New Mexico Day 5

We did the zoo today. We ate cold cereal and rolled out early before it got too hot. The zoo in Albuquerque has a combo deal that allows you to see the zoo, the botanical gardens, and the aquarium, as well as ride the train.

Albuquerque Zoo is about the same size as Hogle Zoo, but it has some great animals. The koalas were really active, jumping and even running around the cage. They were Laurie’s favorite. Glen and Mark liked the cheetah that walked right over to where we were sitting and looked back at us. Natalie most enjoyed the roadrunner that had gotten himself stuck in the macaw cage. The macaws were screeching and freaking out, and he was trying to get out any way he could. Dad liked the exotic bird with the Phantom of the Opera Mask. Dax’s favorite was the seal feeding, and Seth, of course, liked the alligators and crocodiles, which are always his favorite. Everyone liked feeding the ducks right out of their hands. There was a small train ride that took you around the zoo, and then a larger train took you on a 25 minute ride to the aquarium.

The macaws were not happy about this roadrunner in their cage.

Seth was super excited about the alligators and crocodiles. 

Laurie was a good sport about helping Seth see things at the Zoo. 

A bunch of monkeys in front of the monkey cage. 

We have lions at our zoo, but we love to see the big cats. 

The mountain lion was laying on the bridge, so you could walk right under her/him. The adults could have poked her through the wife, but we didn't!

This was probably the most memorable part of the day. The boys love feeding ducks right out of our hands.

Mom loved it, too!

Seth was a pro! 

The koala was super active.

We riding from the zoo to the aquarium and riding the train around the zoo.

Mark loves the cheetahs! 

Mom was also a fan of these baby chimpanzees.  

The best part about the aquarium was lunch at the expensive little café built into the side of the building. The biggest, best tank of the aquarium had a private viewing section in the wall of the restaurant, and all the coolest fish spent their time back there. So as we ate our meal, we watched rays, sharks, sea turtles, puffer fish, and many other things swim within feet of our table. Surprisingly, the boys did okay eating in this environment.

We loved watching the sharks and rays swim by while we ate. 

We had awesome seats in the restaurant.

The aquarium was small, and since we have a big one in Draper, we didn’t spend very long, maybe just 45 minutes. We only stopped at the large tank we’d seen from the other side for a few minutes to watch the scuba divers swimming in the bottom cleaning up the sand. Much of the aquarium seemed to be undergoing renovation, too.

They have a tunnel to walk through filled with fish like the aquarium in Utah.

The boys liked this light-up great white shark so they could see the actual size of the shark.

We had better luck outside in the botanical gardens. The first thing we tried was a children’s garden, where we were shrunk down to tiny insect size. There were huge dragonflies, ants as big as us, a garden with carrots as high as basketball hoops and a pumpkin we played tag in. The boys loved running around in this imaginative section of the garden. The next thing in the botanical garden was a huge section for miniature trains. There was probably a third of an acre of trains, but they were not running today. Luckily, Mark spotted a frog in the lily pond, so this wasn’t a complete loss.

Seth was as small as a pinecone.  

Mark and Dax inside the giant pumpkin. It reminded me of James and the Giant Peach.

Dax ate his way through a carrot.

The boys really wished the trains had been running, but they were still fun to look at.

The frog that Mark spotted was super green.

The next stop was the Bugarium. This building was brand new and we really loved it. Draped across the entire building was a rope and leaf-cutter ants were carrying shredded leaves across it from a pile of leaves to their home. They were amazing to watch. The boys were also fascinated with the walking sticks and large beetles, though Mark did not like the cockroaches at all. There was even a game where you stood on a pad and flapped your arms playing as a honeybee trying to gather nectar in a set amount of time. It was pretty funny to watch the boys swooping around the pad!

Watching the boys try to fly was pretty amusing.

Laurie told me there were cockroaches in the bathroom, and I didn't believe her! But when you leaned closer to the mirror, they appeared. It was awesome!

The leaf cuter ants were just out in the open, but they never stopped working. 

