Angel Fire

We finally got around to planning our ski trip as Andrew's present for passing all 9 of his architecture registration exams!!!! We found a great deal at the Angel Fire Lodge and planned to drive up to save some money. We loaded up on the snacks and drinks and left our house at around 5 am Sunday morning.

we went all out on the snacks

plugging in our route on the iphone

It took us about 12 hours in all. We had fun on our little road trip!

Made it to New Mexico!

New Mexico visitors center

Once we reached New Mexico the scenery really started to get hilly! It was so nice to see some different scenery! We've got nothing but flatness in DFW. We stopped to take a few pictures of the awesome view. This was about the time all our snack bags we hadn't opened started popping with the altitude!

Andrew posing by some beautiful scenery in NM.

We planned to stay in an inexpensive hotel in Taos on Sunday night and then head over to the resort in Angel Fire Monday morning to check in. In Taos we got to see our first glimpse of the really high mountains with snow on the tops! We were exhausted and were asleep by 7 pm! The next morning we packed back up and took some pictures of the mountains. We stopped at a local coffee shop called Taos Java and got some lattes and croissants! YUM!

Mountains!!! We don't see these in TX!

Hitting up Taos Java!

We completed the 20 mile drive through windy mountainous roads and arrived at the lodge at around 9 am. We were able to check in early and did some exploring around the lodge. Our room was at a very convenient place in the hotel. We were close to the shops, restaurants, and lifts! We rented our equipment, skis for me and a snowboard for Andrew, and headed off for the slopes! Man do I hate walking in those boots though. I know its supposed to be uncomfortable but man, mine were painful!!!! 

View from our room

Those gorgeous slopes!

View from the mountain of the basin

Handsome husband getting ready to board

Who wouldn't want to ski through this gorgeous scenery?

Warming his feet after a big first day of boarding!

We had a great first day of skiing. The weather was absolutely perfect. Not too hot and not too cold. We ate at the cafe at the base of the mountain for lunch, and then went back out. I forgot how exhausted skiing is! We ordered some yummy quesadillas for dinner from the Lazy Lizard restaurant and watched The Bachelor in our room. I hope my girl Molly wins!!!! I can't wait until the finale! The next day was supposed to be a little questionable weather-wise. New Mexico was going to be getting all that crazy wind from California on Tuesday. That morning I ended up trading in my boots for new ones since I literally could not walk without crying!

Hitting the slopes on Day 2!

Andrew did a half day of skiing, but switched back to a board.

It feels so good to ski! It's almost like you're flying!

Fun photo shoot on the mountain.

We got hit with the wind in the afternoon that day. It was so bad they had to close the lifts on the front side of the mountain. Luckily we were able to take a bus over to the back side where they still had a lift open. We rode that up and skiied down a couple times. But man that wind was bad! Andrew almost lost his hat and at one point the wind was pushing me back right as I was trying to snow plow up to the red line to get on the lift. The attendant literally had to push me back up to the line the wind was so bad. So it was inevitable that they closed the lift on the backside of the mountin too. Boo! So we couldn't ski at all after 1 pm! We knew it was for safety though. They measured a wind gust of 90 mph at the top of the mountain!!! We ended up getting free tubing tickets b/c of the inconvenience. We ate lunch that day at the same little cafe on the base of the mountain and had delicious frito pie!

Riding "the magic carpet" up the tubing hill.

Those little black patches were designed to help stop you. It went so fast!!!

After we tubed we headed to The Sunset Grill for some dinner. It was great! Andrew had lemon pasta and I had tortilla soup with some of my beloved sweet potato fries. We planned out our 3rd day of skiing to ski all morning and then do a snowmobile tour in the afternoon. We were hurting by then so I think a half day is all we could handle!

One of the rail parks had this really pretty school bus that was painted.

That's me down there!

Emily H

After we turned in our skis we headed over to this amazing chinese restaurant called Yu Garden. We got to partake in an all you can eat buffet. It was seriously one of the best Chinese buffets I've ever had! Then we headed over to the meeting place for our snowmobiling tour. 

Walking up to the line of snowmobiles waiting for us.

I let Andrew drive first! I am not the best at driving things like this!

Our vehicle for 2 hours!

They took us up to an awesome scenic view.

Breathtaking!

We got to play around in this big open field. This is where I wanted to "learn how to drive it" It was so hard!

We had heard of an awesome pizza place called Angel Fired Pizza. So we went and picked some up! It was delish! We packed up our room and were off to bed to get ready for the big drive in the a.m.

You can see it was 6 degrees as we headed out Thursday morning! Brrrr!!!

We had a fun drive home. We even saw a massive coyote trotting along the side of the road. It was beautiful! I always carry a book with me so I offered to read it aloud to help keep Andrew awake and alert as he was driving. He agreed which actually surprised me since he is not much of a reader. He was very grateful it "wasn't one of those weird vampire books" though. Since I finished the Twilight series last fall I talked quite alot about how good the books were, and was sad they were over. A friend recommended the Sookie Stackhouse series which I devoured in about 5 weeks(and there is 8 books!). Ever since I finished those a week or so ago I haven't been able to stop talking about those too! So I read about half of Change of Heart by Jodi Piccoult aloud. He was really liking it and we may have a new emerging reader in our household! He can't wait to finish it!

So all in all it was a very fun and much needed trip! This was our first ski experience together! I'm looking forward to many more!

I watched my DVR'ed American Idol this morning as I was unpacking and am so glad Alexis Grace and Danny are in the top 12!!!!! We are off to grocery shop. We desperately need food and I'm working 4 nights straight starting tomorrow. Yuck!