New Year's in New Mexico

I haven't done winter in New Mexico in YEARS!  But this year my mom-in-law decided she needed one last hoorah before going under the knife for a knee replacement.  So we packed up the kids and the punky, little dogs and headed to the mountains!

You have to understand, the trip to Ruidoso is about 10 hours, so if anything goes amiss, it's a real pain in the butt.  Luckily for us, the trip was pretty smooth!  The sweet little doggies were GOOD travelers!

Aren't they sweet?!?!  The kids did pretty well too.  There was some whining, an occasional grump and a serious onslaught of "Are we there yet?"  "Are we there yet?"  and "How much longer 'til we get there?"  But once I started replying, "No we're not there yet and we won't be for another 6 days!"  They finally chilled out.

First stop was Roswell.  Every time I go to the mountains, I take the time to stop in and visit my grandmother who, in case you were wondering, turned 94 years young this year!  She is a hoot!  She is feisty and crass and can tell you dirty jokes that would make you blush!  I took the opportunity to get some good photos of her with the kids, with me and just by herself.  She is awesome and I absolutely adore her!  I can only hope to be as cool as she is when I'm 94!

Well, one thing I can tell you about that part of New Mexico in winter... it is COLD!  When we woke up Sunday morning in Roswell it was 16*F with winds blowing!  My two little dogs damn near froze to death going out to pee!  You see there is nothing to block the wind in the plains and it seems 20* colder than it actually is!  We were definitely ready to head to the mountains where there was snow, but warmer temps and less wind!

As soon as we arrived and got unloaded the kids just HAD to put on the heavy coats and gloves and get in the snow!  Who can blame them?  Poor little kids have only seen snow a handful of times!  We bundled the dogs up too, yes, coats for my poor nekkid canines!  Here's the Monkey Man rescuing poor Roddy Ringo from the frigid snow!  Nigel, on the other hand, was totally game!

 Sadly, this snow was NOT snowman-making snow, nor was it snowball-making snow, so there was some serious disappointment there, BUT it was perfect for snow angels...

and SLEDDING!  We had a pretty good slope going in front of the house and things were going great, until the Monkey Man went a little too fast and zinged out in the road right in front of pick-up truck!  I think I am still recovering from that particular adrenaline rush!  But that didn't stop us, we determined quickly that the neighbor's house had a GREAT slope, plenty of room and no one was there!  We had a blast!

Upon arriving to the cabin, we became aware that the telephone was not working, which is a problem since there is NO cell phone service in the canyon!  So we started looking through the house, to see if we had an old phone lying around to make due.  And sure enough, we came across a big, black dinosaur of a rotary phone!  The kids had never seen one before, much less used one and it was so funny to watch as they were tethered to the phone, not able to walk and pace around!  Not to mention the fact that the Monkey Man didn't realize that the buttons on top of the phone will hang up the call.  He accidentally hung up on folks quite a bit!  Here's the Piggy giving it a test run!

We made a new friend!  Her name is Daisy and my kids were SO in love!

This poor, little dog was followed, picked up, snuggled, kissed, and hugged practically to death.  We hope she didn't mind too much!  We did our best to keep the Pipsqueak Boys warm and toasty.  You can tell that they lead such a hard life! 

But my absolute favorite part of this visit was the amazing wild animals that graced us with their presence!  One morning, while doing the breakfast dishes, I looked out the kitchen window to see these guys walking through our backyard!  And by all means, click on the photo to get a better look!

Now I've certainly seen elk around Ruidoso before, but this was the first time I ever saw them in town and on our property!  I grabbed the camera and headed up the hill after them, keeping a reasonable distance and large trees between us at all times.  I'm not stupid and would prefer not to get gored by a pissed off elk!  They were HUGE and gorgeous and thoroughly majestic in every way.  I felt so lucky to just share space with them for a short time!  Totally awesome!

We had plenty of deer stop by as well!  I recognized some of the females from our visit in the summer, but the babes had gotten bigger!  They all looked plump, their fur was thick and clean and they seemed well-fed and healthy which always makes me happy!

Here's one of the sweet babes!  Seriously, this little guy just oozes cute!

 It's time for your close-up my deer!

 

You talkin' to me?

Another sweet little deer!

I really do just love these guys!

They each have such different personalities.  Some are skittish, some are totally brave, others are kind of punks, some are timid and mellow.  And this my friends is why I love our little cabin in Ruidoso SO much!  I can't think of a better place to spend time with my family! 

It was a wonderful trip, full of family, friends, good food, lots of games, naps and snuggly blankets.  The only downside was a sickly little Piglet the last 2 days we were there.  I guess too much time sledding in the snow and cold was just too much for her "delicate" Texas disposition!  But we made it home, we had a great time and we're counting the days until we go back!