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.