Snowboarding at Wolf Creek

Hello Friends!

I hope you are all having a lovely Tuesday. This week we are refreshed after a little getaway to Pagosa Springs, Colorado for some snowboarding at Wolf Creek.



This trip was my first opportunity to break-in my new snowboard! I'm still learning the whole snowboarding thing since we only get up to the slopes once or twice a year together, but I always enjoy it. Baby steps is progress nonetheless.



This weekend proved a little interesting as I had never boarded in powder before. I have only ever experienced icier conditions so I was having to learn a whole new way of boarding. Thank goodness I had at least progressed as much as I have, otherwise I think it would have made for a pretty rough day. My calves were already killing me just a few hours in! The ski area was absolutely beautiful though and I really do enjoy the sport!



It snowed literally all day long and we probably got somewhere between 4-6 inches while we were there, which also made for the first time I had experienced snow while I was boarding as well...a lot of firsts this trip :)



After a day on the slopes we went into town for a bit just to get our fill of our love for Pagosa before heading back to the hubby's grandparents house. We popped into the Pagosa Baking Co. as has become tradition to get something warm to drink. They make some great homemade dark hot chocolate that I highly recommend and their cookies are also delicious!

We then headed back to meet back up with the family and the pups and were treated to sights like these:



We are so grateful for Troy's grandparents entertaining them while we spent the day out. The pups adore Grandma and Grandpa and absolutely LOVE their home. Izzy could spend all day outside if she could summer or winter. She loves the tall grass of the warmer months and hops in the snow piles during the cooler months. She is such a joy to watch in her element- I may be biased, but she's just the cutest.



We enjoyed a relaxing night of Mexican Train where I WON for the first time ever and then headed back home the following morning.

Izzy was cracking us up yet again with her travel antics. I caught her once chilling like this (pictured below) and another time caught her snoring. It's rough being a pup I tell you...Oh that girl!



That pretty much wraps up the weekend. It was short and sweet but a trip to Pagosa is always a good idea.

Enjoy the rest of your week friends. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday week/weekend and are able to spend it all with loved ones.

Life Lately

Hello Friends! Long time no chat- and a very happy Friday while we're at it!

Life lately has been a little chaotic with a lot going on so we've been working on trying to slow things waay down. Since summer hit I'm pretty sure we were booked almost solid every weekend and our weeks quickly became jam packed as well. This girl was getting pretty exhausted over here and was in need for a much needed break.

While our schedule is still pretty full during the weeks, we have finally managed to reach a point where we have our weekends back and let me tell you, it has been glorious! The hubby and I were talking the other day and have come to an agreement (where reminders I'm sure will need to be had on my part) that a major goal for next year is to lighten our load as much as possible and take things easy.

I adore traveling-always will, and I'm pretty sure I have won the hubby over on this as well, but I'm realizing more and more that I treasure the moments of just being in one spot and living. Admittedly, I am terrible at this, but it's something I'm hoping to work on. As such, we have one major trip on the docket for next year, but other than that, be prepared to see a lot more of happenings and adventures around-H O M E.

Though I have been M.I.A. from this space we have still had some mini adventures, but have been trying to embrace more of the every day moments over here. A negative side affect to this is I have been horrible at capturing it through pictures. Below is a very mini photo dump of what I have been able to capture of what we've been up to over the last month.



A dear friend of mine was in town for work and we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with her. We tried out a couple of new-to-us restaurants that were delicious and went on a little hike in the Sandia Mountains to the Kiwanis Cabin. I have done this walk many times and still love the sites.

Fall finally decided to show up and then about a week later so did winter :)Early November we went to St. James Tea Room, one of my favorite things to do, and had tea with all of the women in my lovely family. I wish we had thought to take a picture of our group, but this is all I came away with. Thanksgiving break was a dream. We stayed home all weekend and just relaxed. One of the afternoons after the Hubby was teaching the seester and I how to drive stick (I'm making progress!) we took a little drive out to Ojito Wilderness. The views have yet to disappoint out there.I have made it a tradition for us to decorate the house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (not a day before). Christmas is my favorite holiday so I try to make sure we do it up in style. This year we kicked off the season with decorations, Christmas music, cookies, homemade hot chocolate and Miracle on 34th Street. I think we did it right :).
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Until next time....

#FBF Re-cap: Petrified National Forest + Flagstaff

Happy Friday folks! So, we meet again. Today's #FBF features a couple of national parks and a walking tour of Flagstaff.

I have been to Flagstaff a few times now and I'm not sure why I like it so much. It's a small little college town nestled in the Arizona mountains and I find it adorable. Earlier this year the hubby was traveling a lot for work so not only was I down my traveling buddy I was also getting pretty stir crazy.



