Spring Break 2011

We traveled to Ruidoso, New Mexico, for our spring break.  The boys had a wonderful time and it was nice to get away for a few days.  

We left out on a Sunday morning and drove to Carlsbad Caverns.  The boys were amazed (I was too!).

 The elevator we rode in to go to the bottom.  The gray that you see through the windows is ROCK.  You go down about 75 stories into the Big Room.

The formations in the cave are calcite.

Of course, the cave brought the teacher out in me and I talked to the boys about stalactites and stalagmites.  There were a bunch of them! 

Kade and C (a friend that went with Kade)

Carlsbad Caverns is 56 degrees Fahrenheit all year long, but the humidity reaches close to 100%.

These stalactites were called "The Lion's Tail".  It has popcorn calcite on the bottom of it.  They really did look like bushy lion tails.

 Pool of clear water.  There is hardly any water in the cave.

While we were in Ruidoso we did some geo-caching.  Here is one cache we found.

The weather was in the 70s each day, so there wasn't any natural snow.  We did go tubing, though, at a tubing park that made their snow.

Here is a video of Kade & C tubing.

Clint is the guy in brown and black laying down, ready to take off.

We were fortunate enough to be able to stay at Nede's house, so that was helpful on the checkbook!  We also went bowling, ate out a few times, and just did lots of playing and relaxing at the house.