Family Ski Trip - Taos, New Mexico

Last summer our kids came up with the idea of a 'family' ski trip for the week between Christmas & New Years. As Shelly said, "It will either be a great trip - or the LAST family trip". I'm thankful, we all felt it was in the first category.

We headed out about 3:00 p.m. on the 23rd and rendezvoused in Amarillo at the Comfort Suites for the night. The younger sets decided to go out for dinner, while Grandpa Roger & I decided to 'stay in' and enjoy some one on one time with 2-year-old Hayden. Right now he is in the stage where his restaurant behavior is pretty much 'socially unacceptable'. (As you can tell from the picture above, he doesn't like posing for pictures either!) Mom got him suited up in his jammies before they left and me and him played 'walk the halls' and watched cartoons in his room - while Grandpa got some down time in our room. After dinner they all convened in the hot tub & indoor pool.

The next morning we headed to Taos, arriving about 2:30, Christmas Eve, to find that the cleaning crew for the condo had not shown up. NOT the way to start our week! We moved on in, piling everything in a huge pile and I attempted to get our supper underway. Thankfully the kitchen was the cleanest room (except for the floor). An 'alternate' cleaning lady finally showed up with clean sheets and towels and unlocked the supply closet so I could finally get my hands on a broom to sweep the floor.

While trying to 'hurry up' the chili, Russ decided to set the crock part of my crock pot on the stove burner. I'm sorry to say that it spelled the 'death knell' for my old friend - but it was probably time, since I had purchased it for my Mom back in 1992. The small crack quickly became a very LARGE crack! Thankfully, I had brought a back up.

With everyone fed, I decided some fresh baked cookies would be just the thing for our evening. I turned on the oven to preheat, left the room for a bit, and came back to find the oven heating element on fire! I yelled for Russ, he quickly turned it off - and made yet another phone call to the owner. Before the day was over, the boys had gone up to the upstairs condo and 'borrowed' their stove - for all the meals I had planned were oven meals! Being Christmas there was nothing else to do.

No problem until the renters for the upstairs condo showed up on Friday evening - and were not happy to find they had no stove. To make a long story short, they ended up ordering a new stove for our condo - and once that was delivered, the boys returned the 'borrowed stove' to the upstairs condo. Of course, the 'on-site' maintenance man was never around when we needed him - and if it hadn't been for our 'resourceful' guys, we would have been up a creek!

Over the years, we have stayed in a lot of condos, but we have NEVER had the headaches we had this year. And when the 'regular' cleaning lady showed up to switch out the sheets, she didn't speak English - and made all the beds without top sheets! (Guess that was her way of 'saving' on laundry!)

Everyone - thankfully - kept their sense of humor through it all - and we made lots of memories. But needless to say, we won't be going back to the Taos East Condos!

Shelly & DeAnna had agreed to try skiing, but it didn't take long for them to decide it just wasn't for them. Hayden & I spent the week pretty much in the condo, but one evening we all ventured out to go tubing. Well, Grandpa & I watched, but even Hayden took a turn down the run with Dad - and he loved it! He didn't like the standing in line and waiting, but he loved the ride.

Roger, Russ and Randy found that being on the slopes came back quickly, although Roger found that a half of a day was about all his 20-year older legs could tolerate. Course the boys kept trying to 'outdo' the other and both came in pretty tired at the end of their first day. I believe Russ' exact words were "Randy is trying to KILL me!" The kids spent the first two days in school (Hunter - ski school), Wes (snowboard school), and Nick tried one day in each. Wes and Hunter picked it up quickly, but Nick had a bit of a harder time. Then he got hit with a bit of a stomach virus - or elevation sickness, which wiped him out for a day.

The third day on the slopes Roger went up to take some pictures of our skiers. He came in saying that the day started out with him waiting on Hunter, and by noon, she was waiting on him!



Russ & Hunter pose at the start of the day, and Wes shows off his snow boarding skills.

The highlight of the trip seemed to be the excursion to Red River for an evening of snow mobiling! Grandpa Roger was recruited as a driver and everyone had a blast.

As part of the snow mobiling adventure, they were provided a supper of a sandwich and 'green chili' stew. They were all afraid they wouldn't like it, so they ate before they went.

When they came home, all they could talk about was how good the 'green chili' stew was! They even told me I had to 'find' that recipe!

Go figure!

Worn out from all the playing, everyone took an afternoon to go exploring in downtown Taos. Our favorite shop turned out to be one we called the "pepper place" for they had strings of red peppers hanging from the rafters. Roger and I are always looking for 'stuff' for our house, and Roger spotted a large round 'disc' that he thought would go good in our bedroom. Turns out the 'disc' was an Aztec calendar. The gentleman at the shop was extremely helpful, for they were hanging on a wall above several shelves of ceramic pots and dishes. The first one he got down was damaged, so we moved on to the next one. It is a wonder the guy - and the shelves of ceramics - didn't come crashing down in the process. We also purchased a string of peppers that DeAnna wanted for her aunt and then we continued to wander the isles. Outside I spotted a beautiful chimena, but we thought the price too steep - and how would we get it home?

When we got home with the peppers, Deanna liked them so much that she decided she wanted to stop on the way out of town and get some for herself before we left town.

So New Year's Eve morning, all packed up and ready to head home. We made that stop at the 'pepper place', just as they were opening up for the day. I stayed in the car and it wasn't long before Roger came & tapped on the window to tell me the guy had offered to sell us that chimena we had eyed, for half price. Since Russ still had some room left in the back of his truck, we decided to go for it. So Deanna wanting a second string of peppers ended up costing us a bit more than a $20 string of peppers.

We had passed by a place called "Michael's Kitchen" when we were out shopping, so decided to give it a try for our 'last' breakfast. What a treat it was! We got there just at the right time, for as we were leaving, the line was down a long hall and out the door!

Russ & family headed on south to Alamogordo to visit DeAnna's grandmother, while the rest of us headed home. Our bed and recliners never felt so good!

The next morning I walked up to Russ' and brought his dogs - Moe & Zoe - back down to our house for the day. They were so glad to be with people.

A good time was had by all, and Wes & Hunter have decided that they both would like to just 'move' to the snow!

They are already talking about a spring break ski trip, but this Grandma & Grandpa have already told them to count us out.