White Sands National Monument

As I mentioned in the last post, we're in New Mexico now.  After waiting two years to see it, we finally made it to White Sands National Monument, in Alamogordo.  I just wanted to post a few photos here, so you can see how beautiful it is!

The first day we arrived, we set up and headed straight over to see what we could see.  We arrived later in the afternoon on an extremely windy day.  One ranger warned us to stay close to our vehicle because the wind was so bad.  So we only walked three dunes over from the parking lot.

"Mom, take a picture of me!  See how far I can lean into the wind before I fall!"

Meg was feelin' it!  All was peaceful and quiet.  I guess most of the visitors had gone home for the day.

Some parts of the park look exactly like a winter wonderland, which is a bit of a mind trick.  Driving over the sand-crusted roads sounds similar driving on packed snow.

No hands!

We didn't have any wax for the sled on this day, but that didn't stop Jackson from trying!

After we were done playing in the dunes, the parents raced the kids in a cross-dune sprint!  Jeff and I were hurting the next day because sometimes being fun parents is a dangerous game to play.  Those kids are surprisingly fast!

This is pretty much the only critter living in White Sands that has not adapted to blend in.  The mice, lizards, and praying mantis' all have white skin and fur, but not this guy.  We read that the black is supposed to be a warning to predators.  Mess with him and he'll spray you with a stinky liquid!

We went back a few days later--this time with our new friends, the Jacobs'!  It was during the heat of the day, which made climbing up and down the dunes a little harder, but we had so much fun. 

The first little dune that we found wasn't big enough to gain much speed, but we had wax this time and that did make things go faster.  We learned that the toboggans are way faster than the saucers. 

Things that happen when you have the most common name on the planet, #2345.

(I guess the lady walking ahead of us was also named Sarah.)

Jax and Lathan

Running up the dunes is harder than it looks!  We all got a workout in this day!

Michael and Britt's eldest son, Devin, gave me a glimpse of what to expect when Jackson hits the teen years.  He was running and diving and doing flips...we need more insurance before Jackson hits this age.  Britt told him to protect his teeth.  Ha!

Jeff surfed the toboggan down the next hill we found.  I'd like to be able to tell you that he made it to the bottom on his feet...

Trickster Dad.  "Hey girls, let's all run down together."  Then he takes them to the edge and tries to launch them off.  

Meg made it all the way down on her feet!

We joked that they should have a hillevator to take you back up!

We did a few other outings while we were in Alamogordo, but I'll put those in a separate post.  I'm so glad I finally got to see White Sands National Monument!