The kids were hoping we’d get caught in the Arizona blizzard so they’d have some white stuff to play in. We did one better. We gave them white stuff to play in, without the cold.

Welcome to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, one of our all-time favorite vacation locations.

We spent two days here and everyone savored every minute.

White Sands is incredible!

We are going to try to keep our mouths shut and just let you enjoy some pictures.

No guarantee on that mouth shut thing, you understand.

Okay, so forget we even mentioned it. No shut mouths.

There’s almost no such thing as a bad picture in White Sands, so you’re going to get an eye-full. If you’re not Grandma or Auntie, you are excused from having to look at them all. In fact, we’ll stick the obligatory baby picture right here instead of at the end, so even Grandma and Auntie don’t have to go through all these pics! Although it’s worth it…

What can a family of nine find to do in a big national monument full of nothing but sand? We’re glad you asked.

We did a little slalom skiing.

We made sand angels.

We went sledding on a cookie sheet…

…and on bottoms.

We dug in the sand.

We romped.

We hiked…

far…

and wide.

We pushed our unsuspecting offspring voluntarily rolled down the dunes…

and laughed together as we climbed back up.

We celebrated!

We teased Marissa the Good-Humored…

more than once.

We started mini-avalanches.

We made shadow art.

We gathered “sand crystals.”

We sat on “pedestals” created by the New Mexico winds blowing away the sand around a plant whose root structure holds some of the sand in place.

We enjoyed the wonders of nature

and marveled at the grand expanse of Creation.

We refueled ourselves with trail mix.

We picnicked on a ridge.

We started our very own sand boxes…in our shoes.

We took a mini-hike on a board walk which, after our hike of several miles through the dunes, we sorta kinda renamed the bored walk.

What made it sweetest of all is that we enjoyed the wonder of it together.

We left our footprints on the sands of this great country of ours.

The sun set on our adventure in the White Sands of New Mexico.

And in a day, all trace of us

was gone.