Little Fish

We spent a lot of time at the pool this summer and Tessa was losing all her reservations about being under water or away from the shallow steps. After a couple of friends recommended her, we decided to call Coach Maggie for some lessons. Tessa already loved jumping off the side into the deep water, but now she is allowed to jump without her floaties, next to Maggie who then directs her toward the wall for safety. She taught her the monkey crawl to get back to the shallow end, or "elbow, elbow, knee, knee" to remember how to climb out. She finally learned to blow bubbles when she goes under water (90% of the time) and kick her legs parallel to the water rather than try to keep them under her (50% of the time - still practicing that one). She learned to float on her back and use "monkey, star, soldier" arm movements to propel herself on her back. Tessa is a little daredevil and has no fear of being in the very deep end with either floaties or mom or dad. Some days she whined about doing her lesson, but once she got started she ended up having fun.

Floating on her back, only her head was supported (in this photo, she's holding hands but usually didn't)

Kicking and blowing bubbles while swimming to the wall.

Blowing bubbles when she goes under.

Dreyer's Neighborhood Ice Cream Party

A friend in the neighborhood won a Dreyer's essay contest on why our neighborhood is so awesome and we got to have an ice cream party! We really do have a great group of people here, all ages, lots of personality types and from all over the country. Having good friends and neighbors makes it a much more enjoyable place to live.

Tombstone, AZ

When Tim's friend, Armando Mariscal, came to visit from Texas, we took him to Tombstone for a sightseeing trip. We walked through Boothill cemetary and meandered through the main street. While the boys saw the shootout show I took the girls on a stagtecoach ride through town. I love Phoebe's smile showing her new big teeth and Tessa's hamming it up for the camera. We met another friend, Gregg De Feo, for dinner at the Longhorn Grill, a local landmark with a giant cow skull on the outside of the building. We were definitely tourists for the day.

Santa Fe Trip

After a couple of days in and around El Paso we headed north for a brief day of sightseeing on our own in Santa Fe. Neither of us had ever been there before and it was surprisingly beautiful. The old town square was picturesque with it's old buildings flanking a park on all sides. We walked around the square taking pictures, people watching and shopping.

Did I mention the shopping? I actually passed on getting anything for myself, but still enjoyed the hand made jewelry and art. I never knew that Turquoise comes in lots of different colors.

This old building actually had a little park in the middle of it. After walking through a door off the main street our eyes were just assaulted with the details of the old building and the bright plants.

After a few hours wandering old town Santa Fe we drove out of town a ways to see Bandelier National Monument. Ancestral Pueblo people built homes and lived here until the 1500s. I was excited to visit this monument as it appears to be one of the only ones that allows you to explore right in and around the structures rather than view them from a distance. In the photo below you get a good view of Frijoles Canyon and you can see some square shapes on the left against the cliffs, which are some of the dwellings.

The volcanic tuff is soft and relatively easy to carve with tools made from harder rock. The people made bricks out of it to form a dwelling and also carved out the cliffside and used vigas (wooden stakes) to support ceilings and had two and three story dwellings along the walls of the canyon. We climbed ladders and into small cave like structures that they lived in.

This room was on the canyon floor and was a public building, not a dwelling.

More cliff dwellings. Because these were smaller and closer together than the others we just climbed through we joked that this was the projects of the pueblo.

Petroglyphs were still visible and paintings were faint but noticeable.

The canyon floor had a creek and was surprisingly lush.

After hiking around for a couple of hours (could have spent a couple of days there!) we worked up an appetite and decided to try a place that a couple of different locals had recommended. Tomasita's is in an old train depot building and has apparently been in business forever. The wait was a little long but we were afraid to leave and have to start over somewhere else so we stuck it out. I noticed some other guests whispering with the hostess and getting her camera out of her purse. I had read on the menu that this was a favorite of country music legend Randy Travis and started getting curious. The other guests were seated and I approached the hostess to ask what was going on. I told her my husband was a big fan of Randy Travis and I promised we would not get out our camera and be tourists. She told me that he was there eating right then and told me which booth he was in. I saw his black coat from the back as well as his flippy hair do but that was about it. The guy sitting across from him was huge and had the biggest handlebar mustache I've ever seen. I shared the news with Tim who acted very cool. A few minutes later the hostess ran up to us bursting with excitement and said they were clearing the table behind him right now. I pretended to be as excited as she was and thanked her. When they buzzed our pager we all walked to the table with intentional calm. I took the seat across so that I could see and let Tim sit back to back with him. A few minutes later they started to get ready to leave and I realized I could try to take a picture with the phone and pretend to be texting and try to not look like a crazed fan. My timing was off and I took it right as Randy slid over behind Tim to get to the edge of the booth. You can't even see a sleeve. At this point I was reminded that the camera makes a noise when it takes a picture and I was too nervous to try again. I did get his wife in the background though. You can see her big blonde hair.

