Family Vacation - COVID-STYLE, Day 4 - Flying J Chuck Wagon

We spent our day at the condo, playing games, doing laundry, and mending football pants. Oh wait, that last part was just me.

One of the activities I planned before we left Utah was a trip to the Flying J Chuck Wagon and Western Show. Our older kids had seen the Bar J Wranglers in Jackson Hole and we loved their show, so we thought it might be fun to share something similar with the younger kids.

After the half hour drive, we decided to begin by letting Curly and Baby Doll ride horses.

They loved being on the horses, but the saddle was a bit small for Curly.

After the horses, the kids panned for gold. Scout was super excited to find some tiny gold nuggets!

We all enjoyed the shootout on mainstreet!

Then it was time for dinner. We ate outside to maintain social distancing.

Then we watched the concert.

We had so much fun!! If you get to this area, make sure you add the Flying J to your schedule. You won't be disappointed. 

Family Vacation - COVID-STYLE, Day 3 - Downtown Ruidoso

After a calm and quiet Sabbath, we got a bit more adventurous on Monday and we decided to take a ride into town. Ruidoso is a little famous for its main street shopping district. They have tons of little shops and we had a great time exploring.

Nearly everyone we see in New Mexico wears a mask. In fact, when I was reaching for a bag of lettuce at the gocery store, an older lady on a scooter thanked me for wearing my mask to keep her safe.

One of my favorite places was this huge consighment shop. It had everything!! Most of it was used, but some things were new. Noah loved this black cowboy hat and finally convinced his dad to buy it for him.

The kids bought books and my sweetie bought a new belt at the leather shop. My best purchase is a secret since it is a gift!

Our last stop was for frozen yogurt before we headed back to our condo. 

Crafty and Scout made Filipino food for dinner and lemon bars for dessert. We eat better here than we do at home!

Family Vacation - COVID-STYLE, Day 2 - Driving Through New Mexico

We spent most of our 2nd day just driving.

Our destination was New Mexico and that required driving hundreds of miles through the Navajo Nation carefully avoiding stops since they are still supposed to be closed because of the pandemic. We only got off a couple of times for gas during the 7 or 8 hours on the road.

The kids were a bit stir crazy, but it helped that we were able to spread out between the two cars. Did I tell you that Crafty brought her car? She and Drama Queen had to work on Thursday, so they left about 5 hours after we did although we mostly travelled together on the road to New Mexico.

We finally arrived at our condo in the woods in a little town called Ruidoso. It is beautiful, with heavily wooded trees and lakes. We were warned about a bear sighting the previous week and the kids were nervous and mostly wanted to stay in and play games. We also watched a couple of movies too.

We are trying to isolate ourselves from the world as much as possible, but we do have plans to go out tomorrow. I want the kids to see more than the walls that surround us. Several of them went on a mini-hike and they had an impromptu photo shoot. I will try to get some pics from them to put up tomorrow.

Even though I have been busy mending football pants pretty constantly, I still have a whole suitcase full to finish for the little league teams before we get home. Somehow I managed to get the hardest ones out first and each pair takes several hours. I'm glad I have had this time, but I am also looking forward to spending time having adventures with my family.

Family Vacation - COVID-STYLE, Day 1 - Through Monticello and Cortez

My sweetie and I talked for hours about the idea of going on a family vacation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since our #1 priority is keeping our family safe, it didn't take us long to eliminate Florida and the coasts.

We finally decided on a remote area well away from people. Fortunately, our condos are quite a bit nicer than these we found in a little park when when we stopped for dinner in Monticello.

We spent our first night in Cortez, Colorado. The kids loved that they could use the pool and hot tub, but we are just passing through. 

I will be BACK to tell you about our actual destination tomorrow.

I promise you, we'll be back...😉