As I was brainstorming how to fix this problem I decided a road trip needed to happen and it worked out that one of my sisters-in-law was able to come with me. Actually as I type this, I'm reminded another road trip is in order with all of my sisters-in-law (ladies, we need to get on that!)...anyway, it was decided that we'd take a day trip to Flagstaff and stop at the Petrified National Forest/Painted Desert on the way.



I had been to both national parks before as a kid, but they weren't at all like I remembered them. Not a bad thing, just different. It's interesting to go back to a place you only have a childhood memory of and see how differently you view things as a child. We stopped and explored for a bit, went on a mini hike and had a picnic, then went onward to Flagstaff.



Flagstaff felt quick. We didn't want to get back home super late so dinner didn't happen, which I think is part of its charm. It has a fun nightlife feel to the town, so we missed out a little, but we really weren't hungry and were ready to head back.



However, while we were there we stopped at a couple of coffee shops, both charming with great atmosphere's. I can't speak to the coffee, but the chai I had was yummy. We explored and walked the town stopping in shops, checking out some antique stores and hunting down all of the building murals-they had some pretty impressive artwork.





 

The time flew by, but it was the perfect dose of getaway and change of scenery I was needing and I thoroughly enjoyed some quality time with my sister-in-law and had wonderful conversations.
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What's your favorite thing to do when exploring small towns? 

Birthday Celebrations + H A L L O W E E N

Hi friends! I thought I'd pop in for a quick weekend recap.

As I mentioned for last week's #FBF post, I turned 30 over the weekend. It also happened to be my "golden birthday" (turning 30 on the 30th).

I have to apologize in advance, this post is word heavy because I really tried not to be attached to my phone during the weekend. Bummer side to that is I have very little pictures to show for it.

I first have to thank my family and friends so very much for all of the love shown to me over the weekend. It was definitely a birthday to remember!

It started off on Saturday with some quality time spent with the hubby where we walked and window shopped in Nob Hill. We don't get up there nearly enough and had fun discovering some neat places I never even knew existed.



We stopped in for dessert at Rudeboy Cookies, which was delicious! Next we met with the girl who would do my first henna tattoo. I have this thing about tattoos where sometimes I think I would really want one, but always chicken out. Then, the hubby is also not particularly crazy about them either-as in, not at all-so there's that. But as an alternative, to get me the next best thing the hubs came up with scheduling me a henna appointment. He's not really a gift giver by nature, but the man is so great at gift ideas!



After my henna was complete we headed home but first stopped to grab a movie. I thought things were a bit suspicious with the hubs texting almost the entire evening, but figured it was too late for anything different, plus we had just picked up the movie.

We arrive home (where I find my dad's truck parked-but just figured my mom had stopped by to drop something off), head inside where I am surprised with a beautifully decorated home complete with gold ribbon, black and gold lantern balls hanging from the ceiling and lit candles everywhere. Next thing I know family and friends are popping out everywhere! While I have to admit, I expected some sort of celebration for my birthday considering the conversations my sis and the hubby had been having, I was not expecting it to happen that evening. While so many contributed their time, cooking skills and beautiful words, love and presence to help make that evening incredibly special, I know that the majority of all of that planning fell to my dear sissie pants who completely went above and beyond. I wish I had adequate words to explain how grateful I am for her sweetness and exhaustive effort, but all I have is that I was incredibly moved. It was a lovely evening and thank all those who were able to spend it with me!

On my actual birthday the sis had another almost full day itinerary planned out for me starting at Stone Age Climbing Gym with my mom and sisters-in-law, then off to Albuquerque Baths for some R&R and lastly to the Melting Pot for some yummy fondue where we joined by the hubs!

We had gorgeous weather over the weekend so we rounded out the day with a treasure hunt with the hubby looking for geo-cache's and then finally watched that movie we picked up as a diversion to my surprise party! It was a lovely weekend all around and I went to bed Sunday evening incredibly grateful and completely filled with joy.

For Halloween we decided last minute that we wanted to dress up to add some fun to the mix and headed over to my parents for some soup and game night! Many laughs were had and capped the weekend off perfectly.

Did you dress up for Halloween?

Turning 30

Today, I am going to deviate from the usual #FBF post...after this weekend I will have officially changed decades, friends!

I'm still deciding exactly how I feel about that, so call me a work in progress, but I have to stop and think about how blessed I am to have reached 30 in the first place. A dear friend of mine who constantly speaks wisdom into my life recently told me a story about aging that really struck a chord with me and has me doing some reflecting.

In our culture, by the vast majority of people, getting older isn't really viewed as a positive thing. I feel like once you reach a certain age (different for everyone) when birthday's come around you almost dread them, complain about them, avoid them, don't speak of them, rack up an insane amount of beauty products to hide any traces of aging and then your age becomes something many shy away from admitting to.

