guadaloupe national park

our last full day spent on our trip was actually back in texas. we drove past carlsbad national park across the NM/TX border to another national park...

 

28 weeks!

look how close we were to getting the sign in the picture with us! haha

 we decided to do a four mile hike here called Devil's Hall.

the hike was kind of separated into three portions. the first was regular hiking on a trail through brush and trees with not much shade.

the second portion was through a wash which meant we were climbing lots of big boulders and following cairns to know where to go since there wasn't a trail. i didn't mind this on the way up, but the way down was kind of difficult with my belly. downhill in general really isn't that great, it starts to hurt under my belly and i wasn't wearing a bellyband or anything. there was pretty much no shade while in the wash.

 

the third portion was short but through these step-looking things!! it all looked manmade to me and was so cool!

here i am standing in devil's hall itself! i don't know why it is named that because the cool breeze blowing through the hall felt heavenly. we ate lunch on some of the stairs at the end of the trail and it was so relaxing. we were the only people there! we saw maybe 7 people the whole hike, it was great. this canyon really reminded us of slot canyon in anza borrego, ca where jon liked to off road. 

doesn't this look like the facade of a building or museum or something? so pretty. it is layers upon layers of sediment. 

 the whole guadaloupe mountain range is an ancient reef. at one point it was all underwater; the ranger described it as one big fossil. it was a pretty hike with great weather, difficult but not too strenuous. we drove back to the hotel to rest for a bit and then swam at carlsbad lake again. my back was hurting a bit after the hike and i felt great after swimming, it is so amazing how that works. we finished the night off with some little caesars and television, haha.

believe them when people tell you there is not much to see in west texas. we wanted to take a different route home than we took to carlsbad so we could sightsee, but this was literally the only stop worthwhile. this stonehenge replica was in Odessa, texas and it was awesome! neither of us have been to the real thing, but we did appreciate this pretty good replica.
our trip was so much fun, we are grateful to be able to spend some quality time alone together before the baby arrives. 12 weeks and counting...

carlsbad day two!!

today was such a fun day! new mexico is an hour behind san antonio which probably explains why we keep waking up so early. today we got up and went to the lake again after breakfast. we were the only ones there and it was so relaxing. my back has been bothering me a lot since i have been pregnant so a little over a month ago i started going to physical therapy. my therapist really encourages me to swim as much as possible so we have been doing just that. it feels so good to stretch underwater and be weightless. i 'water jog' and doggy paddle around a lot which is a bit of a work out, haha. 

 on our way to the caverns we stopped at a gift shop for some funny pics.

after that we went to the caverns for our lantern lit left hand tunnel tour!!!!

seeing the caverns and formations lit by only candlelight was a great experience. i kept getting the feeling that we were underwater. it looked so much like ariel's dads house on the little mermaid and the flickering candles made it look like water on the ceiling. we blew out the candles and sat in the quiet darkness again on this tour and luckily everyone behaved themselves. 

 the last thing we did underground was walk around the big room which was amazing!!! big does not begin to describe this cave, it was unbelievably large! i wish pictures depicted it better because there were some really cool formations. you'll just have to take our word for it and maybe a trip down here yourselves.

 behind the park ranger is the 'natural entrance' to the caverns, aka where the tens of thousands of bats fly out every night. we waited until dusk then saw them all circling the entrance and flying off into the distance. we weren't allowed to take photos because i guess our electronics give off noise when they're on and these are country bats not city bats. (so the ranger said)
this was our last day at carlsbad national park and we had soooo muchhhh funnnn. i am just so grateful to be spending non-stop time with jon.
tomorrow we are headed to Guadeloupe mountains national park!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

 yesterday jon and i finally headed out of san antonio to new mexico! we've been planning this trip for over six months and we are so excited that it has arrived!!

 we made sure to stop and walk around plenty of times on the way and it still only took us about 6 hours to get to carlsbad! here is jon in sonora, texas...a weird tiny town we walked around in...

 made it to the hotel!!

 after checking in, we went to go get some recommended hamburgers at Happy's. we saw this "loving" street sign and had to stop. we always say "loving" to each other and randomly text each other that simple word....hahaha. 

 happy's was eclectic....

