A Real Vacation Day

Today was our real vacation day, I didn't do any work and Ivy and I got to spend the whole day together. It was a wonderful day. We started off by hopping in our car and driving an hour South to Albuquerque. We made our first stop at the temple. We didn't attend a session, but did walk around the grounds and enjoy seeing a temple that we may not get back to for a long time. After that we drove out to the Petroglyph Nation Monument. We hiked 3 small trails and saw a ton of petroglyphs on the volcanic rock around Albuquerque. From there we headed to Old Town Albuquerque. It is where the original townsite was started. We visited the Catholic Church and then took a tour around the Plaza where we learned all about the early history of the the city. It is beautiful just to walk around and see buildings that have been around for 300+ years. My favorite part of our trip to Old Town Albuquerque was our visit to the Rattlesnake Museum. I was a little worried because I don't like snakes, but I make it through better than Ivy did. We walked around and saw some fairly active snakes, but it wasn't until we spotted the 5 foot long rattlesnake that Ivy started to really feel squeamish. She actually froze for a little bit before she could convince her body that she was in no danger. We also had the opportunity to see some snakes swallowing mice. It was an amazing thing to see how it all works. We visited some of the shops around the plaza and then headed down to the Isotopes Stadium where we had our pictures taken with Homer and Marge Simpson. We then drove across town to walk through a mall. I was in seventh heaven because the mall had 6 sports stores. Ivy just laughed at me because I was like a kid in a candy store. Following our shopping trip we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. We both decided that it would be the perfect place for my family to eat. They had 5 different sporting events blasting on their tv's. If anyone has ever tried to watch a sporting event when my brothers are around they will know how difficult it is for them to stay on one channel. That about does it for our adventures in New Mexico. We are heading home tomorrow but plan on making a few stops along the way, hopefully we will be able to get everywhere we want to.