We were packed up and parking at Rebel Donuts in Albuquerque for a couple birthday donuts each before 9. Having a birthday on the road and away from friends is hard so I thought this might hit the spot! Brayden picked triple chocolate and chocolate mint, Ryan picked chocolate mint and caramel green apple, Laney picked Boston cream and raised yeast, and I picked maple cream and blueberry pineapple pancakes flavors. My pineapple was one of the best donuts I've ever had! The chocolate mint bite Brayden shared was surprisingly great too.
This is what 15 looks like!
We made it to Santa Fe more than an hour early than expected so we went ahead and did a Walmart resupply for birthday meals and few other things we needed. We ate our lunch in the car on the way to Meow Wolf. Dave found this spot in his research for when he was with us but the timing didn't work out for him to be with us. Meow Wolf is an interactive art installation in a 22,000 foot space. There was supposed to be a mystery to solve but we were there just to explore and have fun.
Everything about this place was amazing! The art was fun and very interesting to look at and try to figure out. We were able to climb into tree houses, walk into a refrigerator, climb in and slide down a clothes dryer. We climbed inside an ice machine and walked through a fireplace to take us to some surprising paths. There was even a cleverly disguised bookcase that opened into another room like Scooby Doo. We were able to interact with the art in surprising ways. We were even able to chill out on some of the most comfortable furniture, take it all in, and have fun talking. We had a blast! It's no City Museum, but it was super fun!
After all that excitement we stopped by the art center also in the building and took a few minutes to create something. It's always hard to bring creations home on a summer trip but with only a few days back I was hoping they would last!We had more than a 4 hour drive left so the kids watched movies and I cranked up the music to help it be a little more enjoyable. It always helps to break up the drives with a little fun and smiles on a birthday are always the best. Brayden requested veggie tacos for his birthday dinner but by the time we would get to the campground it would be getting late. I don't like cooking and cleaning in the dark and I definitely don't like cooking in the heat! He'd been wanting to try the new Impossible Burger at Burger King so we stopped there instead to grab dinner and keep going. They were messy but delicious!
It was 103 when we arrived at Palo Duro Canyon. The view was like a small grand canyon with colorful rock formations and deep slices in the rocks. As we drove down into the canyon I would have normally stopped about 5 times for pictures but tonight I was grumpy.
When we picked up the map Laney noticed there was a posting about no fires of any kind in the canyon. Brayden was disappointed because he'd picked a dutch oven dump cake for his birthday dessert. The best I could do was a couple of marshmallows out of the bag and a birthday song. This birthday was going to be memorable for sure!
Once we got to our site the kids were fussing at each other when we set up the tent so we all took a 10-minute mental break from away. This was day 49 of constant interactions and we were all miserably hot so it was definitely time for a break.
Brayden picked a few card games for us to play and we enjoyed the warm night back together. Once it was dark and all the weird Texas bugs were swarming the lanterns and dropping on us from the trees above we slipped into the tent for the night.
The girls and I opted not to bring in our sleeping bags but Brayden wanted a quilt to sleep with. I thought he was crazy with how hot the night was. I grabbed our Frog Togg cooling towels in hopes it would help us get to sleep. It was supposed to be in the 60s overnight but I wasn't sure that was going to happen!
