What A Tripp!

Spring Break 2010

While I am focusing for a bit, and Justin already helped me edit pics, here’s a rundown of last week’s busy (National Parks) Spring Break.
Tuesday – I took the kids (along with a friend and her kids) to Bandelier National Monument. Tyghe has decided he hates the wind and freaks out, crying and screaming, when he has to be in it. Not fun. Luckily, he does eventually calm down and really is quite a good little hiker. After our standard hike of the main loop, the kids spent a couple of hours playing in the small river that runs near the picnic area.

Thank goodness it was a beautiful, warm day!

Wednesday, I let each of the kids have a friend over in the morning for a pajama party. They came in PJs, ate breakfast burritos for breakfast, played a multitude of games and made homemade donuts, yum!

Friday, we headed off to Albuquerque. It was quite cold and windy, so we mostly just did some (much needed) shopping. At least Justin and I had a chance to go to the temple as well.

Saturday, we left Abq and drove down to the Trinity Site (Ground Zero). This historic site is only open 2 days out of the year, the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. Funny how it coincides with the LDS General Conference. Not much to see, but we were amazed at how many people were there to experience a little piece of history!

The kids in front of a “Fat Man” replica. Coincidentally, we have one of these (much cleaner) in the local museum.

The back side of the obelisk that marks the site. The other side has a large plaque telling what was done there.

A piece of trinitite the kids found – that we left there. (It’s illegal to take any of these pretty rocks that were made from the sand during the explosion.)
The only other thing to really see is a small mound of dirt with a bit of cement that is all the remains of the 100 foot tower the bomb sat on top of at detonation.

After our brief stop, we were headed on to White Sands (the park is at the opposite end of the missile range from where the Trinity Site is). We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Valley of Fires. A huge area of lava rock, with a nice little path for exploring a bit of the area. It really was pretty cool.

On to White Sands. It was late and we were all pretty tired, so we didn’t do any hiking, just played in the sand. The kids had so much fun. Any ideas on how to get all of the pretty white sand out of my car?

I think Ada was the best at scrambling up the huge dunes.






This was Tyghe’s first visit to White Sands, and as you can tell from the pics, well worth it. He loved it.

Sunday, we visited Carlsbad Caverns. The kids were great little hikers, and as you can tell from my simple pics, the views are amazing.

At the entrance of the Cavern.

Looking back up at the entrance from inside.

Dolls’ Theater

Remains of a National Geographic expedition.



750 feet below ground, at the end of our hike.

That was a LOT of pictures! If you were unimpressed with my photography skills, you’ll be pleased to know I begin my photography class tomorrow night. I’m very much looking forward to learning more and improving my meager photography skills.

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