Trip to New Mexico

Finally after almost a year I took Sofia to New Mexico to visit my family. The flight over went very well. No problems in the airport or on the plane. Sofia is a great traveler. She charms her way through all the security gates.

On Sunday we had a small family gathering which we also used as an excuse to celebrate her up coming 1st birthday. Both of my grandmothers came over. It's neat that Sofia has two great grandmothers. My dad came over as well, along with my aunt Peg and cousin Kara.

I made pasta salad, crostini with olive tapenade and sun dried tomato tapenade. I put out some marinated artichokes and bocconcini which are bite size pieces of mozzarella. I got a carrot cake for Sofia to taste. She wasn't interested. The girl doesn't like sweets. I have no qualms with that.

That very morning as we were waiting for everyone to arrive Sofia decided it was finally time to start walking. This made for great amusement at the party. It was interesting to actually see the change in her. You could immediately see she had made up her mind to walk instead of crawl.

She got a lot of lovely wooden toys. One of the highlights was this dinosaur made by my dad. The head and tail swing back and forth when you push it around.

The next day we went to Santa Fe. We planned it around Sofia's nap time so the drive up there and back was very pleasant. The first stop we made was at kakawa. It's a fantastic chocolate shop. I had a mix of two different elixirs as they call them.

One was a Mayan chocolate and the other was something floral. It had rose hips and almonds. Rose, chili and chocolate go so well together. I bought some dark chocolate bars, 100 percent to be exact and two exotic brownies. One made from mesquite flour the other from blue corn and quinoa. Both really good!

After that we went shopping. Something I haven't done in years. I did have a specific object in mind, a Guatemalan duffel bag. When I was little my mom had one and I can remember playing with it and always wanting one. So we searched and searched and found a great one. Along with that I got Sofia cute hand made skirt.  After shopping we had carnitas in the plaza and then headed home. That night I made grilled pizza for my mom aunt and cousin. They ate it all!

The next day we went to a neat little fabric shop. I got some Alexander Henry fabric and a pattern for making little elephants. Then we met up with my aunt at a toy shop that sells all wooden toys. Sofia had fun going through all the display toys.

For lunch we went to my favorite place, El Pinto. They recently started up a buffet. Great idea, because you can try a little of everything and not have humongous amounts of leftovers. My favorite thing at El Pinto are the tamales. After lunch we let Sofia toddled around in the grass. She loved it and we loved it because it was cool and relaxing.

That evening we just relaxed, My aunt helped me to fix my knitting (she an excellent knitter) and we chatted and chatted.

The next morning it was already time for us to leave. Sofia helped me pack by sitting on the suitcases.

 Auntie Peg and cousin Kara came to say one last good bye.

We got to the airport plenty early and had time to just sit around. We watched the planes come in for at least 45 minutes.

Overall it was a great trip. I think we might go back in February. It wouldn't be hard to do a weekend trip....