There's good and bad to posting only when I have something to share rather than on a set schedule. Good: much less self imposed stress to come up with things to write about, Bad: I've become a bit lazy and procrastinate-y about posting. Which is why I find myself here in mid-April sharing photos with you from our camping trip over a month ago. Better late than never though, right?
So, waaaay back in March we found ourselves with a week of dreary, rainy, yucky weather ahead which just happened to coincide with a week when Jordan could be free. So, of course we decided to blow this damp joint in search of drier and warmer locals. We did quite a bit of searching and mapping... we considered Utah, but decided it was probably a little too far and a tad cool for what we were hoping for. The Texas coast maybe? Nah, it was likely going to be swamped with college spring breakers reenacting scenes from Girls Gone Wild. At some point Jordan found some BLM land in New Mexico near Carlsbad Cavern National Park, and we decided to give it go. So, with our Rattlesnake radar dusted off and firmly intact, we ventured out to the dunes.
Jordan and his friend had a pretty good time riding the dunes and some trails a little way down the road.
While they were gone Adelaide and I hung out at the camper watching movies... It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown and Frozen, and played in the sand. We were lucky enough to have the dunes all to ourselves for the first couple of days, so we were able to get in quite a bit of play in the softest, driest sand I've ever touched in my life (like, we could sit right in it to play and just dust it off, no muss no fuss) as well as plenty of wind/sand exfoliation and a little inadvertent sun exposure. Whoops.
We also made the trip down to the caverns, which were way more impressive than either of us expected. It was also some great exercise since the elevators were out leaving the natural entrance with its 750 ft descent over one mile as the only way in and out. It was tough, particularly hiking back out... I can only imagine how it felt with a 25 pound toddler strapped to your back... but it was beautiful the whole way and totally worth it. That's the kind of scenery the local YMCA is sorely lacking.
^^ She's ready for some spelunking ^^
^^ Let's go into a massive, dark hole in the ground, shall we? ^^
And then came nap time. Adelaide seems to have an affinity for napping in the oddest places... bumping down the road in the Ural, in Daddy's lap kayaking... On Daddy's back during a hike out of the cave ain't no thang.
Of course there were the obligatory s'mores back at the campground. Not til after Adelaide went to sleep though, because believe it or not, that nut doesn't like them?!?! (She probably had an Oreo or something equally lame camp-speaking.) We've been testing out various techniques in order to achieve the melted chocolate, oozy, super messy s'more of our dreams. We've gotten pretty good if I do say so myself ;)
And on the way home we stopped at a 50's diner style joint and got Adelaide the coolest kid's meal ever.
And finally, if you ever find yourself in or around Carlsbad, NM, you must go to Blue House Bakery & Cafe. I'm still having dreams of the holy-freakin-delicious egg, cheese, bacon and green chili croissant I had. And the raspberry croissant. Come on, like I would ever go to a bakery and not have sampled one of the many irresistible sweet offerings also? Oh yeah, the cinnamon roll too :) We went there twice. So that's proof of how good it was and that I'm not a gluttonous cow eating all that in one trip. There may have actually been 2 raspberry croissants... Whatever. They were good. Plus there's a sweet porch kitty. Just in case you weren't already convinced.