Just for reference....Beside the brief fan encounter we did enjoy the restaurant. It was good Mexican food with a New Mexico twist. Note to self if I ever go back: get the sauce on the side again. It's hot!!! And off we went towards home. It was a great weekend overall and the part I most wish I could change is the length of it. A week would have been great but I'll take what I can get. I'm not sure my sister could have taken much more of the girls anyway!

El Paso Trip

Coinciding with our anniversary, Tim was able to get his days off scheduled back to back so we had a long weekend. My brave sister and her husband accepted the challenge (once again!) of having our girls stay with them. We took off Friday afternoon and spent the evening hanging out with a group of Tim's academy friends in El Paso. It was fun to hear stories of the academy as well as the differences in the locations they all work now. Our gracious hosts were Roxanna and "Ponchi" who insisted we stay at their home. Saturday we spent sightseeing in El Paso and Las Cruces. We had dinner in a historic old town called La Mesilla. The restaurant was not only interesting (pretty cool info here - http://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/index.html) but the food was great!

After dinner we went to a hotel in Las Cruces where Ponchi was performing his comedy routine. I was surprised just how funny he was. One of the other guys that night was horrible and the headliner was hilarious so we enjoyed it.

Tim sang karaoke for the first time, with Ponchi, after the comedy was over. I don't think he enjoyed it as much as he thought he would.

Roxana, me and her friend Laura enjoyed the evening.

Back to their house that night to rest up for an emotional day on Sunday. Earlier that week (on our anniversary, actually) one of his classmate's daughter drowned in the family pool. The memorial service took place Sunday and as much as Tim was dreading the emotion we knew we had to be there to show our support since we were already in El Paso. The daughter was just a few months younger than Tessa so it was very difficult not to compare her cute photos in the slide show. It tore at our heart strings to speak to her parents, standing next to her in the casket. That day served as a reminder to value what is most important in life and to be so grateful for the family we have been blessed with.

Hanging out with Heather

After Heather and I returned from our girls' trip, Tim headed back to work and it was our challenge to find fun things to do with the kids in tow. First we hit the Desert Museum. It is part zoo, part botanical garden, part history museum. We saw the mountain lions, the lobos, some prairie dogs, snakes, birds and this cute little squirrel. They made an enclosed habitat for some small critters and they made some underground tunnels with glass or some transparent material. Tessa and this guy had staring contests and he kept high-fiving her when she put her hand to the glass. She loved it.
Part of the man made habitat included a tunnel you could navigate through. Tessa was very nervous the first time but after she braved it through once we had to force her to leave it.
Finishing off with an ice cream cone. Perfect on a hot Arizona spring day.
Happy Phoebe.

On our way home we decided to stop by the Mission San Xavier. They have finished restoring half of it so this was the first time I saw it without scaffolding in front. The chapel inside is still used for Catholic mass by the Tohono O'odahm people whose land this mission is on.

A plaque on an outside wall.

Girls' Trip!

My friend Heather needed to burn some vacation time and we decided that after she flew in from Texas we would hit the road and see the sights in Arizona.

Montezuma's Castle - We got the 5 minute tour as the park was closing up when we got there. You can't get any closer than this, so we didn't mind. Spent the night in Flagstaff then, after a delicious crepe breakfast at a little stand in downtown Flag, headed toward Sedona the next day. It was drizzling and foggy the whole day but that didn't dampen our spirits. It also made the scenery even prettier.

We stopped to walk around Slide Rock State Park and checked out the old homestead, cabins and the apple packinghouse. Some family made this their home about a hundred years ago and farmed apples. It's so remote, even now, but what an amazing backyard they had!
The river cutting through the red rock. There were a handful of people insane enough to be swimming in this. The air temp was at best in the low 60s.
Walking the trail above the river gave me an excellent view. Heather wouldn't go near the edge.
Loved the colors of the wet wood.
We also shopped at an Indian Trading Post (a real one, not a tourist trap building with plastic chachkis inside) and bought a couple pieces of handmade jewelry. Later we saw Jerome, an old mining town and had a late dinner at Carraba's before returning home to reality.