We had to catch the final train back to the zoo at 3:45. Then we let the kids play at the playground and the adults rest in the shade before heading back to the truck. It was dinner by the time we got back, so Mom whipped up some pasta. Then we played in the pool and went to bed thoroughly exhausted. We’ve been rotating who sleeps with whom, and Mark has been the most difficult, kicking Dax out of bed and trying to do the same to Dad. Last night was Dax’s turn with Seth. We woke up in the middle of the night to hear Seth snickering in his sleep. This morning Dax was sleeping on the floor again. We’re not sure if these events are related or not!

New Mexico Day 4

Day four in New Mexico was a take it easy day. We slept in a little and then had continental breakfast at the RV Park. By 9:30 it was time to go to Petroglyphs National Monument. It is quite a bit cooler here than usual for this time of year, meaning it’s in the high 80s rather than the high 90s, so we did a few hikes. The first hike climbed straight up to an overlook of Albuquerque and passed many petroglyphs carved into the basalt along the way. The boys worked on their Junior Rangers and earned a really cool badge and patch. Uncle Glen bought Junior Ranger hats to complete the outfit, and they are quite stunning in their vests, hats, and badges. We did another short trail that led past a bunch of other petroglyphs, and as we were pulling into the parking lot we saw our first roadrunner. The boys were so excited, but not quite as excited as Mom.

The hats definitely complete the outfit!  

The first roadrunner we spotted! 

Dad was a fan of this hand petroglyph!

Dax loved all the animal petroglyphs.

Seth just likes to make crazy faces.

Dad said this was a girl playing the drums, and Mark agreed. 

Here we all are exploring Petroglyph National Monument.

There are petroglyphs everywhere. Seriously, everywhere!!

After Petroglyphs National Monument, we headed over to Rio Grande State Park for lunch. It is a really pretty little spot along the Rio Grande River that is full of wildlife. We had a sandwich picnic in the pavilion and then went to the Visitor’s Center. They had a fun little playroom where you could magnify objects, make animal tracks, or watch 2-day-old bluebirds get fed by their mother. They also had a huge observation window. We looked out and saw a few dozen red-eared slider turtles, wood ducks, Canadian geese, black-chinned hummingbirds, and long-tailed squirrels. Laurie and Glen stayed at the observation window while we took a hike around the wetland. They’d told us you could see porcupines, but we didn’t. We managed to see a new bird, which Mark identified called a blue grosbeak. We also saw cattle egrets, and Dad spotted a tiny frog in the Rio Grande that could’ve fit on the tip of his pinkie. We really enjoyed the park, and we even learned a new game called Pooh-Sticks, which is when you take sticks on the bridge, drop them in the river, and rush to check and see who’s stick came out the other side first. The boys really enjoyed this game.

To enter the Visitor Center, you walk through this tunnel.

There were red eared sliders all over the place!

We liked watching the hummingbirds, too!

We had fun peeking through the wall at the turtles, hummingbirds, and squirrel. 

This squirrel was very fat! I wonder why!

We played Pooh Sticks over and over again!

Mom and Dad liked checking out the Rio Grande River.

Can you spot the tiny frog?

The Blue Grosbeak that Mark spotted and identified.

We were all in need of a slow day today, so we decided to drive out to the Albuquerque Temple and take pictures for our books. This is the 30^th temple Mom and Dad have visited together, though we’ve only done sessions in about 25. We took pictures for the boys’ temple books and then headed back to the RV Park. The boys really wanted to go swimming, so we took them over to the pool for a while. Mom and Dad and the boys splashed around for over an hour and then headed back to dinner. Laurie cooked chicken and stuffing tonight, and the boys finished their leftovers from Panda Express. Then, we watched the Peanuts movie. It was a nice slow day, which all of us needed. And for once, the kids were in bed by 9 pm!

The Albuquerque temple was really hard to get a picture with. Mom is laying on the ground to take this one out front.

We took most of our pictures in the back with the pretty fountain.

Dax loved jumping into the pool.

The boys would live in the pool if we let them.

New Mexico Day 3

We spotted this Downy Woodpecker right outside the motorhome window while Dad was out helping hook up the truck!

