Thursday, April 22, 2021

Did We Actually Book A Vacation?

The last time I announced a vacation on my blog, 4 days later the world shut down. So I'm a little nervous to talk about what we have planned for later this year. But I realized when I posted a picture of my new puffer jacket, I realized I never shared that we actually have booked a trip!

The idea for this trip started with our snow weekend in January. We got 4-6" of snow and had a blast! 


Our neighbor/friend, Karin, had the idea that it would be fun to have a real snow vacation and go with the kids. Given we didn't know the status of the world, we decided to find somewhere we could drive and began looking at properties in New Mexico and Colorado.

Our usual couples were all interested and we found a house in Ruidoso that could accommodate 10 adults and 11 kids ranging in age of 18 months to 14 years and booked it!

2008
Allena/Brent* ~ Karin/Kelby ~ Dez/Derek ~ Rhonda/Ryan
[Susie and Riley weren't dating yet]
*baby Trent snuck on this trip

12 years later and still traveling together - our local 2020 staycation
Ryan/Rhonda, Riley/Allena, Brent/Susie, Derek/Dez
[Kelby and Karin were in new baby land]

THEN our February Snow-vid experience happened and we all started questioning whether we really wanted another week of snow, ha! But we figured the house we rented is prepared for lots of snow and at a minimum wouldn't lose electricity for hours and hours when it's 3 degrees outside! {grin}

Views from the house!


One thing I've been trying to do is buy what I can while things are on sale at the end of winter. We have almost nothing that is appropriate for real winters, so I'm looking at winter coats, hats, gloves, long johns, ski pants, socks, boots...the whole 9 yards! Unfortunately I'm not looking at too much for the kids since it's hard to guess their sizes in 8 months, but I might try at the end of summer.

So far for myself I have bought the puffer jacket I shared Tuesday and a pair of snow boots. One of my friends has some ski things I can borrow, so I don't think I'm too far off for myself being prepared.

My new boots! I got them 50% off!

So there you have it - all the details for an officially booked trip in 2021! For you 'real winter' people, what are the must haves we need to stay warm and what can I buy now??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


3 comments:

Natasha said...

Whoooo hoooo!!! I mean I'd be MUCH MORE excited if you were coming to visit us but this sounds like a totally do-able vacation!!! Enjoy!!!

Kathryn Bagley said...

This is so exciting!! The place looks beautiful! Love the boots.

Emily said...

Def had to google Ruidoso lol. Never had heard of it. My biggest advice with cold is layers layers layers. Don't bring 6 sweaters (for one, packing sweaters is horrible) but maybe bring 1-2 sweaters and then a ton of layerable shirts. For example: Workout gear [clean, lol] makes a great base layer, then a t-shirt over it, and then long sleeve over the t-shirt, and hell, put another tee over that long sleeve. You will want good stuff for the extremities: boots, mittens, hat (except, I hate hats and instead use ear muffs or hoods). That said, you don't need to buy name brand. Target or Walmart or whatever cheap brand will last you just fine for the very brief time that you are there. If you have to invest in one and only one thing, I would buy wool socks (SmartWool is king). That is the only requirement Oliver's preschool teachers give: every kid MUST have wool socks.