amarillo & santa fe

Before heading back to Houston for the remainder of the summer, we traveled West for our two final stops to:

Destination #4: Amarillo, Texas

and 

Destination #5: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Tate hadn't been home to Amarillo since Christmas so we were way overdue. We set aside a week to bum off of Robby and LaVon and I would say we did a pretty fine job. The day after we arrived, we packed up and headed to FBC Amarillo's lodge in Glorieta, New Mexico,  just outside of Santa Fe. Tate grew up going to Glorieta in the summer and I had never been before, so we were both excited!

On the way, we stopped by a vendor on the side of the road to by some fresh peaches from which LaVon made a delicious peach cobbler. We spent the next few days shopping at the local stores, hanging out in the lodge and eating Southwest food. Tate and Robby had an ongoing ping-pong game and LaVon and I joined in once or twice to make sure they got exercise by chasing down a few stray balls. 

My parents also grew up going to Glorieta so it was fun to finally visit the place I had heard so much about from my family and Tate's. The scenery of Aspen trees and still lake surrounding the lodge were beautiful! Although we read many signs warning about black bears, we didn't see any...beary sad {sorry}. After our time in Santa Fe drew to a close, we headed back to Amarillo to get Robby {and us...but mostly Robby} to church on Sunday morning. It was fun to catch up with friends at church the next morning over blueberry donuts from an Amarillo breakfast staple, The Donut Stop. Later that week LaVon took me to the cute local boutiques.

After browsing through all the cute stores, I ended up blowing my allowance on "treasures" in Alley Cat- a fun antique {junk} store. A lady was closing her booth and sold me like 30 apothecary bottles for $10 and a set of goblets for only $3! Great find! Behind hanging out with the in-laws and seeing Tate's childhood vacation spot, Alley Cat was the highlight of the trip. Also exciting was the Birthday Club. LaVon and some of her fun friends go out to lunch for each other's birthdays. They call it "birthday club," very fitting. I happened to be there on birthday week and was invited to be an honorary birthday club member for the day! 

I had so much fun eating lunch with these awesome ladies and catching up on the local happenings. Also- I got hit on hard core by our waiter...while sitting next to my mother-in-law. Classic. Naturally we {LaVon and I} bragged to Tate when we got home. Speaking of getting picked up, later on in the week we drove to Lubbock to pick up Tate's grandmother and her mini schnauzer, Sassy. They came to visit for a few days so it was good to spend some quality time with them.

On our last day in town we ate lunch at the Amarillo Club and got to see the captivating Amarillo landscape from the top floor of a 30 story building. Yep. It's the tallest building from Dallas to Denver. Usually when we go to Amarillo we are only there for the weekend or a holiday, it was great to spend a week there hanging out, catching up and breathing in the pungent West Texas air. Well, actually I could do without the last part, but the rest was great! I am so thankful for wonderful in-laws I look forward to hanging out with!