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The Birthday of a Lifetime!

January is almost over… Which makes me so sad, not only because my birthday month is over, but because it means we’re already 4 weeks in to the new year!

This year, I did my birthday a little differently! Thomas surprised me with a birthday ski trip to Ruidoso , New Mexico! I use the term surprise loosely because he had to tell me we were going somewhere cold so I could prepare my wardrobe accordingly! I didn’t find out we were going to New Mexico until just a couple days before! Thomas planed the entire trip, from start to finish without including me on one detail!

Ruidoso, New Mexico is a small town South East of Albequerque. The population there is just shy of 8,000, it’s definitely a tourist town! From the minute we drove past the “Entering Ruidoso City Limits” sign, Thomas and I were both in love!

We arrived on Thursday January 9th, to our cabin. We stayed at Shadow Mountain Lodge, the #1 lodge in Ruidoso! It was nothing short of #1! From the minute we arrived everything was perfect.

Here’s the view off of our front patio

All of the guests’ rooms had these super cute bear salt and pepper shakers, and of course, Thomas just had to have one!

Within 5 minutes of checking in, the owners informed us of their deer that hang around. We saw on TripAdvisor where someone had commented about the deer that roam the ground, but we had no idea what to expect. The owner informed us that they were all very friendly, and loved to be fed birdseed, which is exactly what I got to do! In Ruidoso, every day, there were deer everywhere! I mean groups of them, 10-20 deer just hanging out on the side of the road. It was awesome!
Just in front of our cabin, on our first night there
True to Thomas’ fashion, he could not just settle with taking me on an awesome trip, he had to also buy me a present! He knew I had been eyeing a few different Michael Kors watches, and that is exactly what I got. Even more true to his fashion, he couldn’t wait to give it to me on the night of my birthday, he gave it to me just shortly after we arrived, but I definitely wasn’t complaining!
On our first night there, we just had to check out this little Mexican restaurant, Casa Blanca! It was AMAZING! The outside looked like a two story pueblo house, decorated with big white bulbed Christmas lights. You enter the restaurant on the second floor, where the dining area is, and on the first floor, you have a large bar area with seating and TVs.
These are their fried green chilies! They were to die for!
Of course, I ordered chicken tortillia soup! It came with lots of veggies (my favorite), and had such great flavor!

Our first day out on the slopes was… quite the adventure. Our morning started off great, and we were on the slopes in no time! As the day went on, Thomas and I became more and more adventurous. Finally, as the day was coming to a close, we decided we’d take the life up to the top of the mountain and ski down a blue slope. Well, much to our dismay, once we reached the top, we realized the slopes weren’t labeled all that great. Thomas and I each attempted to follow the signs, but somehow we ended up separated, lost, and on black slopes, and if you didn’t know, black is more for experience skiers, which we were certainly not! Both Thomas and I tumbled down the mountain quite a few hundred feet in powder-like snow. Thomas was lucky enough to take his biggest fall under where one of the lifts were, so he was spotted by some snowboarders, while I was not so lucky. I ended up losing both of my skis, and poles, and was in pretty much the middle of the mountain, where no one else seemed to be! I had to slide down the rest of the mountain, about another 1,000 feet and wait for Thomas to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited. It was a good hour and a half before he arrived at the bottom… On a stretcher. Thankfully, he was okay, maybe over exaggerating a little was what allowed him to be brought down on the stretcher? No… Not Thomas, He would never do that 🙂 All in all, our first day on the slopes together was quite an adventure!

Although the elevation seemed to have no effect on Thomas and I, our bag of chips looked like it was about to burst!

Day #2 on the slopes (day #3 of vacation) was much better! Probably because it was the greatest day of the year… MY BIRTHDAY!
After skiing we headed down to the base of the mountain (it was a 12 mile drive from the base of the mountain all the way up to where we were skiing) to do some snow tubing!

Snow tubing!

 For my birthday dinner, I decided on Pizza. Although Ruidoso had a good variety of places to eat at, nothing other than mexican sounded that great! But this Italian restaurant was perfect!

Pineapple, chicken, bacon pizza! One of our favorites!

My awesome mom and sister had this cookie cake sent to me because I practically demanded it they are just so awesome! Thomas and I ended our night with some cookie cake and ice cream!
The next morning, we got up, and prepared to leave. Although our stay was not long, it was amazing. Hands down, the best vacation I have ever been on, and it was all thanks to Thomas! He planned every single detail and managed to keep it all a surprise! So lucky to have him!
Ruidoso is some place I would recommend everyone trying out at least once, it had an amazing small town feel, without any of the extreme tourists that head to huge ski towns each year! I definitely see myself returning!
XoXo- Tiffani
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