White Sands and Black and Blue Bottoms

September has turned out to be a pretty rough month for Jason and I with alot going on so I felt really blessed to have last weekend to get away from it all and visit family.  Cody and Brittany moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico in June, and I had not seen them since they moved from Houston last November (definitely the longest I have ever gone without seeing my baby brother).  My parents had planned a trip up to see them last weekend so I decided to tag along.  We had a great weekend just spending time with family.  We ate out, grilled at home, shopped, watched football, saw the sites, attended a hot air balloon festival at White Sands National Park, and embarked on a sledding adventure (which turned out to be the comic relief of the entire weekend.....see pics below).  Thanks Cody and Brittany for letting us all visit.  It was so great to see ya'll.

 We took the scenic drive from the airport to Cody and Britt's house, and I just loved this street lined with pecan trees.

 Dinner at Pecan Grill

 On Friday, Cody took us down to the town square to look in all the local shops.  I loved these chili peppers and wish I had a way to get them home.

 

 My baby brother and his beautiful wife

 The fam...minus Jason and Cale

 Love these two!! 

 Cody kicked off the sledding and showed us how its done.

 Could she be any more precious?  I don't think so.

 So the story behind the title commences with this picture.  My fantastic mom does not do anything halfheartedly and apparently sledding at White Sands is no different.  Instead of slowing herself down at the end of the hill, mom headed down full force and ended up getting no less than 2 feet of air.  Unfortunately, she landed directly on her tailbone on the pavement at the bottom of the hill.  Once we knew she was ok, it turned out to be rather comical.  She did, however, end up with a bruised tailbone and a bruised ego as a bystander decided to call the White Sands EMS to check out the woman who wiped out sledding.  Mom was thoroughly embarrassed, but we were very happy she was not seriously injured.  We ended up laughing about it the rest of the weekend.....sorry Mom!

 Once we confirmed that mom was ok, the picture taking of the scene commenced.  haha

 Dad taking his turn on the hill.

 So fun!!

 We ended the day by taking a short hot air balloon ride which was really neat.  It was beautiful to look out at all the endless amounts of white sand all around.

Labor Day Weekend

I love long weekends, and this one was no exception.  Jason and I had a low-key weekend filled with family and football.  Saturday afternoon I headed out to Katy for Shelby's 4th b-day party.  It was so great to see all the family, and Miss Shelby was just precious.  She was so excited opening all her gifts and saying "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you got me this for my birthday!" or "I love this!" over and over.  She was also giving lots of hugs and saying thank you to everyone without even being prompted.  What a sweetie!!  Sunday morning, Jason and I woke up early and headed up to the lake to spend Sunday and Monday with his parents.  Donna and David also headed up for the night.  We had a great time sitting around chatting and eating Donna's BBQ crab.  We also got to watch the Aggies beat up on SMU which topped off the weekend.  Hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend otherwise known as opening weekend of college football in our house!!

 Miss Callie in her bathing suit

 Josh and Macie

 Ross and Kim rented an inflatable slide that sprayed water.  All the kids (and several of the adults) had an absolute blast.

 Cade and Coop

 Bailey was being so sweet and helping Callie with the slide.

 Shelby and Tyler

 Aunt Sherry and Macie

 Tyler enjoyed his cupcake..haha

 Is that not the most precious thing?!

The Richard Johnson clan just keeps growing and growing.