White Sands

Our family (minus Rus) decided to celebrate President's day last Monday by going to White Sands National Park near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Coincidentally, the Park was celebrating President's day by giving free admission, a win-win for us! The kids also had Tuesday off of school for teacher in-service, so we decided to go down Monday, stay the night, and drive home Tuesday. I made our plans Sunday evening, but despite the short notice my parents took little convincing to accept my invitation to come along. (YAY! I love that they live close by and that my dad is retired and that they have adventurous spirits!)
We packed up and headed out Monday morning. It's about four hours from my house to White Sands, but the drive was pleasant. We stopped at every historical marker (at my dad's request) and enjoyed being on new roads through new towns that we'd never seen before. They were small specks of towns, but quaint nonetheless.
We drove straight to White Sands, spent a few painful minutes at the gift shop (please, please can I buy that stuffed animal/pin/puzzle!!), and then drove out to the surreal landscape of the dunes. After a few hundred yards the paved road gave way to packed white sand. It looked just like packed snow, complete with plow driven berms of sand lining the sides of the road. White was the main color, accented by dots of color from visitor's clothing and vehicles and interspersed with the occasional desert plant. We drove to the end of the loop because that's where they said the biggest dunes were. Bekah was the first to grab a sled from the trunk and try to sled down the gentle slope in front of our van. It didn't work. My grand plans of sledding froze and I worried that the trip was in vain. We tried another dune with a different disk-sled and it was equally painful. Finally watched a little family send their mother down a steep looking dune and heard her happy squeals as a signal of success. We encroached on their spot and soon the kids were happily sledding full speed down the dune. My mom and dad even took their turns.

Marianne went once with me, and though she didn't hate it, she was unyielding in any attempts to get her to go again. She did enjoy making sand-angels though.

Bekah was the first to be buried in the sand. My dad made her into a mermaid, and much to my embarrassment she couldn't get over the fact that she had boobs made of sand.

Beau got buried next; he was a spider/octopus.

Then Grandpa gave Marianne big feet. Jacob and Beau enjoyed making small tunnels of sand and big dug-outs that could hold their whole bodies.
I remembered that a friend had suggested we try jumping off of the dunes and soon had Beau and Bekah leaping while I took pictures. Then I gave Bekah the camera so she could try to get me. I admit, I found it exhilarating and terrifying to leap off the edge, even though I knew the sand would catch me. It still felt like I was falling. It was my favorite part of the dunes.

After a while, my mom, Marianne and Bekah had retreated to the car and Beau, Jacob, my dad and I explored a few more dunes and took advantage of the blank canvas they provided. We wrote our names and drew pictures; I held the boy's feet so they could walk and leave handprints in the sand.
Eventually we returned to the van, but reluctant to leave yet we found pieces of trash that could serve as molds for building sand castles. We had quite a village by the time we were done. That was my dad's favorite part.

When we were all satisfied, we left and allowed another visit to the gift shop so the kids could spend their money on pins and stuffed animals and two small carved rock animals, and on my part, a small white sand castle.
We decided to see the lay of the land in Alamogordo before settling in our hotel. It is a small town, I think kept mainly alive by its proximity to Holloman Air Force base and the White Sands Missile range. Thus there is a long main strip with a lot of fast food restaurants and not a lot else. (I'll admit our drive wasn't really thorough because we were all tired of being in the car.)
We checked in to the hotel and immediately changed so we could swim in the pool, as much a destination in our trip as White Sands. My dad is really fun in the pool and gave any willing child a chance to ride on his back while he swam underwater. Most of us were quickly drawn to the hot tub, though.
Later we ate some BBQ ("best ribs ever," -Mom and Dad and Bekah), and then went to bed.
The next morning, Marianne made herself pancakes. She had slept in my parent's room, laying with my mom in one bed and telling my dad, while pointing to the other bed, that he had to sleep in the "boy bed." My dad took her to get breakfast and there was the most wonderful machine there. It had a button that said, "press here for pancakes" and when you pressed it, a conveyor belt started inside and within a minute two pancakes rolled off the end of the belt and onto your plate. Marianne was incredibly proud of herself and her cooking ability.
We checked out by 8:30 and decided to visit Cloudcroft before returning home. It was a blip of a mountain town, and unfortunately we arrived too early to enjoy any of the touristy shops it offered. We did get to see a large tourist trap called the Apple Barn that had one invaluable offering: it sold grapefruit spoons. As a grapefruit lover, I'd been wanting one! We also had to stop and sample the locally grown pistachios. We wound up with large bags of our own that we snacked on most of the way home.
And that was it. A wonderful whirlwind trip. I'd go again in a heartbeat!