Espanola and Los Alamos

Yesterday we went on an adventure. We loaded up the captiva with sleds and ski clothes and presents and children and drove up to Espanola to see Marcie and Ann's home. They've lived there forever and I've never been and so I was very excited to see their lives. Their house was cozy and warm and lots of fun. They made us a delicious lunch and the kids played hard.
We loaded the car again and then followed Marcie and Ann and the family another half hour to Los Alamos. We had never been there either and it wa doss fun to explore the area. The Black Mesa was very impressive and we really want or go back this summer and see the cliff dwellings. There is only one road in and out and you can see that this town was once a very important research facility. We drove down into a valley with a wonderful, inexpensive skating rink. We all ice skated for an hour. Michael and I remembered how again right away and glided with confidence. Davis took a couple of turns and picked it up right away. He is amazing that one and really has a natural gift for that sort of thing. He was flying on the ice with determination and joy. Sam struggled and shuffled and fell down a hundred times, but he never gave up and stayed cheerful. By the end he was skating pretty well. Ann took a lot of pictures and brought cocoa and cider and Marcie and the boys skated around with us. It never got above 23 degrees, but we were all bundled I our ski clothes, so it was shuts fine. We all had a splendid time.
After ice skating. We parted ways with Marcie and Ann and headed back toward Taos. We stopped at the Black Mesa winery. We plugged the kids into their kindle fires and proceeded to have a lovely time tasting wines. We bought six bottles!
We drove back through the canyon and got to Taos at dusk. We stopped at Five Star Burger and had wonderful fried green beans and fried green chilis, a chopped salad and veggie burgers. Yum. Just don't get the house white wine. It was undrinkable.
We came home and put our exhausted boys to bed and then built a fire. I put on my pajamas and got my book and spent the evening sitting cozily by the fire. It was a lovely day.