27 weeks 5 days.

 i had forgotten that jon saw this street while he drove through here in may. he surprised me! so cool! there is also a really great ice cream shop on canal street and hagerman street...so we got ice cream too.

 today we woke up early from excitement and got a good start on the day. jon wanted to take this picture because two years ago we were on our way to st. george with our family and we took a picture of him like this with a buck. here is version 2.0. 

(please note jon's birthday hiking boots. he's now a legit hiker)

 so excited to be here! the weather above ground was really nice, not nearly as hot as it is in san antonio.

 we had a tour at 10:30am and didn't begin our decent through the "natural entrance" until 9:45am. they recommend giving yourself an hour and fifteen to get to the bottom, but we did it in about 35. we would not recommend rushing the whole way down! we were so stressed that we were going to miss the tour, but it was a cool hike. we are going to do it again tomorrow at a slow pace so we can stop and see the formations.

 once we cooled off from running down into the cave (750 feet underground), it got cold! it is a constant 56 degrees year round.

 it is really difficult to capture the beauty underground. it is almost pointless to take photos because they don't portray what you are really seeing at all. just take our word for it that the caverns are enormous beyond belief and beautiful. we did the King's Palace tour which took us through three or four very large rooms. at one point the tour guide turned off all the lights and we sat in total and utter darkness. she asked for complete silence as well. almost as soon as we all quieted, someone decided to...pass gas. i felt like a teenager in church again trying desperately not to laugh throughout the entire prayer. it was so ridiculous, but jon and i have been laughing all day about it. the nerve of some people.

 after the tour we went on a 9 mile scenic drive and saw these big horned sheep! at first i thought they were iron statues like we saw in anza borrego, but they were the real deal!! it was so cute seeing them move in their little pack away from us and our car!

look at this funny veggie jon found growing out in the wild! he thinks it is some sort of squash. 

the scenic drive was really beautiful, but we were both so tired for some reason! the gravel road was putting us both to sleep. it took everything in us to get out and take these photos, hahaha. 

we came home and napped and then went to the pecos river to swim around only because the pool at our hotel was broken! it turned out to be pretty nice and the temperature wasn't bad so we will probably go back tomorrow. for dinner jon had a salad and i ate 9 bagel bites.
we are having tons of fun, i just love being together.

the magic kingdom!!!

aw, we saved the best park for last. we were all happy and ready to get the day started!

jason told us that the magic kingdom is set up higher than ground level. underneath the whole park is a tunnel system to help all of the characters get where they need to be without walking in the open through the park. he also said that sometimes it'll be raining in the other parks, but the weather will be perfect in the magic kingdom...

we went on a few rides before getting in line for the Be Our Guest Restaurant. it was a long wait, but the interior was worth it! we ate in the ballroom and walked through the beasts area that had the rose and his portrait. i would recommend this to everyone because it really was as though we were in the castle, it was awesome! the only unfortunate thing was i waited too long to tell jon that i was hungry. so by the time we got in line, placed our order then sat and got our food i was soo sick. i just felt like i wanted to lay down and/or throw up. that's about when he gave me a firm talking to about getting food when i'm hungry and not waiting. yes sir! 

jon and gaston!

it was so much fun to be here with Jon. we have many fond memories at disneyland, so although this was different, it felt very similar. 

robinson's.

john took this to come back and show kat the menu while she waited in line. i think it'll be a cool picture down to line to show the prices. people always complain about how expensive disney park food is but jon and i think it's great compared to sea world!

dole whip. heaven in a bowl. my pregnant self can't handle this picture.

this was on big thunder mountain. i decided to go on it and although it wasn't too jerky, it made me really sick. the gang wanted to go on it again so i just waited and watched the fireworks.

Jon took this picture as they were ascending on the roller coaster. he said it was amazing to be riding the roller coaster while the fireworks were exploding in the sky.

all in all, this trip was awesome. kat and john were great company and of course, any time with jon is perfect in my eyes. i want to go back already and experience it all again!