White Sands National Monument

In the name of medical school I have been blessed to see many new and exciting places in this great country...I could never imagine I'd add "world's largest pistachio" to that list.  But I DID!  While Clark was exploring a job possibility the boys and I had a few days of adventuring in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

We were really fortunate to be there on a beautiful, sunny day to explore the White Sands National Monument.  It was awesome!  Several acres of white sand dunes.  We bought a little saucer sled on our way in, waxed the bottom and had a blast.  The sand was so soft, and on the packed down areas the sled went pretty fast.  The joy of sledding without gloves falling off and getting cold.

Quinn just loved playing in the world's biggest sand box.

There were several little picnic tables set up to block the wind and sun.  While we enjoying a little juice on this table all of a sudden we heard an explosion.  It literally made the table shake, made all of the car alarms go off, and scared us all to death.  We knew we were close to a military base, but weren't expecting a bomb explosion.  My boys had many theories about the bomb.  It really scarred Quinn, he has been talking about it ever since.  Come to find out later it was actually a sonic boom...one of the military jets broke the sound barrier...pretty cool!

Ethan and Caden running through the desert.

Quinn didn't need a sled.

This shadow pictures proves I was there too.

The sand was so soft and perfect, it reminded me of sugar cookie dough the deeper down we dug.

Of course when I pointed that out to Caden he had to taste it.  He wasn't a fan, but kept trying it until I told him there might be lizard poop in there so he better stop.  

It was like a place I've never seen, and I'm glad we had a chance to experience the white sands!