Santa Fe - Bandelier National Monument

On Saturday we went to Santa Fe since we had never been there and it's only about an hour away from Albuquerque. I looked up "fun things to do with kids in Santa Fe" and most of the lists I found included Bandelier National Monument. It was about an hour outside of Santa Fe, and the weather was a bit chilly, so we weren't sure if we wanted to go or not. Ultimately though, we couldn't find anything else to do, so we decided to just go for it.

They have several hikes you can go on, but the one that said it was the most family friendly was just the "main loop". If you include a little jaunt over to Alcove House, it was like 2.25 miles total. I read that you for sure wanted to go to Alcove House -- though it may be tricky with really small kids because it involves climbing up 140 feet of ladders and rock stairs. We figured we would decide later, and we started out on our hike.

Along the main loop there were a few little cliff houses that you could climb up into. The kids thought it was sooooo fun. I'm not going to lie -- I did too!

If you look closely in the photo below, you'll see Kylee in the window on the far right, Ally in then next one over, and Andy, Skyler and Colby in the far left. This was one big cliff house with a bunch of windows. Andy let Colby climb up some of the shorter ladders on his own (with Andy going right behind him), but he carried him up the bigger ones, and he carried him back down them all so he wouldn't fall.

When we got to the turn off to go to Alcove House, the kids really wanted to do it. I thought Kylee was plenty old enough to handle it; Andy could carry Colby; I could go right behind Ally; ...so Skyler was the iffy one. We finally decided that we would give it a try as long as he promised to be really, really careful and go really, really slow.

Along the trail there was snow, and the kids were in heaven. The only snow some of them had seen was the little bit that fell at Connie's house the prior week, so the fact that they could pick up this snow and throw snowballs at each other was so much fun for them.

When we got to the part where you have to go 140 feet up the cliff...it looked a little daunting. Two of the ladders were REALLY tall. We had Skyler go first, and just go really slow. Ally went next, and then I went behind her. Then Andy carried up Colby, Kylee went next, and grandma Karen went behind her, just in case.

Some of the stairs and pathways were really narrow as well, so you had to make sure nobody else was coming before you went, because there was no way to pass in some areas. However, when we got to the top the view was really pretty! 

For the climb back down, Andy decided to have Skyler go above him because he didn't want to knock Ally and I down if he slipped. Luckily these kids are not afraid of heights, and we just reminded them a LOT to go super duper slow and make sure they had their feet planted before they moved their hands.

I love the worried look on Colby's face as he watches backwards over Andy's shoulder. When they got within a few rungs of the bottom, he yelled "Done! Done."

If you look close at the picture below, you can see a couple of the ladders going up the cliff. It really wasn't as dangerous as it sounds/looks -- I think. As long as kids understand about danger, and know how to be careful and move slowly, I think it is totally doable. I'm really glad that we went, and the day turned out not to be too horribly cold, either. It was actually really nice.

Albuquerque Zoo/Aquarium/Botanical Gardens & Kid's Museum

A couple of days after Colby's birthday Andy had an appointment in Albuquerque that he needed to go to, and his mom had scheduled her flight home from there that Sunday, so on Thursday morning we woke up super early and drove up there. We dropped Andy off at his appointment, and then headed to the Albuquerque Zoo, Aquarium, and Botanical Gardens. My Carlsbad Zoo pass gets me 1/2 off at affiliate zoos, and this one was on the list, and it got good reviews, so we decided to try it. We got there around 9:45am, rented a wagon, and off we went.

This zoo was totally worth it! I actually wish Andy had been able to go with us. There was almost nobody there (probably because it was a school day and a smidge chilly), and almost all the animals were actually out playing, probably because it wasn't super hot. These monkeys were swinging from their fence and all their toys -- and they were eating newspapers. Eeeww! We looked it up, and apparently that's a normal thing for them to do.

One of the Polar Bears kept diving into his pool and then floating around on his back. Then he'd climb out and do it again. He had a waterslide, and the kids kept hoping he would go down it, so we watched him for a loooong time. Unfortunately, he never did slide.

We brought a picnic to eat for lunch, and these peacocks were just wandering around all over the place. This one kept creeping closer and closer to Colby - trying to get his chips, I think.

They have two different trains that you can ride. One just takes you on a tour around part of the zoo, and the other ones takes you over to the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens, and then you ride it back to the zoo when you are done. My kiddos LOVE trains, so this was a highlight of their day.

The Aquarium was pretty small, but their huge main tank had a lot of cool things in it, and we happened to be there when they were feeding the animals, so we watched that for a while. It was really fun to see.

We didn't realize how much there was to see at all the places, so we actually ran out of time and weren't able to see much of the Botanical Gardens. We spent a full 8-9 hours that day, and it wasn't enough. We probably should have spent less time watching the Polar Bear...but who knew there would be so much to do?!? We did walk through the Botanical Gardens for about 20 minutes, and they were getting all their Christmas lights put up. It would be really cool to go back here during Christmas and see them all at night.

They also had this cute little train display with tiny trains. They had Thomas and Percy and some others from that genre, and Colby LOVES them currently, so he was in heaven watching them drive around.

When we got back to the zoo we had about an hour until they were going to close, so we had to hurry and see everything that was left. This was so cute - the mom was holding her sleeping baby on her lap.

I really thought I had more pictures, but I guess not! Over all, this was totally worth it. Even though we spent all day there, the kids didn't get bored, and we didn't even get to see everything. I for sure want to go back again sometime when Andy can come with us!

The next day Andy was available to hang out with us, so we went to the Kid's Museum in Albuquerque. It was also really cool. The kids could probably have spent all day there. It's mostly geared towards Science, so they had lots of things to play with/learn about with regards to that. The photo above is Kylee riding a bike on a high wire that is two stories up from the floor. I tried it as well, and even though you know you can't fall...it's pretty scary! I thought she was really brave to try it.

They also had a bubble room that Colby LOVED. The other kids enjoyed it as well, but I think Colby could've stayed in this one room all day.

Skyler's favorite thing was this airplane takeoff/landing module. You sit in the chair, and there is a pedal you push with your foot to turn on a huge fan, and then you have to use the hand controls to get the plane to take off, and then land it again. I wasn't able to figure it out, but Skyler was really good at it!

Again, I wish I had taken more pictures, but...we'll just have to go back again sometime!