown Mesilla, New Mexico, where we got to hang out for the Cinco de Mayo festival! Greased pole-climbing competition and all! (And, wore my new DIY shorts a lot!)

On our last day we drove out to White Sands National Monument, one of the area's claims to fame. In the middle of the brown, brushy dessert, there's a gypsum sand dessert left from the inland sea millions of years ago. The dunes are huge and move all over in the wind. It is blindingly bright out there, but you can sled and picnic and soak up the beauty!

We were extremely grateful to feel the cool, moist air on our skin as we got off the light rail at our stop coming home from the airport. It was still in the upper 70's here (guess it reached 86+ this weekend in Portland?) but we could smell the evergreen trees and healthy grass. The dessert was fun, but I love the green grass!

Back to real life now. (What is that, exactly? Submitted the book and then took this trip, so am still getting used to normal home life.) Hoping to get some good time to blog and do some fun projects I've been dreaming about this spring!