Spring Break 2026- Great Sand Dunes National Park (Part 4)

 Michael woke up early for the sunrise, which looked amazing! 

We had plans to take a day trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is about a two hour drive. We were all excited to visit a new national park and to go sandboarding. This is our 24th national park. 

With our sandboard and sleds that we rented at the entrance, we trekked out to the sand dunes. It didn't look like a long walk, but was pretty difficult in the sand.

The kids were all so excited to try it out. We quickly discovered that it was much more difficult than it looked. Patrick was the first to pick it up and helped out Caitie a little bit. The other boys picked it up shortly after. I tried twice and called it quits after I bruised my tailbone on a fall. It hurt much more than expected to fall in the sand. 

It was a gorgeous day and the mountains in the background made for such a beautiful view. We had heard that the sand gets extremely hot in the summer, but it was perfect for our visit. 

I was worried that the 4 hour round trip drive wouldn't be worth it, but it was the boys favorite activity on the vacation. They all agreed it was worth the drive. We spent a half a day laying on the sand taking turns going down the hills. 

Caitie had a pretty big fall so Michael and the younger two headed back to the car after a couple hours. Patrick and Peyton hung out for another 45 minutes or so sandboarding. I happily sat in the sand in the 60 degree weather eating prickly pear jelly beans while watching Patrick and Peyton fly down the sand hills. Doesn't get much better than that!

On our way back to town we made a quick stop at a beautiful waterfall. 

We were all really excited to get back to the resort and soak our sore muscles in the hot springs!

It also happened to be St. Patrick's day, so we enjoyed a fun green beverage!

Such a pretty view!

It was such a fun day! I hope it's one that the kids look back on with fond memories! 

Spring Break 2026- Pagosa Springs (Part 3)

We woke up to a gorgeous day! We stayed at The Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs in a gorgeous suite in the the new wing.  Pagosa Springs is home to the world's deepest spring, so that was really fun to see. The resort has over 50 geothermal pools, which vary by temperature by day. We had originally planned to go dogsledding early that morning, but there was not much snow this year. So we planned to have a relaxing day enjoying the hot springs resort.

We alternated between the pools, which each had different temperatures. Peyton and Conor did the cold plunge in the river, which was 32 degrees! 

It was the most relaxing day and great for the teens, who want a little more down time on vacations now. After a great day, we ventured out into town to eat at Kip's Grill. It was a hole in the wall mexican restuarant and was SO good! 

Spring Break 2026- Santa Fe (Part 2)

We checked out of the Four Seasons Santa Fe to drive to Colorado. We had a few stops planned on the way. We stopped at the Manhattan Project for a few minutes. During WWII this served as a top secret administration hub (Site Y) for the development of the atomic bomb. On the drive in, we had to stop at security, provide our drivers license and promise not to take pictures or stop at the buildings on the way. It was a little freaky!

Our next stop was Bandelier National Monument. We hiked the Pueblo Loop Trail, which is an easy 1.5 mile loop. We explored ancient pueblo houses on the trail. The kids thought it was really fun that we could climb up into them.

It was gorgeous scenery

We added the alcove house onto the hike, which adds an additional mile. This is an aerial view of the climb up to the house. Its 140 feet above the canyon floor using ladders. It isn't recommended for children under 10, but we were pretty confident Caitie would do great. You can fall a pretty large distance if you aren't careful. 

Going up was really easy for all of us. There was a lady that dropped her phone and it went crashing down the canyon. She was able to climb down a portion of the canyon and retrieve it. 

If you fall off the sides of the ladder this are huge drop offs, but they did have a little bit of protection at the bottom. 

Made it to the top. There were pretty views from the top.

Going down was a little more challenging for a couple of the kids 

We had really great weather and it was a fun stop on the way to Colorado! 

It was about a 2 and a half hour drive to Pagosa Springs from Bandelier National Monument. We arrived pretty late. We stopped at Riff Raff Brewing for dinner on the way in. It was delicious!

We had a blast in Santa  Fe and all wished we had more time to experience a few more things that were on our list. It is a gorgeous part of the country!

Spring Break 2026- Santa Fe (Part 1)

We booked Spring Break about a week out this year because we were not sure of sports schedules. Flights were pretty limited at that point, so we decided to try a trip that we had thought about for Fall Break. We had initially planned on doing this trip because we wanted to attend the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. However, since this trip was already planned and we were so last minute, we decided to go for Spring Break. We flew into Albuquerque and drove to Santa Fe to start the trip. Our flight was really delayed, so we arrived in Albuquerque around midnight, picked up the renal car and made the house drive to Santa Fe. We arrived in Santa Fe around 2am, which made for a long travel day! 

After such a late night, we slept in and took our time in the morning. We stayed at the Four Seasons Santa Fe in casitas and they had the most gorgeous grounds. 

This hammock was on our patio and Caitie took full advantage. She even relaxed here in the afternoon and watched a wedding with the sun setting in the background.

After a delicious breakfast at the hotel we set off to explore Meow Wolf. It was extremely packed, but we still had such a fun time exploring all of the different rooms. I think the little two had the most fun.

Caitie's favorite room was the pink room. 

Found a hidden selfie machine!

Everywhere you looked was so crazy. We explored for a couple of hours and were pretty sure we saw most everything. They have a couple more Meow Wolf's throughout the country and I have always wanted to experience it. I was glad we were able to fit it in!

After Meow Wolf we headed to Kakawa Chocolate House. This place was so amazing we made another stop towards the end of the trip. The kids enjoyed the shakes, but Michael and I had the sipping chocolates and they were unreal! 

Amazingly delicious and adorable!

We made a quick stop at Santa Fe Brewery for a drink since it was such a nice day. We sat outside and just enjoyed the weather. After a little while exploring downtown Santa Fe, we headed back to the hotel to relax by the pool and let the kids swim.  That night, we ate outside by the fire at the bar and the kids roasted s'mores for dessert. 

Perfect ending to a fun day in Santa Fe!

We headed back to the room where the hotel staff lit a fire. We fell asleep to a crackling fire, which felt like such a nice luxury.