New Mexico

Home!  Home is good.  We're home from our trip, we went to New Mexico and it was A-MAZING.  They need to advertise that state a bit more, seriously!  I had no idea the beauty and interesting history the state has.

We had a great time with my parents.  Eliza and I met them down there; daddy had to stay home and work.  :(  We missed him, but still managed to have SOME fun ;)  I wanted to write a brief overview of our trip here; I could say so much more... but I'm tired and need to sleep!

First, we spent a night in Santa Fe, where - of course - I had to take the obligatory photo with the dried red chiles that hang everywhere.

I bought a pair of adorable handmade moccasins for Eliza in this crazy little leather/silversmith/taxidermy/cowboy boot shop (no, seriously!); the woman who made them was so sweet, she put them on Eliza's feet and said she was so happy to see her work being worn by such a cute baby. :)

We made our way north, on our way to our final destination, but had to stop a few times on the side of the road to do this:

We were on our way to Ojo Caliente, a mineral hot springs spa and resort.  O.M.G.  You all must stop what you're doing and go. there. now.  It's just beautiful, and for this northern girl, it was heaven.  The waters (that come out of the EARTH!  Srsly, I've lived in the midwest way too long) range in temp from 90 to about 108 degrees, and they are pumped into 6 different pools around the resort.  It was a bit cool there (35-40 degrees), but you couldn't even tell once you were in the water.  And the scenery around the pools is so cool, we were right against the cliffs:  

 (that's my dad)

We also had our own private tub (that fit 4 adults) on the patio of our room that could be filled with the same water, which we did at least twice daily.  We would make the water a little bit cooler when we took Eliza in.  She LOVED it!  At first I put a hat on her because I thought her head would be cold, but later I took it off because I was getting HOT in there, and realized she was probably overheating with a stocking cap on!

First time in the water!

One day we took a short road trip to Taos, NM.  We stopped and toured this beautiful old church, San Francisco de Asis Church.  It is a very iconic building - it's made of adobe and has been standing since 1815.  It is seen in many Georgia O'Keefe paintings, and it is (so they say) the most photographed church in the U.S.  It really was beautiful in a very simplistic, organic way.

We stopped at the Taos visitor center to get a map, and do more of this:

We also visited Taos Pueblo.  It's a community that has been inhabited for over 1000 years and the buildings are made completely of adobe.  The homes have no electricity or plumbing.  About 100 families live in Taos Pueblo today.  It has a very interesting history, I'd highly recommend stopping by if you're ever near Taos!

We stopped at the stunningly gorgeous Rio Grande Gorge State Park on our way out of Taos.  This picture was taken on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  I have never seen anything like this in my life (again, lived up here WAY too long).  It's a spectacular view from this bridge, where I tightly clung to my little baby (who is screaming in this picture because I made her go in the sling when she didn't want to!!) - the drop below us looked to be a mile down!  It's the fifth highest bridge in the U.S.

Eliza was a trooper, and it was so much fun to travel with her.  I think we definitely need to travel with her more, especially while she still flies for free!  She's a great traveler overall, with, of course, the exception of the baby torture device car seat.  In fact, I think I would prefer to just FLY wherever we go.  Can we arrange that?  She was so great on the plane... and so screamy in the car... Yeah, next time I need to go to Target, I'm hiring a private jet.

P.S. Just so I don't forget... Eliza laughed for the first time today, it was so cute!  She is also getting really skilled at grabbing things and putting them in her mouth (especially Sophie, though the photo above may say otherwise...!)