Finishing Out the TRIP

Oh yeah! I know you have ALL been dying to hear the end of our New Mexico trip, and I've been debating about whether or not to tell you. But everybody has been really nice to us lately so..... here we go.
Now, we know that New Mexico sounds like a weird place to all of you, so as proof that there is some normalcy there Katie and the kids found a Chuckie Cheese and captured proof that a giant pizza eating mouse doesn't scare new mexican kids either.



And before, we left New Mexico, we HAD to have New Mexican food. It's not Mexican food, it's not Tex-Mex, it is the stuff that you make out of left overs in your kitchen at home that you call Mexican food except about 3,000 times hotter. Oh, yeah. In New Mexico you have to specify between green SAUCE and green CHILE. Didn't know that. Now I love hot stuff, but even I was chewing pretty slowly.... Katie couldn't even eat mine. My "burrito" consisted of a stiff flower tortilla from the supermarket wrapped around about 3 lbs. of plain ground beef with cheddar cheese on the top that looked suspiciously like it had been melted in a microwave. That was covered by about 2 cups of green CHILE.... not green SAUCE. Well now we know. We went to this place because it was "highly recommended". We found out later that you can't trust ANY restaurant recommendations in Albuquerque, because they are all based on weird family loyalties and have nothing to do with how good the actual food is. On the flip side this place did have about as much grass as you'll see anywhere down there.


Alright, we actually made it out of Albuquerque a day early! Katie had everything packed up, so when I came home from work Friday, we just took off. We decided to go north and stay the night in Montrose, CO. Sometime after midnight we hit some pretty fun mountain roads in Southern Colorado. Let's just say given the glimpses I could get from the moonlight, both Katie and I should probably have been grateful to not be able to really see what we were driving along with a uhaul behind us. We got to Montrose and pulled into a hotel whose front lobby I wish I had a picture of. