Thanksgiving at Carlsbad Caverns

For Thanksgiving Ty and I decided it would be perfect to head down to Carlsbad Caverns. I have heard many good things about the caverns and Ty has been there once with his mom and really enjoyed it. We couldn't take time off from work to travel very far and thought that Carlsbad would be better to go to now instead of the dreadful summer heat.

We met up with some friends, JB and Veronica, whose family is down there and had Thanksgiving dinner with them. After dinner we went down to the Pacos River and walked around. Veronica's younger brother then took us on a tour through Carlsbad City. Funny note: he showed us all the 'make out' points, they are the good places to see things in town, hence they are the 'make out' points. . . make sense?
JB got a new camera and loves taking pictures, so here ya go.

Here we are down at the Pacos River. The river was beautiful with walkways and trees AND GRASS! You don't see much grass down here in NM.

Here is a semi good picture of our hosts and friends. Sorry it is blurry, but you might as well get use to it because the cave pictures aren't any better. Just preparing you now is all.

Down at the river the next day.

We kept seeing these lovely green alien brain things floating in the river. Figured we were close enough to Roswell that they had to be from aliens. If you happen to know what these are please let me know.

Okay into the caverns we go. Here is our neato guide showing us how to use the rope to get down into the caverns. Yes at this point blood pressure is rising and feet are sweating.

Here comes Ty down the rope, did just a great job. Obviously I did to and with no broken bones, thank heavens.

Now comes the descending instructions on how to use the ladders. There were three ladders to get down to the bottom. We all made it down safe and sound. I was very proud of myself, no vomiting, no wetting of the pants, no fainting, just a little numb in hands and feet.

Here we are all decked out with helmets and gloves.

This was pretty neat. Some poor lonesome bat died and then the cave buried it and now it is fossilized.

Our tour group coming along.

Ty waiting his turn to climb back up the ladders. 

Here is the picture of all three ladders. You gotta move your head a little for different lighting to see them all:)

Next are some pictures of the 'Big Room'. This place is pretty amazing. It is big enough to hold up to 14 football fields. Just to walk around was about a mile or so.

Mr. Handsome giving us a pose.

We thought that is little structure looked like a walrus, neat uh?

The next day we did the Kings Palace tour. Here we are starting the tour.

A little pond in the cave, there were lots of them.

After that tour ended we decided we needed exercise and walked out of the caves instead of taking the elevator. We were moving it pretty fast and it took us about 40-45 minutes. It was a very long walk out.

First sight of light, almost out!

Looking back into the caves

This is where you sit when the bats fly out at dusk. Too bad for us they were in Mexico trying to keep warm, the poor little things.

Well there you go folks. I would definently recommend this place as one to go visit. It was lots of fun!

Nana, Papa, & Ickles!!!

Mom, dad, and Kaden came for a visit down here to ole NM. . . What a great and fun time!

After picking up Dad and Ickles from the airport we took them right up to the Tram. It was a nice little ride (thank heavens for no turbulance that day:). Here we are looking over into the valley, it was a little hazy.

Here is what our ride looked like. You can fit a lot of people into those cars. Confession: my hands and feet may or may not have gotten sweaty while riding up and down while looking down to see how far up we were. That is all.

So this was pretty neat. We saw some people gathered around in one spot and realized that a para-sailor (or whatever they are called) was about to take off. We made our way very quickly to get good seats. He was waiting for a good wind to pick up and that took a little while.

 Here we are sitting for the big moment. Mom has her camera ready.

Okay this part I could never ever ever EVER do. He took off running down the mountain side where there was a cliff not too far away. Man I get sweaty hands just typing this. Have you noticed that I don't do heights yet:)

And there he goes. . . just sick.

We walked around the top. Ickles wanted pictures and we ended up like this. . . what we would do if caught on the toilet. Yep that's my family.

On the way back we stopped at the Albuquerque temple for some photo's. Pretty temple for sure. I was so happy to find out while Ty and I were dating that there was a temple nearby, it made the move and transition a lot more bearable, if that makes any sense. 

Ty had to work on Monday so I took the family to Old Town. It was fun to walk around and see the little shops.

It was a lot of fun to have my family visit and to have them see where we are living. Thanks guys, love ya!!!!!