But friends, we are lucky! We should really be celebrating in gratefulness that we made it to another year! We should be embracing it and living in the now, enjoying those around us and soaking it all in. There are so many beautiful souls out there that never had the chance to make it to their next year. What others would give to be able to have the physical presence of their loved one near no matter the age...and yet we cringe at the thought of another year older.

So I have vowed to myself that no matter how I feel about it, I will fully embrace turning 30. As I sit here typing this post, reflecting, I am incredibly grateful that I can say I have made it one more year. I get to celebrate turning 30 this weekend. I am humbled for the life I have lived so far, the adventures I have been fortunate to take, the world I have been able to see and the many beautiful people I have met along the way.

So friends- all I have to say is next time you find yourself thinking some of these same things, stop for a second and remember that you get to age one more time. You get to live one more day. Live each day to its fullest and love those around you.

Cheers!

#FBF Bosque Del Apache + Really big Satellites...and PIE

Hello, hello! Thanks for visiting again. I hope you find this Friday to be enjoyable with a weekend of fun ahead!

Today, we'll be #FBF to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Reserve, which had been on my radar for years but I wanted to visit during the festival of the cranes, which only occurs in November. It is where thousands of cranes (and other birds) fly every November. They offer lectures, workshops, photography sessions, etc. Or you can also just go on a self-guided tour-that's what we did.



Socorro is about 2 hours from Albuquerque and we wanted to be there for sunrise (and later found out, feeding time). We got up SUPER early and made it to the reserve in time for the sunrise. We were exhausted, but were treated with one of the coolest experiences.



There are several ponds along the way to the heart of the reserve so we pulled off of the road to observe. There were several photographers that had set camp but there were also a group of the cranes just hanging out so we thought we'd stop for a bit to check it out and then continue on our way. Over the period of about 10 minutes or so more and more birds started to show up. You could hear them from a distance and flocking together in their traditional "V's" all landing in the same pond.



Observers do a really great job at staying quiet so all you hear is the squawking of the birds. They actually get quite loud. After what seemed like 15 minutes or so of watching them, there was then a little action among a small group of them and the next thing you know a huge flutter, more squawking and ALL of them, which had to have been hundreds, maybe more, flew off at the same time, right overhead. It was amazing! I was fortunate to have even captured it all on video. That experience alone made the early-hour wake-up SO worth it! Rumor had it we were probably a weekend too early. Apparently what we saw was a small group and the cranes hadn't finished coming in to the reserve yet. I can only imagine what that looks like during peak!



After that we continued onward to the rest of the reserve just driving around. Nothing really compared to that experience but the landscape was still really pretty and the early morning time made for a quaint and peaceful experience.



After that we drove home because it was too early to do anything else, plus a nap sounded really good. However, if you're visiting, I highly recommend some hiking in the area and then heading over to the VLA (Very Large Array).

We visited the VLA earlier this year on our way to Pie Town. Yep there's a Pie Town, NM with a restaurant that serves just pie, and yes we drove three hours just to get pie :). Yes, it was delicious.



The museum portion of the VLA I personally found dull, but not for lack of quality or information, simply because that's not really my cup of tea. The hubby really enjoyed it and found it super interesting. I liked the outside portion way better. The satellites are enormous and really cool to watch as they change directions. Structurally, they are also pretty impressive.

If you make it down there, one word of caution: it can get extremely windy. We're talking check your balance windy or you might get knocked over, windy. I still recommend it though. Hey, if you get hungry, I know a great place to get some pie! ;)

The quickest route is to take I-25 to and from Socorro, but if you're looking for a more scenic drive you can take the route through El Malpais. We did this on our way out to the VLA and were glad we did.

Have a great weekend, friends!

#FBF Moab, you be lookin' fine

Last year two of my brothers graduated from high school so as a right-of-passage of sorts, the hubby and I decided to take them on a senior trip. Destination: Moab, Utah.



We rented a UTV (above). Best. Decision. Ever. We explored a trail called Fins N Things and found the level of difficulty and views perfect for what we were looking for. It had just the right amount of puddles as well. To surprise us, the hubs decided he needed to drive through a puddle as fast as he could during one lap. Let's just say by the end of the cruise, hubby's shirt was no longer that color yellow, except for under where his seat belt lays. I'm pretty sure my helmet still has leftover stubborn red dirt that just won't come out. But when all you hear are two teenage boys giggling like the best of them from the seats behind you-you smile and call it worth it.



We visited Arches National Monument, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. While I fully admit to being biased here, I have the best family in the world. A road trip with the hubs and two of my brothers could not have been more grand! From non-stop puns and singing at the top of your lungs (<--yay to rhyming), to crazy antics and red dirt stains to two boys sticking their heads out the windows with mouth's open wide-just because (indeed this happened-pictured below), lots-I mean lots of giggles, we capped the weekend off in style and I couldn't have asked for better company!



