McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Since we had SO much fun with Mary and the boys at the dinosaur pumpkin patch, and with Teresa, Autumn, and Asher at theHawaii pumpkin patch, we decided to hit up one more pumpkin patch for the season.  You can never have too much fun.  :)

                We did some Googling (speaking of which, I still love how that brand name has become a verb...) and found one not too far away that was supposed to have a giant corn maze.  It was called McCall’s Pumpkin Patch.  Upon arrival, we noticed it was packed and actually had quite a bit of trouble finding anywhere to park.  Good sign.

                However, we also noticed that every person walking in had a kid with them.  Every.single.person.  Bad sign.

                It was definitely, definitely, geared toward kids.  But we made the most of it.  :)

They advertised a 15 acre maze!  We weren’t going to pass it up. 

There were about 3 or so different maze patterns that you could choose.  We did all of them.

 On a platform in the middle of the field.  All you could see was corn around you.

                Next stop on our trying-to-find-activities-adults-could-do quest, was the zoo area.

We were fascinated by this guy.  His horns were soooo big!

                Then we pretended to be little kids and sit in the big boy chair.  Hehe

It was actually really comfy!

                We made our way to the store and found some cool scarecrows and hay bales.

Pumpkin picking time!!

My husband is so cute! :)

The Land of Fire & Ice

Who knew there were volcanoes in New Mexico??  Not me.  But apparently there are…or were.  Now there are just dormant old volcanoes that we can walk all around.  I think I’m happier with that, anyways.

About an hour west of where we live, there is a volcano you can hike and tour.  It’s called Bandera Volcano.  It erupted about 10,000 years ago, and the old lava trail leads you to the collapsed lava tube.

The crater is approximately 1,400 feet across and 800 feet deep. 

 We were both pretty bummed that we weren’t able to actually hike in the crater.  L  But at least we got close. 

From a vantage point along the trail, you can actually look out and see 18 old volcanoes.  18!  I was thoroughly impressed and surprised.

What’s even more surprising to me is that New Mexico has an Ice Cave.  Yes, an ICE CAVE…in the friggin’ desert.  Weird.

Us with the cave entrance behind us.

These are the stairs down into it.

Blair at the entrance.  It was significantly cooler even half-way down the stairs.  It felt AWESOME after hiking the volcano.

Apparently the ice cave never gets about 31˚F.  And it even has a layer of arctic algae that is usually only found in the arctic!  Sooo cool!!  (pun intended)

Grand Canyon - hiking and photos

The next morning we woke up early so we could make the most of our day there.  Overnight it had snowed even more.  We found this on our door overhang.

It was even colder than the day before.  We had to buy Blair a hat from the lodge store!  Luckily the sweater I bought at Walmart the day before had a hood…which definitely was used on multiple occasions that day.

We wanted to see “The Abyss” and several other awesome viewpoints along the top, so we headed out for a hike and a photo extravaganza.   My mom is gonna kill me for this one. 

We walked part of it, and took the bus for part of it.  I’m so very thankful they had a bus running because a) it was frickin’ cold, and b) my foot was still really hurting from the fall in Hawaii that I didn’t yet know was actually torn tendons.  Thank you Lord for the bus!

It had lots of stops all along the top ridge.  We got out on most of them to take pictures.  :)

One of the stops was Powell Point.  Major John Wesley Powell was the first explorer of the Grand Canyon who descended the river in row boats in the gorge beneath the Point.  Gorgeous view!

We wanted to get a few shots of the river, considering that’s what Powell was known for. 

I loved how craggy and rough everything was!

 And all the different layers.

Such a pretty view.

Awww. :)

At the tip of where the buses went was a place called Hermit’s Rest. 

They sold hot chocolate and souvenirs.  The hot chocolate was sooooo good.

We made a friend.

I thought it was really awesome that this sign was displayed at a National Park.

One last picture in snowy weather.

What a great birthday trip!! 

Grand Canyon - birthday surprise

My 28^th birthday was the last day of our trip in Hawaii.  It was also my first birthday as a married woman.  :)  Good combo, if you ask me.  

                To make it even more spectacular, Blair had a BIG surprise.  As if Vegas and Hawaii trips, back-to-back, weren’t enough adventure…Blair planned a surprise bucket list trip to the Grand Canyon on our road trip back to Albuquerque!!  I was totally surprised!!  And SOOOOO excited!

               

 Because it was a surprise, and we had only planned to be in Vegas and Hawaii…both of which had really hot temperatures...we were very under-prepared for what we found on our way to the Grand Canyon.

Snow.  Lots of snow.

We had a lot of shorts, skirts, and tank tops.  A Walmart trip was essential and we each bought a sweater and long sleeve shirt.  Luckily we both had socks and tennis shoes already, as we had done a lot of walking around in the other two locations.  But we would have died without those last-minute cold weather clothes!

My first sighting of the Grand Canyon!

We wrote our names in the snow.  :)  It was very reminiscent of our honeymoon snow-writing.

 Driving to our lodge, we ALMOST hit 3 deer.  The sun was at the absolute perfect angle to make it almost impossible to see more than 5 feet in front of our car.  At the last second I saw a shadow of what looked like deer ears and shrieked for Blair to stop the car.  Just.in.time.

Then we found our lodge and got checked in. 

As I was looking around the lobby, Blair secretly informed the lady at the desk that it was my birthday.  They upgraded our room for free!  We were literally right on the edge of the cliff!  It was so awesome!

The only thing that was a tad scary about it was the fact that it was SO cold that the sidewalks and trails were icy.  I definitely didn’t want to slip and slide and fall down the canyon!  I walked soooo slowly around there.  Haha

Here's the view from our room.

This is the panoramic view from the edge of that sidewalk.  This was literally outside of our lodge door.

Our room, upgraded for free!  It wasn’t gorgeous, but it had a heater, and a fabulous view.  TOTALLY thankful.

I would have frozen to death if it weren’t for that heater.  My gosh it was cold.

Once we unloaded our bags into the room, the sun was starting to set and we were hungry for dinner.  We set out to find some dining in the lodge.  It was really tasty.

I don’t think I ever took off my coat during the meal.  I was chilled to the bone…but having a blast.

Blair “got up to use the restroom” part-way through our meal.  I found out later that he had secretly talked to our waitress and informed her that it was my birthday.  Sneaky pants.  She brought me a free chocolate dessert!

She, alone, started to sing to me…and about 1 ½ lines in to the birthday song, the ENTIRE restaurant started singing with her!  It was totally weird.   But REALLY fun.  The waitress went on and on about how that’s never happened before and how she thought it was so cool that everyone joined in.  I must be loved.  :)

I think 28 is destined to be a really great year for me!