Vacation to the Mountains - Day 2

Our second day we got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed to Bandelier National Monument, which is about thirty minutes outside of Santa Fe near Los Alamos. Bandelier is an ancient cliff dwelling where Native Americans once lived. It contains a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings and petroglyphs. We were so excited go on a hike! We miss living so close to the mountains to be able to do stuff like this all the time! It was a great adventure!

Vacation to the Mountains - Day 1

We were fortunate to be able to go on a family vacation to New Mexico and Colorado with my parents before Ollie started work (unfortunately Robert couldn't make it b/c of work). So we went on our first long road trip with the kids. We first drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is an eleven hour drive. We left at around 5 am so the kids could sleep for a few hours. Then we stopped in Vernon, TX for a breakfast of donuts, bananas and milk. The kids loved the special treat. Then we drove for several hours. The kids read books, slept and watched a movie. We stopped for lunch in Santa Rosa, NM at a little park with a pond that we walked around to get out some energy before hitting the road again. We arrived in Santa Fe about 4 o'clock. The kids did great in the car all day. We were initially worried, but now we feel like we can do more road trips with the kids. We checked in to the hotel and went for a swim in the pool which the kids enjoyed. My parents arrived in Santa Fe about 5:30 and we headed to one of our favorite spots for some good new mexican food, Blue Corn Cafe. Being that it had been an extremely long day we all went to bed early.

Reading at Circle Time

About once a month I try to go read to Genevieve's class. This is something Genevieve loves! The night before we pick out a special book together on the subject they are focusing on at the time. Being that Ollie has had time off recently, he had a chance to come read to the class as well. This was extra exciting for Genevieve, having both parents read to her class! Anson of course came too, making it a whole family affair. He loved sitting in the circle with Genevieve's class and it made him feel like a "big" kid too!

Frog Pool

It's summertime again, and in Texas that means if you're going to be outside you had better be in a pool. So for the third summer in a row, we got a membership to the YMCA and have been taking advantage of their pool as much as possible. Genevieve loves it, as we knew she would, and it's great to see Anson getting into it as well. They both love going down the slide and playing in the fountains. Thank goodness for the Frog Pool, as Genevieve calls it!