If you have never been to Utah, or never heard of any of these locations, you are seriously missing out! I was blown away with the natural beauty from each location we went to.



I believe it was at Dead Horse Point (pictured above) where we had an "electric" experience. There was a storm coming in and it was so close my hair, and that of a gentleman we were talking to started standing on end. As we passed under a metal structure, we could hear the humming working it's way through the structure. I had never in my life experienced something like that! While it was cool, we booked it to shelter ASAP!



That aside, It was without a doubt one of the prettiest things I have seen. An absolute masterpiece. From the colors to the shapes and the vastness at each spot and the silence-to just being in nature and soaking it up, it only improved as we moved forward.



What I saw here is more of what I was hoping/expecting to see from the Grand Canyon years prior. Any words I find to try to sum this trip up, do it a sincere injustice. All I can say is make Moab a must see destination on your bucket list. It's that good. Though the pictures also don't do it justice, they are better than any words I would drum up.









Notice the stain :)



Utah never ceases to amaze me with the beauty it holds inside of that state. Each place so different but incredibly breathtaking! I will make it a mission to get us to Zion and Bryce Canyon one of these days. Why does this world have to be so big?
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Have you been to Utah? Which is your favorite National Park?

Adventuring through Colorado

Well hello there friends! I hope your week has started off well!

This past weekend we had a pretty memorable weekend over here. The hubby and I did some exploring up in Colorado. If ever came a time that we had to move, Colorado has my vote hands down!

For years he has been raving about the drive from northern New Mexico to Ouray, Colorado and how he wanted to get me up there. After hearing about it so much I finally just decided to make it happen. I had planned it back in the summer not really paying attention to the timing of it all but it ended up being almost perfect timing. The views were absolutely stunning! It was just past peak season for the fall foliage but still offered up some incredible color.



Originally I had only planned for a trip to Ouray but a couple of weeks ago we were talking to some friends and the subject of Telluride popped up. I got curious so I looked it up and discovered that it wasn't far from Ouray!



As such, we headed up to Telluride first. We stopped to hike up to see the waterfalls, which also weren't at their peak season- I believe due to the snow, but were still worth it regardless. It was about 2-3 miles of hiking. We originally planned to drive up the road since we weren't in our hiking gear, but the road spooked us so we parked a little ways up and hiked the rest of the way. After walking it, we realized the hardest part was already over and the car could have made it up easily. I would recommend 4-wheel drive if you decide to drive it, but have heard others make the trek just fine. Once at the top you get a great view of the falls and it also opens up really nicely to get some great views of the town.

After the hike, we decided it was definitely time to get some grub so we stopped at a cute grill/bar that was actually a restored historical house.



Afterward, we were on the road again, and headed for Ouray.

Ouray is a super cute, quaint little mountain town that offers up some breathtaking mountain views, has some really cute shops and great ice cream! After walking the town a few times (it's only about a mile-maybe) we got said ice cream, walked some more and then decided to call it a night. The following morning we checked out their waterfall as well called Cascade Falls before heading on our way to Silverton.







Not that I ever really do, but I don't think it is possible to say one negative thing about any sites along the way during this trip. There were many noteworthy sites between each destination as well. Some of which included sites like these:









Once in Silverton the hubby took me up to the ski lift area. He has this dream of skiing it one day so wanted to show it to me in person. I love how much he loves skiing, and I think he's actually quite good at it, but poor guy is going to have to do some major convincing on my part to get him up there. When a guide is encouraged and avalanche tools are required for every visitor it doesn't exactly put my nerves at ease. Apparently Shawn White trained there though-so there's that...



Next stop was Durango. As a teenager growing up the hubby and his family spent some time at a resort in Durango so we stopped there so he could show me and reminisce about some of those memories.

Later, dinner was had in the downtown area of Durango and then we finally headed back toward home. We thought really hard about making one last pit stop at Chaco Canyon, since it's on the way, but it was getting later and we really just wanted to get home... Next time!

On our way in to town Albuquerque was experiencing some pretty severe storms. We had the pleasure of being able to see it from the outside and it was pretty amazing. It also later turned pink from the sunset which was even better, but I never thought to snap a picture of that one for some reason. Regardless, to use hubby's words, in terms of views on this trip we were really treated well!



It went by too quick, but was a great little getaway. The hubby laughed every time I mentioned how pretty it was, but trust me friends, if you ever have the opportunity to make that loop, I can't recommend it enough. It was truly breathtaking!

Have a great week! I'll see you back here on Friday for a recap of one of my favorite vacations and places visited so far...Moab, Utah!
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P.S. Ty-if you're reading this, you'll definitely want to catch Friday's post ;)