Today we woke up late and got moving a little later than expected, and it was mostly a travel day. The plan was to drive from Durango to Albuquerque, a total of nearly four hours, with two significant stops along the way.

We started with showers at the RV park we were staying at. All the boys were troopers and even Seth managed to get a little cleaner. Then we had breakfast in the motorhome. We had eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Somehow Mom manages to make it as good as at home. Then we got on the road.

We stopped just briefly to look at a weird hot spring just outside our campsite called Pinkerton Hot Springs.  It was a strange conic lump of minerals much like you might see in Yellowstone. It was nice to look at, though the water wasn’t really very hot. Just as we were going to leave Seth took a step in the soft, slippery mud and went right down. It was a short fall, but there was a massive amount of mud on his shirt and shorts. There were hardly any tears, and we were glad we brought extra clothes.

This picture is just seconds before the mud incident.

We cruised into New Mexico, which is the ninth state for all three boys and stopped at a small town called Aztec.  We wanted to visit Aztec Ruins National Monument, which is one of two companions to Mesa Verde. The monument is pretty small, but it was also fascinating. We watched a short film and looked through the tiny museum, and then we went out behind the Visitor’s Center. There is an amazing ruin there that is massive. There were hundreds of rooms all built of stones set in mortar much like Mesa Verde, but these are free-standing structures. They allow you to walk through some portions, and you can still see the yucca mats that were used for doors. Many ceilings were intact, too. Perhaps most interesting of all was the reconstruction of a great kiva, which was made to look like the largest known kiva in nearby Chaco Canyon National Monument. The walls were plastered to look original, and the steps and ceiling were intact to make it look like what a kiva may have looked like 800 years ago. Best of all, we saw a few bats nesting in the ceiling of one of the rooms just a few feet over our head. We also saw rabbits and lizards at Aztec Ruins and the boys enjoyed earning their second Junior Ranger badge of the trip. I think that makes 10 total this year between Zion, Bryce, and New Mexico.

You get a feel for the ceremonies inside the great Kiva that has been reconstructed.

This is the family of bats we spotted inside the Kiva.

A family picture in front of Aztec Ruins.

Another Family picture in the section where you can walk in and explore.

There are some pretty low doorways.

The ruins are quite big.

This is actual ceiling constructed 800 years ago and still intact.

No one is quite sure what the green stones are for, but we think it's their form of decorating, you know, like a chair rail!

This shows most of Aztec Ruins.

That wasn’t the last one today, though. We were so impressed with the Aztec Ruins that we decided to stop at Chaco Canyon. This wasn’t on the itinerary because we thought it was too far off the beaten path (21 miles on unpaved roads), but we unhooked the truck and drove it out to the monument. These ruins were astounding. The masonry was so tight, and there were hardly any gaps between the rocks. Tiny rocks had been snuggled into any small gap, and the walls were at least three feet thick at the bottom. They tapered down to about eighteen inches at the top and some of the structures stood three stories or more. We were allowed to walk through several of the buildings again, and the villages were huge. We visited three huge cities and one had a massive kiva that had to be 60 feet across. This was the one that we’d seen reconstructed at Aztec Ruin. After the boys earned that tenth Junior Ranger badge, Glen spoiled them with the cutest little Junior Ranger vests you’ve ever seen. Seth was so cute; he said he was not taking it off even to sleep.

Chaco is very impressive with tall walls with very tight stonework.

Look how thick the walls are!

We were lucky to have Glen to take all these family pictures.

The Chaco ruins are massive, and this is one of 4 areas we visited.

The doors are so small.

The four of us explored this ruin while Laurie, Glen, and Seth rested in the car.

It had a very small doorway that we all had to crawl through.

This is the great Kiva. I couldn't fit it all in one picture.

The vests are pretty awesome! Our boys love them.

It was a long drive the rest of the way into Albuquerque, and we couldn’t find a place big enough to park the rig and eat in any of the small towns along the way, so we ended up eating at around 7:30. It was ten o’clock by the time we got all hooked up and settled in and got the kids to bed. They’re going to need to sleep in one of these days!

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