Ruidoso New Mexico

Our family just got back from vacation in New Mexico--Ruidoso New Mexico to be exact. It was a good trip. We had some hiccups along the way that made it not exactly what I wanted but how often do we get exactly what we want anyway, right?

The week before we left our van broke down suddenly. We took it to get worked on Monday night. The van was at the shop all week and Friday night we got a call saying that he couldn't figure out what was wrong with it and we'd have to take it somewhere else. So we went to pick the van up and it literally made it home and died the second we pulled into the driveway. We realized we would have to take Mike's black car instead of the van. That was the start of our vacation.  

We left the next morning, Saturday. The drive there was pretty uneventful and we made it to Ruidoso in good time. It actually wasn't such a bad thing that we took the car instead of the van because the boys loved the sun roof.  You would have thought it was Christmas or something the way they giggled every time we opened the sun roof for them.  We got there just in time to let the boys do some swimming while Mike went to the town to buy some milk eggs and a few other items of food for us.

The view from our balcony

The next morning we went to church and some friends walked in the Sacrament Room! Our friends from BYU, Ken and Alisa Eagan, walked in with their kids and sat in the same pew as us. When they looked over and saw us they were pretty shocked. They had also come to Ruidoso for vacation. Mike teased me that I see someone I know everywhere I go. I'm starting to believe him.

After church we just spent the day playing board games and doing a little exploring around the condo. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Eating lunch on the balcony after church

Playing Castle Panic

That night however, Mike and I noticed that Will's leg was not doing well. I guess I should back up and say that about a week and a half before, Will started complaining of a headache. He also said his leg felt "weak."  Then the week before we left Will showed me his leg and said he thought he had poison ivy. I looked at his leg and saw a really bad rash. I couldn't think how he could have gotten poison ivy so I assumed it was a bad case of eczema (he has it again now that we moved back to a dry climate). I started putting lotion on his multiple times a day hoping it would get better. It didn't. On the drive to NM he winced when the windows were down and the air blew on his leg and then on Sunday the rash just got worse. I realized it was not eczema and decided we needed to get him to the doctor.

So Monday morning we drove an hour away to an urgent care where the doctor said that he had no idea what it was but thought we should treat it for Scabies. I felt really uncomfortable with the diagnosis of scabies--it's really gross for one and contagious and a pain to get rid of. Scabies are mites that burrow into your skin and multiply like lice would and are very itchy. I got online and sure enough, his rash looked like scabies. But, they also looked like shingles and the fact that he had a headache and a sore leg before he got the rash made me think it was shingles instead. Plus, it wasn't just itchy, it was painful and the rash was only on one leg and no where else on his body. After some thought, I decided to get a second opinion. The only option was to take him to the ER so off we went. Thankfully, it's a small town and we got in and out in two hours. That doctor said he also wasn't sure what it was but didn't think it was scabies but agreed with me that it was probably shingles. By this time the rash had gone from bumps to blisters to finally starting to scab over. He said by now there wasn't much to do for it but let it heal so we went home.

In between all the doctor visits, we visited a Pistachio farm that Mike was excited about (he's always wanted to grow nut trees) and played at the White Sands National Monument. The boys loved it and it wasn't too crowded and the weather was perfect. We had a great time playing in the sand and the boys said it was one of their favorite parts of the trip.

The boys in front of the painted horse

At the Pistachio farm

At the sand dunes

Tuesday was a pretty good day. We went on a hike in the mountains. The weather was perfect for a hike but we were so high up in the mountains that we didn't think about there still being snow and ended up hiking through snow fields for a large portion of our hike. About a fourth of the way through the trail, we decided we should turn around. We realized that Eli had not put socks on and his feet were frozen from the snow. Also, I slid on the snow and hurt my wrist and bruised my bum, and the snow kept hitting Will right at his rash. Then, Isaac rammed his walking stick into his forehead by accident so we decided we had had enough of our hike and came home. It really was beautiful and the boys were in good spirits for the majority of the hike and while it wasn't exactly the hike we were hoping for, the boys were happy to be on a real hike and not just a walk in nature.

This was about how deep the snow was on our hike--probably a quarter of our hike still had snow

Isaac's sporting the dent in his forehead from his walking stick

When we got home we went swimming and then went to town to go find some dinner. Unfortunately, at 5:45, all the stores and restaurants in town were closed. We did eventually find a place to eat and the boys enjoyed playing our version of "would you rather" all through dinner, much to the enjoyment of the people eating at the neighboring tables.

Wednesday we had a relaxing day planned. We decided to go check out all the quaint shops that were closed the night before and then planned on taking the boys to a fun place called Funtrackers where we could play mini-golf and ride bumper cars and such. On the way into town we looked at each other and decided that we needed to make a change in plans because our breaks were not sounding good. I was totally bummed realizing that another thing was throwing a wrench in our plans. It was almost laughable by this point. Mike found a place to take the car and then drove the boys and I to a little park nearby while the car got fixed. 

 Thankfully, the car was fixed in less than an hour. By this time though it was already after 1 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We found a place to eat and then set off on our walk through town to see the shops. We had promised the boys that we would take them to a candy shop after we looked at some of the other less interesting shops (to them at least). Unfortunately, almost every shop was closed! It was so weird and we wondered how the town brought in revenue if they closed their shops all the time.

We decided that it was getting late to go to Funtrackers so we went home instead and went swimming. It turned out to be a good choice because Funtrackers also turned out to be closed--along with the Laughing Sheep Farm, and the place we had planned to go to a Chuck Wagon Dinner.

The boys didn't mind though because they loved swimming and we had the entire pool to ourselves. The rest of the night was just relaxing and the boys played Civ 4 and Castle Panic and I read my book and watched HGTV (we don't have cable so it was a treat).

Thursday we had planned to go to see some petroglyphs but decided it was too far away so instead we found another park to play at and then we had lunch and I took a short nap while the boys played more Civ and then Mike and Eli went on a short "hike" to look for animals. After, we went swimming again and then came home and had ice cream and spent a relaxing evening.

 The other favorite part of this trip for Mike and the boys were the animals.  We were told it was still a little early in the season for bears but the boys were both scared and excited at the prospect of seeing one.  We never did see a bear but saw wild turkey's and tons of deer.  The boys tried imitating the sound of the wild turkey the entire week.  The deer were everywhere.  They must be used to people feeding them because they would come right up to us and try to get food from us.  We never did give them food but it was so crazy to see how unafraid of us they were.

So, all in all, it was a nice trip. Like I said, we had some hiccups that I could have done without but mostly, I just wanted to go on a trip with just Mike and the boys where we could enjoy each other's company. In that, we were successful. The boys had a great time and Mike and I did as well so, I think our trip was overall a success.