Mom and daughter road trip!

Matt and I know that having a large family means that each kid get less of mom and dad's time.  While we make an effort everyday to give moments of special attention, we also have made plans to have "coming of age" trips for each child. 

We want to make each trip a special one-on-one experience with each child.  Our hope is to start with local trips for younger kids and then progress to bigger trips as the kids get older.  We pray these are times where each child gets a chance to be who they are apart from our herd. 

Our first trip was with Jolie.  She turned 10 this year so we did an out of town trip to Ruidoso, NM.  I grew up in Roswell, which is an hour and a half away from there, so I knew a bit about the town.  The drive was about 4 hours to get from the prairie to the mountains.  It was a long drive but it was worth it.

We didn't plan anything special.  All I had on the agenda was spending time with my girl.  That is just what we did.  She got to choose what we did and when we did it.  She had a blast and I treasure that time we got to spend together. 

Being the oldest child is not always easy.  She has a ton of responsibility but is held to a higher standard because of her age and ability.  Then, when she tries to take care of (or boss) her brothers, she gets in trouble.  It's a hard station to be in.  So I pray that all of the time we get to spend with her, whether it be a trip to the grocery store or a trip to the mountains, will reinforce how special she is to us.  I pray the same for our sweet boys. 

Here we are in our lovely hotel room.  I have a little bit of a hard time relaxing in hotel rooms. (I'm just never sure of the cleanliness factor)  Jolie however was so excited and rolled around all over the beds and used every amenity they offered.

She just had to practice her ballet on the beds.

Little monkey.  (Every kid has to do this at least once on a hotel bed!)

The best part of our stay was the pool. 

There were many tricks preformed.

My sweet girl heading back to the room for some cookies and a movie!

Here we are starting our day of shopping and lunch.  It was so fun!

We finished shopping for treats to bring home to our boys and had lunch.  After that we got to visit a museum which was very cool.  Then, we left Ruidoso and went to Roswell to spend the night with my sister Heather and her sweet girls.  I will post more about that later!