~Happy Easter~

Hi to all our wonderful family and friends!

Just wanted to wish you all a  VERY BLESSED EASTER!   He is Risen !!!

Missing you all, but will see you guys soon!

Lots of love

Scott and Janet, Jessie, Becky, Shae, Travis and Bradley

~Snow and White Sands~

So the day after we visited the Caverns we had an interesting driving day over to Alamogordo.   Cloudcroft is a ski area that we drove through.

The scenery was amazing and we stopped several times to look at the view. This was a beautiful way to travel from the east BUT don't try this with an RV from the west.  We know we wouldn't have made it up.  From the east it is ALL downhill!!!   And yes......we definitely did smell our brakes!!!!!

This is the cute town of Cloudcroft.

And here is the SNOW!

WHEW!!!

So.....yesterday we had the most INCREDIBLE day!!!  The kids were SO excited about visiting White Sands.

We began our day at the Adobe style Visitor Center where we got the boys their Jnr Ranger Books and watched a movie on the park.  We did an 8 mile loop through the park just taking in the beauty of the sands!

It really does look like snow - this is the road that we drove on!

Then......we found a spot where we parked our van and began our FUN!!!

The owner of our campground in Alamogordo was SO sweet to us and let us borrow 2 saucers so we didn`t need to rent them.  We ALL had such a blast sledding down the hill.   Not so much fun climbing back up tho!!!

The weather was just perfect and we just could not get enough of the beautiful, white, sugar like sand.

Lunch break!!!   After all that sledding we needed some nourishment!!  Look at these cute picnic spots!

Back to the sand for some more fun!

These Soaptree Yucca plants are everywhere and are so adaptable in the winds and sand.

We enjoyed a nice walk along the boardwalk.......

enjoyed making ``sand angels``......

and then we went on a hike through the sands - it was SO cool!!   Just as well there were markers showing us where to go as we really would have lost our way.

the ``sand angel``.

This ranger was very strict and checked every page of the book!!   BUT.....another badge for the boys, so they were pumped!

If you have not been to White Sands - you just MUST go there - you have to see it to believe it!!

~Carlsbad Caverns National Park~

We just had a AMAZING day at Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico.

The drive up to the caves was beautiful.

We had wanted to do a guided tour of one of the caves but when we arrived they were already booked up.   SO...we decided to do the self-guided tour which we ended up LOVING!  This is the "Natural Entrance".   It was incredible even as we entered.

The temperature down in the cave is a constant 13 degrees Celsius.

There was a paved path with railings the whole way down.   We descended 750 ft!  I am glad we decided to go down, and NOT up.  It was a steep climb!

It is really hard to take a good picture with the lighting, but let me tell you....it was incredible!

We learned about bats, columns, soda straws, popcorn, stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, calcite etc.....  All SO interesting.

It took us about an 1 hour to hike down and then another hour walking around the base.  

This is the whales mouth.

The photos really don't do it justice.......you just HAD to be there to experience this whole "underground" world!!

"Ranger Scott"!!!

The boys doing their "Junior Ranger" pledge !!

This is the drive going back down towards the little town of White Springs.  It really was WOW!!

We stayed the night at this beautiful campground - Brantley Lake State Park.

The sites were HUGE and each had its own shelter!!  Look at the beautiful moon!!

What a GREAT day!