White Sands National Monument

On our way home from Ruidoso, NM, we decided to stop off at the White Sands National Monument - just to say we'd finally been to see the white sand. The White Sands National Monument is the world's largest gypsum dune field. It is a 275-square-mile area of great wave-like dunes of pure-white gypsum in the middle desert and can be seen from the highway about 60 miles away. The gypsum comes from the western portion of the monument where a lake with a very high mineral content, evaporates and leaves behind gypsum deposits that are then wind-transported to form the white dunes. Some of the dunes move at a rate of up to 30 feet per year!

Driving through the fields to get to the big dunes reminded us a lot of driving through a snowy Washington mountain pass - especially seeing the 6 foot high piles of sand on either side of the road and following the guy plowing the access road (be it on a road grader as opposed to a snow plow).

We hiked up a dune or two, only to discover the sand was cool to the touch (even to our bare feet!) and nothing like beach sand that's sat in the sun all day in 90+ degree temperatures. Also reminding us of snow were the kids sledding down the dunes on sleds you could rent from the gift shop.

Athena had a blast digging in the sand and had us covered from head to toe before it was time to get back into the truck.

It was a wonderful side-trip on our way home and we can't wait to bring our next visitors up to see the sights!

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Road Trip to Ruidoso, NM

Instead of spending the entire two weeks of Cam's Block Leave doing Home Improvement activities (see later post) and hanging around sweltering El Paso, we decided to escape town for a few days. We headed north to the southern/central New Mexico town of Ruidoso. We had been promised, by several of our local friends, that the Ruidoso area would be the cure for all our tree-withdrawal symptoms. So, we packed up the truck, grabbed the dog and made the two and a half hour drive north.

Ruidoso did not disappoint. Its rolling mountains and hills were covered with Ponderosa Pines, various deciduous trees and green grass! There were streams and lakes, cute little "yuppie" and ski shops to peruse, and many, many, many cabins to stay in. (Too bad we chose one over the internet that turned out to be so "quaint" that it had newspaper taped to cracks in the windows...)

During our three days in town, we went for a nice, leisurely hike in the Lincoln Forest. It was glorious to be in the woods again and hear the stream babbling away as we walked. We also found out that despite her lack of enthusiasm for sprinklers, kiddie-pools and baths, Athena IS a true water dog. She happily went splashing through the creek we had to cross over/through several times, stopping only to bite at the rushing water. She also loved being able to find all kinds of new plants to sniff and even found a little garter snake to chase.

While out in the Lincoln National Forest, we stopped at the Monjeau Lookout, an active Forest Service fire lookout tower. It was completed in 1940, sits at 9640 feet in elevation and provides a gorgeous 360 degree view of 160 square miles of forest land.

We spent the rest of our "vacation" window shopping, trying new restaurants in town and just relaxing. We also took a walk in a local park where Athena found her first official stick ... from a tree!

It was a lovely short getaway and reintroduced a little green into our rather dull, brown desert lives!

Holiday Highlights

Here are a few random highlights from the Smith's Christmas/New Years season:

#1: Graduate from BOLC III with honors:
During the BOLC III Graduation Ceremony, Cam was awarded the BG Mellnik Leadership Award, as voted on by his classmates and approved by the Cadre, and the Army Communication Skills Award for his superior grades on his Cultural Awareness Paper, Battle Analysis and Operation Order. As the leadership award recipient, he also led his classmates in the Soldier's Creed during the graduation ceremony.


#2: Drive non-stop north through the western US states:
After the graduation ceremony, we packed up the truck and headed out for a 24+ hour trip north through New Mexico, Arizona, and California to Washington and Oregon to spend time with our families. We spent 4 days in the Vancouver/Portland area visiting with Cam's parents, siblings, nieces, nephew, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... We even squeezed in some time to visit with some of Kristy's family friends while we were in town. On Christmas Eve, we headed to Eastern Washington to spend a few days with Kristy's parents, brothers and grandma.

The Smith/Anderson/Dunphy gang

With Dad Smith and his girlfriend

Twins? Uncle Cam and his nephew

The Smiths, The Lebers and Grandma

#3: Pray for no snow on our drive home:
We took a different route home through Idaho, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. We were blessed enough to only find a little snow just as we were leaving Utah and saw the most beautiful sunrise in New Mexico.

#4: Finish unpacking and organizing our NEW house:
After arriving home safely after a 20+ hour drive, we set to work unpacking our remaining boxes and organizing everything! We ended up with a HUGE garage sale pile (We'll drag it all to our friends' house on Post for the Spring Post-Wide Garage sale) and more space than we know what to do with. On the bright side, both cars fit in the garage with space to spare for our bikes and a work bench for Cam!

#5: Attend the 2009 Sun Bowl:
Our house-inspection guy noticed that we were big football fans (How could he not when we were sporting Coug gear from head to toe when we met him?) and offered us free tickets to watch our Pac-10 brethren Stanford take on the University of Oklahoma. We figured that we'd be safe with either teams' fans if we proudly wore our WSU crimson. While our adopted team didn't win, we had a GREAT time and got to see the Army Knights parachute team deliver the game ball.



#6: Start a new job:
After all the hullabaloo of the holidays, Cam was ready to start his new job with his new command. He is currently a platoon leader for the A-4 THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) Battery. He is currently spending most days "out in the field" learning the system and meeting his team.

As a final note, we wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our family and friends we visited over the Christmas break!!! You guys went above and beyond for us and we feel so lucky and loved! Until we can visit again, our door is always open and we now have a super comfy Guest Room! :)

Weekend Adventures in San Antonio

In honor of our third anniversary and 30th birthdays (all which fall within five weeks of each other), we spent a weekend in San Antonio!

It was always a city on our List to Visit and since our beloved Cougs would be playing Notre Dame in the Alamodome ON Cam's 30th birthday, it was a hard decision to make!

We spent all Saturday morning visiting the Alamo ruins along with our fellow Coug and ND fans. We took the self-guided tour through the chapel, visited exhibits in the Long Barrack (the last strong-hold of the Texan defenders against the Mexican Army), listened to Park Ranger talks, and, of course, shopped at the gift shop!

After a morning spent immersed in the rich history of the city, we decided to explore the miles and miles of Riverwalk that run throughout downtown. We took the 30 minute guided boat tour and learned several interesting facts about the city and it's architecture. We explored shops and restaurants. We also passed many, many, many fans dressed in their Crimson finest and were greeted across the river by shouts of "Go Cougs!"

When it was finally time to head to the game, we joined the large stream of fans with high hopes for a good game, if not a Cougar victory. Unfortunately, the wrong team won, but we did run into a former high school classmate and another friend that worked with Cam at the CUB!

Before flying out Sunday, we spent the day touring the four other missions in the San Antonio river valley. All of these missions had similar designs: chapel, rectory, housing for the native population, protective walls, etc. The missions are in varying stages of preservation and excavation, but they each have active congregations that still worship weekly in the chapels built in the mid-1800s.

All in all, we had a great weekend and it was especially nice to get away from home to celebrate some very special days!

Fun times in San Antonio

The Five Missions of San Antonio