Trip to Santa Fe for Ruth's Dance Competition: March 13th-15th

Ruth's last dance competition of the year was on March 14th in Santa Fe, NM. The team got a room block with a discounted rate at one of the local hotels. Long story short, we ended up at another hotel from the one the team got a discount at, but it got the ball rolling for me to get us some reservations in advance and really "living it up" for two nights in Santa Fe. As I told Jason, "You only do Santa Fe once." :)

Lily on Cloud Nine.

These are a bit blurry, but I enjoy what Kate is doing with her arms in these three. :)

Ruth brought her swimming mask. She is a true water bug.

These are a lot of not-so-in-focus swimming pictures, but it's only to underscore how much the girls loved this pool. Knowing there was a pool waiting for them got them through the long drive from Farmington to Santa Fe Friday night, and it got them through the hours of hanging out in a hot crowded gym during the dance competition--knowing there was a pool waiting for them. They swam both nights. It was a real treat.

Dad giving me his best fake smile. It cracked me up. He was a good sport for letting me snap this! :)

Ready for a day of adventure Saturday morning.

Pueblo-style McDonalds :)

Southwest style Arbys. :)

Large Indian School. Looks like Pueblo village. :)

Walking to Santa Fe Old Town.

If you are familiar with Albuquerque's Old Town, this felt almost identical. The buildings do look a little newer and I would say Santa Fe is even more stringent than Albuquerque in it's insistence on an Adobe/Pueblo aesthetic, because almost everything, from schools to hotels to franchises to Mom and Pop shops, were Adobe-style. You really feel transported in time. It's very lovely.

Kate on decorative park bench.

Tell Grandpa Brown the kids were obsessed with these pigeons. All they wanted to do for the first 20 minutes was chase pigeons. I told them we should have visited Richland not too long ago, they would have gotten their fill of pigeon-watching. (Grandpa Brown kept a half a dozen or so pigeons for 15 or so years.) ;)

Kate approaching pigeons, then getting scared of them. Very cute.

Santa Fe Museum of Art. Would have loved to gone inside, but didn't think my kids would last very long looking at paintings. View from Old Town.

More Old Town and pigeon-chasing.

We did make time to go to the New Mexico History Museum. The museum, while unpretentious on the outside, seemed quite new on the inside, with two and a half stories of very well done exhibits. With kids we did the whirlwind tour, but it was still pleasant to visit and very reasonably priced. I wish I'd taken photos of the main part of the exhibit (which you could as long as you didn't use a flash). This is the outside courtyard of the Museum leading to the Palace of the Governors.

Lily looking for images on her activity sheet in "The Palace of the Governors," a large old building adjacent to and attached to the New Mexico History Museum. Originally home to the Spanish Governor of the region, it is now an addition to the museum.

Kate outside of Palace of the Governors.

Ruth warming up with her team for their Pom routine.

This was the warm-up, costume change area for our team. You can see lots of teams warming up on either side of Ruth's. The teams performed in the main gymnasium.

Ruth warming up for the "Novelty" routine her team unveiled for this final competition. It was sort of a Wizard of Oz medley so they are dressed to resemble Scare Crows. A few moms on the team put these together using old jeans/overalls each girl provided. They did such a super job. I heard a lot of compliments on the cute costumes when Ruth's team walked out on the floor to perform.

Ruth's team performed all three of their routines--Pom, Novelty, and Hip Hop. I was sitting on the team-side for the Pom routine and was filming them from the back, so I didn't bother to upload it. Ruth really looked her best in the Farmington High School Pom routine, which I included in another post, so I've only included the Novelty and Hip Hop routines from Santa Fe here.