Mesa Verde 2015

 Fall is a great time for taking excursions.  The weather is mild and the crowds dwindle as school starts.  We drove to Mancos, Colorado and set up base camp at a cute little motel with a family sized room and started exploring Mesa Verde.  This is our second family trip there.  The last time we went Stephen was a baby and we camped.  Brad and I are not quite as adventuresome as the old days.  Having a roof and a bed are higher on the list than a decade ago.  We went on a guided tour with a ranger late afternoon our first day there.  We got up in the morning and drove back to the park.  We packed a picnic before we left home so that we could spend as much time in the park as we wanted without having to go in search of food to suit all of the family members with food allergies.  We did both the Cliff Palace and Balcony House tours on this trip there and finished with the self guided Spruce tree house cliff dwellings.  We met a member of the Zia Pueblo who was demonstrating weaving with yucca fiber.  He lives in NM near us and he invited us to visit his pueblo for another field trip when we returned home. We left after the afternoon of the second day and drove home listening to "The Mysterious Benedict Society" on CD and eating popcorn.  It was a great trip.  We bought an annual park pass so we have a few more places to go this year.  We have already visited Zion National Park, Arches and Canyonlands.  What a beautiful world we live in!

 Brad and the kids being silly while waiting for our ranger guided tour.

One of the cliff dwellings we visited was accessed by ladders.  One had a tunnel through the rock we had to crawl through.  The ladder was exciting.  Avery says she liked the really tall ladder best.

 

 This is the "really tall" ladder.

Avery climbing into a replica of a kiva.

These are metate found in the cliff dwellings.  There was one set up for kids to try.  We don't have a picture of it. Avery ground imaginary corn on it.

 

Moab, Utah June 2015

 We took a multi-generation family trip to Moab, Utah after the wedding of our third daughter, this spring.  We rented a cabin about 20 miles from Moab.  It was wilderness area.  It was beautiful with magnificent sunsets, wild scenery, and beautiful starry nights. All of our children came for a few days and we celebrated a birthday, took walks, watched Princess Bride on the deck with a projector and screen.  We roasted marshmallows, made cocoa, ate enchiladas we made at home and put together puzzles.  Our dog rolled in cow pies and had to be washed, chased bunnies and slept on the porch while we read books with pillows on the deck outside.  We visited Arches and Canyonland National Parks.  We had a good time despite spending a day at the animal hospital with our Chihuahua, losing our dog Napoleon on a mountain bike ride with Brad (we found him), and Janet getting lost and taking a 6 hour drive (it was a beautiful drive) before finding her way to Moab. 

 Hiking isn't Avery's favorite thing.  We chose the shortest hikes at Arches and the bigger kids went back with Brad for an early morning hike that was longer.  It was beautiful!

Canyon Lands National Park.

Spring time 2015

 May 7, 2015.  This is kind of gross.  Avery lost both bottom teeth today.  She is excited about this.  But the thing that she finds most impressive is seeing her own blood.  So you can ignore the paper towel with the chomp marks on it. This is an exciting milestone!  The last first tooth loss for this mom.  Her eyes are misting up...

It is only 1 mile to our church building.  This spring day we decided to walk to church.  The boys and Avery convinced mom that scootering to church was a good idea.  Avery is especially good at scootering!

 

Avery playing with Mom's phone camera.  Fun stuff :)

 

Oh blue eyes!

 Avery being cute.  Get a good look at those cute baby teeth.

  They will be missing soon!

Baby blues.  Avery has a super hero cape and mask that she saved up and bought with her own money.  When she puts the mask on she is all eyes.  Giant baby blue eyes.  Here they are with the freckles that make her Mom smile. Mom loves her freckles!

Afternoon at the Rio Grande

 This was actually a delightful day in January 2015.  We were talking about activities we would like to do in the upcoming weeks and Avery said going to the river was her favorite thing to do.  We have gone to the river a couple of times on the spur of the moment when the weather was so nice and we had an itching to get out of the house.  We had a fabulous time wading, counting the cicada casings from their last molt on the trees, climbing trees, and watching birds land on the sand bar across the river. We stayed until the sun was low and our tummies told us dinner was around the corner.  Red letter day!

From Labor Day 2014 to St. Patrick's Day 2015

Dancing in a warm summer rain

 Labor Day weekend we went to SWISS DAYS in Janet's home town.  We had sno-cones,

looked at lots of art and crafts, and walked miles it seemed.  We bought bow and arrows and played Robin Hood at Grandma's house in the trees.  The monument the kids are standing on, Janet used to walk around and around every morning before Kindergarten, about a million years ago...old mill stone.  Town hall in the background.

Aurora spent the summer in France and brought back berets.  Oohh La La!

 We are pretty excited when we get a nice rain storm, especially if there is a rainbow.  Aaron and Avery are jumping for joy.

Avery enjoying the last light of a beautiful late summer day, Albuquerque Temple.

sun going down overlooking Albuquerque

Avery's 6th birthday!

Going for a walk

 Our local pumpkin patch has a great harvest festival.  We spent the whole afternoon feeding animals, driving miniature tractors, playing in the corn pit, and racing rubber ducks in troughs while we pumped water.  Finally we picked out our pumpkins and every one carved their own.

 

Avery put teeth in her pumpkin.  Cheese!

Brad's birthday.  Too many to count...

 For school Avery writes the date on her white board.  This day she drew a picture of herself walking a dog to go along with it.  She also is "against cats."  At least for November 18 :)

 Christmas activity at church.  Ho Ho Ho.

Selfie!

 We planned a hike at tent rocks for Spring Break.  We drove all the way there and found that they don't allow dogs anymore.  We had to miss hiking this trip since we had Napoleon with us.  We stopped at the Mormon Battalion Monument on the way home.  We went to the Rio Grande  when we got back to Albuquerque and then had ice cream afterwards.  A few weeks later Aaron and Avery told me that was the best trip ever.  They weren't even disappointed about driving three hours round trip and not getting to hike.  They really like the river.  We just found a dragon fly nymph in a silt sample we collected in January when we visited the Rio Grande.  Madeline had the container in her closet for 4 months and poof!  The nymph turned up.  We had a wonderful time trying to guess what it was and googling "water bug that breathe through their butts" until we figured it out.

 We had a cub scout pack meeting with a "One in a Minion" theme for the Gold and Blue Banquet.  Aaron and Avery had a wonderful time.  One of the things they really liked was the Sundae bar.  We made homemade fudge sauce for it and made about twice as much as needed.  We are still eating fudge sauce that was left over.  No one is complaining.

Avery borrowed my sunglasses for school this day.  She is also wearing the official "homeschool uniform." (Pajamas)  I'm joking - she doesn't wear her pajamas every day.   But she tells me often that she is voting for a pajama day.  Sometimes she wins.

 

We were sorting shapes by attribute and when I wasn't looking, Avery and Aaron built a town out of them.

Madeline's violin performance

 On St. Patrick's Day we had an art day.  We all smelled like Barbasol after we finger painted with green foam paint that we made with shaving cream.  It felt so good and was so squishy!

Avery really likes to ride her scooter.  She is the fastest scooterer in the family.  We are on our way home from a walk with our scooters.  We stopped because Aaron fell and ripped his pants.  He doesn't like to scooter as much as Avery.