I am quite certain that New Mexico is one of my most favorite places.  I can’t describe how wonderful it is….why I feel like I connect with everything that it offers, but I do.  And I can thank my husband for introducing me.  When we were first married (as youngsters), he took me to NM to show me where he went to school at UNM, and introduced me to dear friends.  I was 20 years old and eight months pregnant with Priya at the time.  We drove all around New Mexico, along with parts of Nevada and Arizona.  I was completely, utterly, MADLY in love.  I had a little 35mm camera and I STILL have the only image that I took of a mountain (while driving), in a little 3×5 frame in my kitchen.  The photo is not that good (frankly it’s pretty bad), but when I look at it the memories flood back.  We went back to New Mexico when Priya was nearly two years old, but we hadn’t been back since.

When planning where we would take our family vacation this year, New Mexico made it to the top of the list!!  We flew in to Albuquerque, but rented a house in Santa Fe. Our flight brought us in late at night, so our hour drive to our home felt so mysterious. You couldn’t see much of anything, yet knew that you were surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and miles of painted landscape.

The home where we stayed did not have clocks, and every bed faced the East.  There weren’t curtains on our bedroom windows, so the first few days we woke with the sun (until we got used to it).  It was so cool seeing the sun come up that first day, brilliantly revealing what we would call home for the next week.

It felt magical.

Our whole family ran outside.  We did what we all do. We took pictures.

Here’s Priya, perched high on our home’s adobe wall.

Once the sun was up the kids and I went exploring the land around the house, with PJ’s on.  That’s how we roll on vacation.  ;)

We had a day overlap with our good friend Matt (right) from Columbus, OH.  Amery (middle) is one of Brett’s UNM college friends.  Both friends met us the night we came in. They got to hang with us and experience our magical morning!

Then Gabe and I had most of the day to ourselves while Brett took Matt into Albuquerque.  The sun came out and warmed us….so we took advantage of those chaise loungers. We read books, talked about the mountains, and had some nice bonding time.  It was the prefect start to our vacation!

The next day we went into the town of Santa Fe, and headed up the mountain.

I had hoped we would hit the right time for the Aspens to be changing for fall, and alas, WE DID.

WE WERE BLOWN AWAY.

It looked like a giant rainbow across the mountainside.  AMAZING.

I actually had to yell at my children, “Quit taking PHOTOS!!”

The next day the kids did some exploring in the “back yard”…..

…….but what MADE their day was that Uncle Jason arrived!

We invited friends over, and had a fiesta that night!  New Mexico is famous for their Green Chili, so Brett tried making Green Chili Stew.  It was deeeelicous.

Brett and his college friends did a little facebook stalking together.  Good times.  :)

And that’s a quick summary of our first 3 days.  We have more. It gets even better.  :)