The Queen’s Chronicles – New Mexico

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Travel Riudoso
After Christmas we had the opportunity to head out of town for a little winter vacation.  One of Keith’s cousins has a vacation home in Ruidoso, New Mexico and we headed off for a visit in the wee hours of New Years Eve.  
We are definitely up for a road trip and this was a great distance for a short trip.  In 10 hours we were arrived to our home for the next four nights.  
Travel Riudoso

We were greeted by this crew upon arrival and every day after.  Of course my guys were thrilled!   
We were starved and after dumping our luggage of course we found Mexican food!  
Green chili chicken enchiladas and the best seasoned tortilla chips hit the spot! 
My travel outfit was perfectly comfy and cozy.  I have three of these Bobeau cardigans and they are just super easy to layer and are flattering with jeans, dresses or leggings.  These live in Zella leggings have actually been my go to the past few weeks for more than just a workout.  

This crew loves their cousins!  They were so excited to see Dillon & Carly.  Dillon is so great with little kids and Dean was definitely his buddy the whole time he was there.

We toasted with some sparkling grape juice!

And busted out all the props! Nothing like a rowdy four year old with a horn.  Goodness I am definitely out of practice! 
I actually brought the Pie in the Face game for their family and oh my goodness did we have some fun!  This game definitely lives up to its hype.  

Mornings were all about coffee on the patio and with the time change we had no problem waking up bright and early!

Travel Ruidoso
The view from the deck was so beautiful!  We could hardly wait to head to the mountain for our first day of skiing.  
We made it to the top and were so excited to see it was snowing!  
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
And the snow continued off an on for hours!  I booked a family lesson for 2 hours which was just perfect.  While Keith & I have both skied before it had been 14 years so I needed the refresher.  This was the first time for Dillon & Carly so I was definitely glad to have them build a little confidence with the lesson.  
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
I was seriously so proud of both of them!  They did great.  Carly even lost her ski as we were getting on the lift once and she handled it so calmly!  Little did we know the real stress would come when they made an announcement to let everyone driving a 2 wheel drive know it was time to leave immediately due to road conditions.  Y’all…mass chaos insued!!  It was crazy and we sat in our car for over an hour with nothing moving but the gas gauge.  Lesson learned as I will never head to the top of the mountain again without a full tank of gas.  After a little snow plowing and a good push from Dillon & I we finally made it onto the road and safely made it back to the house.   
It was New Years Day so of course cabbage, cornbread and black eyed peas were a must!  How happy I was to have this hot meal waiting on me.  Beth used a recipe from her mom to put together this yummy mix of ground beef, cabbage, carrots and baby potatoes with a can of rotel tomatoes.  It was delicious!  
The next day we took a little break from skiing and headed to a local lake.  The water was so green and the landscape was beautiful! 

My boys were happy!  They love fishing no matter where they are.

Downtown Riudoso
Carly and I decided to take the opportunity to do a little window shopping downtown.  We couldn’t leave this apple!  It was as amazing as it looks and the girls were adorable.  
Travel Riudoso

Safe to say this girl was happy about the snow!

Travel Riudoso
I was definitely excited to wear some of my warmer clothes too!  
We headed to the Winter Park tubing everyone told us was a must.  Well, it was fun but I would honestly say this was a little sketch.  I don’t think for the price we would do this again.  
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico

Back to the mountain for another great day of skiing although totally opposite from the first day!

Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico

This girl had the hang of skiing for sure.  I definitely think she is going to want to return!

Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
Keith finally talked Carly into moving on to the next level run so we were able to ride the lift all together. First exit and Dillon took me out!   
Travel Riudoso
Ski Apache - Riudoso, New Mexico
It was such a fun day and I think we all said “just one more time” over and over before we all became hungry enough to want to leave.  
Once again the yard was full of deer!  And this guy was standing about 3 feet from me and could have cared less.  
We headed out bright and early and of course had to take a quick picture with the alien in Roswell. 

We stopped about two hours from home and when I saw these scratch offs I knew they were perfect and we each needed one.  Keith, Carly and I all won on ours so I was feeling lucky!

A beautiful trip with much needed down time for Keith and the rest of us too really.  This house should be ready to rent in the next month or so and it is a great size for larger families with 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths and two great living spaces.  Like I said the view is amazing and the drive from Texas is so easy!  
We are back home and so trying to get back into the swing of things but as always I really think I needed just a couple of more days!  Hope you are all enjoying a great start to 2017!  
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