Goodbye Ski Season

This past weekend finished a wonderful ski season for Luke and I. Friday afternoon we headed to Roswell and joined up with Mandy and Jacob (our fellow Auburn grads living in Hobbs), and drove up to Red River, NM for a weekend of skiing. We had a little trouble on the drive up with snow storms(yet again Luke and I have to wait for a mtn. pass to be cleared), but after while we finally made it to town around midnight. Red River is a great ski town! Very cute little town with wild Mule Deer roaming the streets and everything within walking distance-- including the ski lifts!!

Here is a picture of Luke catching air. He is getting brave on his board now. As you can see here--he didn't land this. I must say I am a little sad that he is now a better boarder than me. I think his fearless attitude has a lot to do with him surpassing me, but I do feel like I have gotten better this season. Luke and I had the best boards at Red River and decided if we move to another ski friendly area, we'll purchase our own boards.

My cousins were also at Red River for the weekend, so it was great seeing and skiing with them. My first cousins are Megan in the green and Heather in the yellow.

Here is a shot of me, Jacob and Mandy coming down the mountain. Unfortunately I just realized we didn't get one group shot with the four of us. I guess that means we'll have to make a trip next season:) Jacob is left, me middle, and Mandy right

Last but not least I must mention our delicious Sunday lunch. We stopped in at this place called Old Timer's Cafe. We didn't know what to really expect, but were pleasantly surprised with amazing food. Here is a shot of the largest calzone EVER! Luke and I shared this family size monster and even had enough left over for dinner that night, and lunch the next day. Overall Luke and I had a blast this winter being so close to great slopes and adventures.

Jenna and Prem Visit New Mexico: Part 4 -The End

So...the trip was a complete blast! Saturday night we ventured to the Fiesta Drive In. Carlsbad does have some pretty cool stuff I'll admit. At the drive in we watched Valentine's Day--late I know, but it was a pretty cute movie and we all had a good time for pretty cheap.
Sunday we headed over to the Carlsbad Frisbee golf course. Nobody had ever played real Frisbee golf, but we are great at the Wii game! So...we started off a little rough with Prem and Luke throwing their driver over a barbed wire fence (Prem thankfully jumped it and retrieved the drivers). However, once we got the hang of things the game was a lot of fun. Then crazy enough one of our two tour guides from the caverns showed up with his wife and friends, and we had a couples scramble that was tons of fun. I think Luke and I are going to be addicted to Frisbee golf and even more happy to have some new friends in town.

Sadly enough, Monday did come, and I woke up to drive Jenna and Prem back to El Paso for their flight. I am sad to see them go, but loved having them come. Thanks Jenna and Prem for making the journey, and anyone else who is up for a great adventure just let me know!!!

Jenna and Prem Visit New Mexico: Part 3

Saturday was probably my favorite day of the entire trip. I think Prem mentioned it was his favorite day as well. Saturday morning we headed to the Carlsbad Caverns. The Caverns are a must see item before you die. Luke and I had not ventured to the caverns yet since we know all visitors would want to see that sight. We arrived at the caverns in just enough time to tour the Great Room (an elevator ride down 75 floors into the Earth's surface (750ft.) so massive 40 football fields could fit inside, and for us to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch before our tour.
I booked us on the Hall of the White Giant ranger led tour. This four hour tour was suppose to be intense, challenging, and definitely lived up to it's reputation. We had to bring our own knee pads, wear long pants, bring batteries for our head lamps, bring gloves, not afraid of heights, and no fear of tiny spaces allowed. The beginning of the tour starts off with some serious small spaces that I really thought my butt wasn't going to make it through. They call it the corkscrew and it was only the beginning. We crawled, climbed, pulled our way up tiny ropes and tiny ladders on an amazing adventure. We even set in total darkness for a long while just to experience life without light. After such a great time, Luke and I are going to work on completing all tours before we leave Carlsbad.

Ranger Jenna!

Luke and our guide Chris

The whole group in a spot we could all fit!

Me and Jenna working our way through

Amazing formations

Jenna making her way through some tight spots

Jenna and Prem Visit New Mexico: Part 2

I am breaking up Jenna and Prem's visit into multiple installments due to the large volume of activities.

So, to continue on our journey we finished up skiing and headed home to Carlsbad which is only around 2 and 1/2 hours away.

