Holiday Road!

...a trip with friends to the New Mexican mountains! We really have not had many vacations that were not with family members or to Oklahoma or on a conference, but we've never vacationed with just friends. Our great friends here in Lubbock, the Hills, invited us to their family's vacation home in Ruidoso (see the pic above) to spend the weekend with them and their two kids. Kate and the two younger Hills play so well together, and of course we enjoy spending time with the older Hills. So, since orientation was finally over for the summer and I didn't have to work on Sunday we sacrificed our weekend in the 100+ degree dry Lubbock weather to go to the mountains. I, Michael, had never been to Ruidoso, and really all I cared about was finding cooler weather. I didn't care where we went. Fortunately, not only was the weather amazing--65 to 70 for the high with rain every afternoon--but it was also a beautiful, relaxing, pine scented weekend with some great friends.

Poor Jude is still too young to be out in the heat for long, which means this summer he is only outside if he's going from a building to the car. Having 60 degree weather was perfect for him and the little guy finally got to spend some quality time outside. With Jude's acid reflux issues one of the ways to hold him is across your body with his stomach on yours and his head on your chest. The picture below was at breakfast the first morning in town. This picture is not of Jude's favorite position, but halfway through breakfast Amanda realized, and alerted us, that the entire restaurant has been shooting glances at her all morning because with the blanket over Jude it looks like she is breast feeding him over waffles. Now, there's not anything wrong with that, but apparently the crowd at the Log Cabin at 9 am in New Mexico did not appreciate the show (although, there was no show).



Smiling is Jude's favorite hobby.



Our silly, happy little girl. Somewhere along the way this "scary" face, complete with a roar, replaced smiling.



Kate loves the whole Hill family, and as you can see from the pictures I think it is mutual. Kate and Logan are so cute together and are always playing. On the last day of the trip she and Logan ran around the house being horses the entire morning. They were chasing each other, jumping over things, and racing. When we got back to Lubbock, she made me be "Logan horsey" so she could pretend to be playing with him. She missed him when we got back. Insert "awww" here.



Sydney wanted to hold Jude so badly all weekend. She was very, very sweet with him, and surprisingly wanted to help him even when having huge crying fits because of reflux. Syd is a very sweet girl that is going to give her mom and dad all they can handle! She is the ultimate negotiator, and has a business minded approach to life--she is her father's daughter, and will no doubt make him pay for his raising.



I have never seen Kate this comfortable with other people outside of her family. She had Jeremy and Kristi reading to her all weekend. She loooves Jeremy. Anytime we would go anywhere she wanted him to get her out of her carseat or carry her, or at least make sure he was going wherever we were. "Where's Jeremy?" was a constant question from our backseat.




My girls together. How happy and relaxed do we all look? This was the most relaxing trip I think we've ever had as a family. All of us felt great and were just happy to be together. Now, we're always happy to be together, but rarely do we get the opportunity to be so during the summer. I am so thankful we had this trip!




The fam at the Ruidoso Downs horse races. Amanda and I have love horse racing, but haven't been since leaving Kentucky. While we were no good at picking Quarter Horses it was a blast just to be out watching them run.



Since we were having no luck picking any winners, we thought we would give the kids a chance. Turns out they were better than we were. Jude is studying this program intently don't you think? He was so happy to be outside, and he did amazing for the 3 hours we were at the races. Although, he did eventually insist on going back to sleep in his favorite position, which means I'm sure everyone at the races thought Amanda was nursing for a couple of hours. Oh well!



Seriously, how cute is this kid? He is one handsome little boy, who is no doubt going to break his momma's heart a lot. If he will ever leave her side that is. There is no question as to whom he prefers--he loves his mommy!



I'm not sure Sydney and Logan ever knew they were even at the horse races. I think they probably could have taken it or left it. Kate on the other hand was very serious about the races. We would tell her which horses to cheer for and she would yell the whole for them the whole time during the race. As soon as they finished, she would ask, "Are the horses going to run again?" She would sit patiently, look at the program, talk about which horses to bet on, and then yell during the race again. Seriously, everyone was ready to leave after a couple of hours except for Kate. We had to pry her away from the races. As soon as we left she asked if we could come back tomorrow. When we got back to Lubbock I asked her what her favorite part of the trip was, and she didn't hesitate--"the horse races."



See what I mean??? She was into it big time.




This is what trouble looks like. You know something crazy was going on when they would all stop and stare at us when we would walk into the room. Thank goodness the house is well built!



Another favorite part of the trip was just taking walks outside. After surviving the heat of this summer, just being able to stand outside again without feeling like someone has a blow dryer in your face was a major blessing. There were deer everywhere and the kids (who am I kidding, all of us) loved watching them in the meadow. Not sure why the giant walking sticks all of the Hill family was carrying, sans Kristi, were necessary since we were on paved roads with nothing but menacing deer. But, whatever.



A storm rolling in across the mountain. Rain still does exist! And Jeremy keeping us safe from the big, bad deer. Thanks Jeremy.



The kids found a "river" to trek through for most of the walk.




Sadly the trip had to come to a close. By the time we made it out of the mountains and back on flat ground it was back up over 100. Oh well. It was refreshing to have a breather! Thank you Hill family for a great trip!



This was how Kate looked for most of the van ride home. She was exhausted. And happy.



The next several photos detail one of my favorite vacation traditions. We started a tradition with Kate that we get a sticker for her suitcase anytime we all go on vacation. So, this was Jude's first official sticker for his suitcase! We got both the kids a sticker from Ruidoso Downs to commemorate the horse racing. Jude is pretty excited...can't you tell?



He has a ways to go to catch up with Kate. Check out her collection, and we're even missing the Hawaii sticker (thankfully her godmother Brandy is bringing one back from her vacation since we forgot). This is the front of Kate's suitcase: The Wimberley sticker from our Texas Hill Country vacation, Tinker Bell from Disneyworld, Harvard from our trip to Boston, the Texas Tech girl since she lives in Lubbock, and the Don't Mess with Texas sticker for our trip to Houston.



One side of her suitcase with stickers from the tour of the Shiner Brewery, the trip to the OKC Zoo, and her new Ruidoso Downs sticker.



The other side of her suitcase with the Rice University sticker from our walk around the campus in Houston, the dog sticker to commemorate Jude's birth, and the Equal sign from her in utero trip to San Francisco.



I'm excited to see how many more stickers we can pile on our kids' suitcases, and with as well as we all travel I think we will have plenty more. Until next time!