Captured: AZ | NM in Instagrams

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Last week, Mark and I took our annual trip to the Southwest to visit his family. Last year we visited Arizona and SoCal, and this year we returned to Phoenix where his sister lives and then road tripped to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to visit his grandparents.

The trip was wonderful, as expected. Mark comes from a huge family-- Grandma and Grandpa have eight children-- and Mark realized he'd never spent any quality one-on-one time with his grandparents while growing up because there was always a reunion or giant family gathering happening when he came for a visit. It was really nice to be able to sit down and chat with them without all the usual commotion!

We had fun seeing Old Town and the oldest church in Albuquerque where Grandma's parents were married and she was baptized. We relaxed in their beautiful backyard patio, which made my desire for a house of our own with a backyard grow even stronger. And we were spoiled rotten when we visited Indigo Crow, the amazing restaurant that Mark's aunt and uncle own-- there's some kind of magic when you walk in the door to a restaurant and the entire staff knows your extended family and ushers you to a sprawling table with a dozen of appetizers already ordered for you. Not to mention our free pick of wine and delicious entrees. I'm totally bragging and sorry not sorry :)

The road trip between Albuquerque and Phoenix was beautiful as well, and the mountain and desert scenery made the seven hour drive go fairly quickly. I've never been in love with Phoenix as I don't love the desert and think it's too brown there, but the mountains have my heart.  I only wished we had time to stop and hike along the drive. We're already planning next year's visit to include a detour to the Grand Canyon.

Back in Arizona, we spent lots of time playing with our adorable nephews and enjoying their day-to-day activities-- seeing them off to school, babysitting in the afternoon, and watching about a half-dozen animated movies over a four-day span. One evening we went to the Desert Botanical Garden to see the stunning Dale Chihuly glass art installations, followed by margaritas on the patio at a Mexican restaurant.

Aside from the goings and doings, this trip brought up a lot of questions for me, which I plan to blog a little bit about in some upcoming posts. Thoughts are swirling about the issue of family and community, raising kids, geographic location/relocation, and creativity. One of the best parts about taking trips and traveling is getting out of your normal routine for a few days to give your thoughts and ideas the freedom to emerge in a fresh way.

All the photos above come from my Instagram; you can follow me @Cait_Lindsey_. I brought my DSLR camera on this trip and didn't even take it out once!

1 comment:

  1. I've never been to any of the desert states - it's one of my goals because they seem to be a whole different kind of beautiful! Glad you all got some good quality one-on-one family time!

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