Friday Luke went to work and I gave Jenna and Prem the grand tour of Carlsbad. The first stop on our tour was The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. Yes folks! Carlsbad has a zoo! Shocker I know.

Jenna checking out the Havilinas. They look like boars, but they are not even related to pigs.

Mexican wolves are an endangered species. I will say they are super huge and scary, yet beautiful.
Jenna's Lovely Cactus Hat
After the zoo we met Luke for a yummy Mexican lunch at the Pecos River Cafe and went paddle boating on the river. I will say paddle boating is a great workout and much more work than I remembered. I also forgot to take my camera for this leg of the journey, so here are some pics I stole off the Internet.

The lovely Pecos River- Carlsbad Riverfront!

Jenna and Prem Visit New Mexico: Part 1

This past week Luke and I had our first visitors! My little sister Jenna and her husband Prem made the journey out from Atlanta last Wednesday night. Luke and I drove to El Paso to pick them up and headed to Ruidoso to gamble and ski. On our way to Ruidoso I must mention we got pulled over for going 9 over! I have never heard of anyone getting pulled over for less than 10 over. However, we didn't get a ticket thankfully and continued on our journey.

Our first and only night in Ruidoso we stayed at the Inn of the Mountain Gods where Luke got to experience his FIRST casino EVER. We had a blast playing, but unfortunately all lost except Luke (and my losing cancelled his winning). The next morning we woke up and hit the slopes. I think everyone was pleased to see a lot of fresh powder. I must say the powder beat me up, and I probably had the worst day of falls ever. Even with all of the falling, It's safe to say everyone had a great time.

The Inn of the Mountain Gods

Prem and Jenna sporting her 80s ski gear

The whole group!

Finally taking the time to post the pics of our home in New Mexico. It's a cute little house with a HUGE backyard. We are very lucky we ended up with this home. Believe it or not this tiny town's rental market is CRAZY!! I toured many homes while out here for my job interview in December. Most were dumps where they wanted $1300/month. When I did stumble upon something decent, the owner would not wait three weeks to start the rent, but wanted and expected me to say yes on the spot.

Finally, I found a great home and told the lady after touring that I was very interested and would speak with my husband and call back. Well...I called Luke, called her back, and within that time frame, the people behind me touring the house said yes and put money on the table that very day. I was blown away at how hard of a time I was having getting a home in what is pretty much the middle of nowhere.

The reason you ask!? Turns out they train ALL of the border patrol and FBI in the tiny town 30 min. north of here. Any time rental homes go on the mkt. the government snags em up and pays $2100/month (no I did not make a mistake in typing)! That's the price they pay for mostly dumps, and what in turn drives up rental properties. I told Luke we should consider buying a place out here and just rent it to the government with profit potential like that. However, as soon as we purchased, the program would halt, and we'd be stuck with a home out here in a hard to reach location.

So...this home was hooked up via the CEO of the hospital. A lawyer in town owns the home and wasn't even looking to rent it out. We were lucky he was willing to say yes to us. So...enough of the talking and here are the pics.

Here is a shot of our den (please note I took this before I made my new pillow cases)!

Our den (please excuse Luke's tools out and about). The tall piece is a very cool antique from my Grandfather. There are markings on the wood that let you know it was about before Oklahoma had statehood! Very cool! You can't see it too well in this pic, but Luke and I found our TV stand here in New Mexico and at antique market, we both thought it had a lot of character and charm.

Our bedroom! This room is actually a lot bigger than appears in this picture. We also have two huge windows.

Our guest bedroom (I know I need to iron the bedspread, and get Luke working on my headboard soon). However, I love the two large windows for lots of natural light.

Our Auburn Dining Room (sorry it's a little dark)-The shelves on the left hold tons of Auburn plates, etc...

Green Thumb TBD

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. Luke and I spent saturday in the back yard grilling ribs and working on the garden. These two pics are actually from the other weekend when we planted some flowers in our front flower bed.

This is a picture of our starter pots. We are starting warmer climate plants in pots with hopes to transplant later.

If you look hard you can see our rows of lettuce, collards, and brussels sprouts.
I didn't take a full garden shot mainly because it's too hard to really see everything being so small right now. Hopefully in a month I'll take one showing our GREEN THUMB!!