Albuquerque - Day 4 continued

After Navajo Lake, we finished our trip to Ouray via Hwy 550 (aka The Million Dollar Highway).

Wow. It was beautiful.

I'm not sure if it was the last 4 days that we spent in BROWN New Mexico, but within minutes of crossing the Colorado border, it was like a feast for our eyes. Everything turned green and mountainous. It felt like home again! But on a much grander scale.

The scenic mountains started just after Durango, CO.

The mountain pass is windy and steep. Its tallest point reaches 11,018 feet.

Compared to Stevens at 4,062' and Snoqualmie at 3,022 - it feels like you're on top of the world!

That drop off!

The town of Ouray is called "The Switzerland of America". It has a very similar feel to Leavenworth, but it sits in a valley completely surrounded by mountains.

We stayed at a cute little Best Western. It was a great hotel with a couple of hot springs-hot tubs, a great pool, and the best made-to-order breakfast I've ever seen at a hotel!

 

Nate, did you help James with cleaning up?

 

"No, I didn't. I was resting so I could be stronger than James."

Buddy, you have to help out and be a team.

 

"I know. But, Mom........ I'm still alive!"

Albuquerque - Day 4

Ready for a boat-load of pictures? Haha! I crack myself up. 

After a few relaxing days at the Bogner house, we took a road trip to Colorado.

The girls took one car and the boys took the truck. It was a much more relaxing ride than I'm used to!

The scenery of New Mexico is different, but beautiful in its own way. Lots of plateaus, brushy-bushes, and oil rigs. Not many cities or trees, and no water anywhere!

Around 11am, we made it to Navajo Lake. We rented a pontoon boat and cruised around the lake for a few hours.

The carp at this marina were c-r-a-z-y. The fish would follow people around on the dock and wait for food. There were hundreds and hundreds of them - and they are HUGE fish. At first, seeing the fish was a fun novelty, but when you really look at them, it's pretty gross!

This was a beautiful - and huge lake. We had a blast checking it out and swimming.

I love my clouds.  ;-)

And Beth loves her buddy Hailey!

Me and Renae

In New Mexico, you can see the rain/storms coming from a distance. The huge rain cloud below was headed for the lake just as we were returning the boat. Good timing.

This was such a fun afternoon - great lake and great people. And it was definitely a nice way to break up a road trip for the kids!

The Blue Balloon

 

We had a big 30th birthday party for Reed on Sunday night. In the middle of the party, John let a helium balloon fly into the sky. (Of course) The boys were distraught. I walked Nate outside to see if we could find the balloon:

Nate, where do you think the balloon went?
"I think it went up to Jesus in heaven. Maybe if I pray to Jesus and he will bring it back to me."

After I put the boys to bed for the night, we heard Nate calling from the top of the stairs. John went to check it out and in the sweetest, quivering-lip voice, Nate told him that he just prayed to Jesus so that Jesus could bring his blue balloon back to him.

In a creepy act of kindness, John tied a blue balloon to their bed that night.  :-)

Albuquerque - Days 1-3

After a long 4th of July night, we set out for the airport at 6am the next morning.

We spent 8 wonderful days with some of our favorite people - the Bogners. They moved to Albuquerque a year and a half ago so we were looking forward to seeing where they live and what they've been doing down south.

The plane ride was fabulous. Both to and from Albuquerque we had 2 rows of seats to ourselves. The boys played quietly and Beth slept most of both flights. Phew!

 

A cool little side note from the airplane: The weekend before we left for New Mexico, John and a couple friends climbed (most of) Mt. Adams.

I can't imagine climbing through that!!

The weather ended up being terrible on the mountain, so they weren't able to summit, but they made it up 2/3rds or so of the mountain. 

  

I thought it was so cool when we flew right over Mt. Adams on our flight knowing that John was just on it the week before. It is a huge, steep mountain.

We spent the first 3 days of our trip at our friend's house we lovingly called "The Bogner Grand Marriott". Really, there was no reason to leave!

There was lots and lots of swimming at their house. Nate is not a big fan yet, so it took a lot of convincing just to get him off the stairs.

We did get out of the house a little bit, but there's not THAT much to see in Albuquerque... except for the Car Wash, of course.

And a random face to end the first few days.  :-)