I promised my dear friend, Katey, that I would post as soon as I received the pictures from our family trip to Red River, NM. So here is a picture story of our trip!

We rented a Yukon for our trip, so that all 5 of us would fit... and we did, barely. Matt's family had a "turtle" that we put some of our luggage in and strapped it on the top of the car. I slept through most of Texas, but then spent the rest of the time playing Sudoku and watching "Battlestar Galactica" with Matt (that's called sacrificial love).

Matt was starting to get a bit out of line on the trip, so I had to take care of that.

This is Ellie (short for Eleanor), Will's new GPS system. She has a lovely British accent and helped us greatly on the road.

We had a couple of stops along the way, because the roads were getting pretty bad. The second picture is of our 3 hour stop at Eagle's Nest!


Home sweet home at the Golden Eagle Lodge.

Will and Matt are excited about skiing... I am a little anxious about my first ski class!

The main ski area, just down the street from our lodge. We loved that everything is so close in Red River!

We had 3 days to ski, so I took ski lessons on our first day of skiing. Here I am waiting in the lift line with the rest of my class. I'd like you to know that I didn't fall ONE TIME getting on or off the lift. It was pretty much the only part of skiing that I did decently.

True confessions: Ski school didn't go so well. My main problem was that once i started skiing, I couldn't stop! I could turn, but then I'd just keep going. My instructer said helpful things such as, "No snow plow!" and "You know, you're not a tiny girl." Helpful, huh? By the end of the morning session I was in tears. I wasn't under any false impression that I am athletic and this should have come easy... I was just so scared that I was going to run into someone else!! (which did happen) My instructer said, "It's going to be ok, just come back in the afternoon." I wanted to say, "Go away!" But after a relaxing lunch, I did come back. I perfected my turns, only ran into one child, learned how to slow down... but never learned how to stop! At least I left the afternoon session with a smile on my face, as seen below. :)

Will and Matt turned out to be great skiers. Matt even disobeyed his mom and dared the Black Diamonds a few times!

I, however, turned out to be sick. I came off the slopes on the first day with a high fever, sore throat, all the makings of strep. Who knew Red River doesn't have a pharmacy? So while the boys skiied on Day 2, I read my books, watched a bit of James Brown's colorful funeral, and took warm naps. Actually-- this is exactly what I was hoping to do on the vacation!

On Day 3 I was feeling better and ventured out with my parents while the boys skiied. We visited the shops and tasted some of the local treats. This was also New Years Eve, so that night we ate Italian food at Capo's and watched the torch parade on the slopes.


On New Years Day, the day we had already planned on leaving, the previously closed roads opened up and we said goodbye (for now) to Red River. Ellie found our way home via detours, as many of the roads were closed.

And there, Key, you have it! For your viewing pleasure, here are some other wonderful pictures from the trip:


*** Thank you to my mom for all of these beautiful pictures!