The Ox Family in New Mexico

 We just had an awesome weekend thanks to our wonderful guests.  Sara and Nick came to visit us for the weekend.  I knew I missed our Minnesota friends, but I didn't realize how much I did.  It was so great to see them and hang out with them. Here are some of the fund things we did.

1. B2B for Happy Hour: $2 local beers on tap for an hour.  Can't beat that price.  Nick and Sara were in shock with how affordable going out was in ABQ.   They also had a deal on flights.

Sara's Flight

My Flight

2. El Pinto for dinner. This is a staple New Mexican restaurant.

3. Hiking the cooler version of the Tent Rocks. It was way better than our 1st hike there.

Are we in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon or the planet of Tatooine?

Crazy NM weather of 10 minutes snowing followed by sunshine. Yes Nick rocked shorts all day!

Bird's eye view

Chris and Nick going further than Sara and I were comfortable with.

Ox Family

Valley Family

Self Timer!

4. A quick visit to Santa Fe, where the snow followed our MN friends.

5. Agricola Fun and Celebrating Nick's birthday!

6. Breakfast burritos from Blake's Lotaburger

Yes it is fast food, but their breakfast burritos are good and $3.50.

7. More Agricola fun!

I wish I would have taken more photos.  Seeing Nick and Sara makes me excited to head back to MN this summer and see more of our wonderful friends.  We are hoping to be there around the 4th of July. Their visit also made me excited for our next guests who arrive on Thursday.  Travel Safely Matt and Jessi!

Tent Rocks

We had a really nice long weekend.  We decided to take a little trip to Santa Fe, which is the capitol of New Mexico.  It's less than an hour away from us.  It is a beautiful city with charm, culture, and a rich history.  I'll go into more detail about Santa Fe in my next post.

Chris had an excellent idea to stop at the Tent Rocks National Park on our way to Santa Fe, it was only 20 miles out of the way. We arrived early on a Saturday morning so it wasn't crowded.  The park is very popular and gets really busy in the warmer months - as I am told.  It felt like we had to drive forever after entering the park to the parking lot.

Once we parked we learned that we had the option of two different hikes.  One was a loop that went through the tent rock formations.  The second was a out and back that had a steep incline.  The cool thing about this hike was you would get a bird's eye view of the tent rocks.  We opted for the first hike because we didn't bring our hiking shoes and there was snow/ice on parts of the path.  I'm talented at falling and/or spraining my ankle so we thought it would be best to avoid injury so early into our little trip.

We were very pleased with our visit and our hike!  We can't wait to go back again and try the other hike when it is warmer. I pointed out the Chris that it reminded me of that sandy/dusty planet in Star Wars. Chris agreed and then felt the need to take a photo with his cell phone to send to his brothers. I also learned that this planet is called Tattooine not Tattooing. This resulted in a facebook post error on my part, which I didn't realize.  Chris and his brothers had a good laugh about it. (rolling my eyes at them) I think Chris should be happy because I made a Star Wars connection.  This is pretty impressive seeing as I watched the movies for the first time a couple years ago.

This is a man made cave that we past. We wanted to peek our heads in.  Neither of us made it any further - we got a little nervous.

Keep in mind that I'm not a geologist, but I do find rocks to be nifty. From my understanding, these Tent Rock formations were made as a result of a volcanic eruption millions of years ago.  The ash traveled from the Jemez Volcanic Field.  Then over the millions of years weathering and erosion made the formations and canyons. 

They look like little hunts.

 Check out the snow!

One of the things we greatly enjoy about New Mexico is its nature.  We have developed a new hobby, hiking.  It is always exciting and fun to explore this desert land. 

Happy to finish a great hike and head off to Santa Fe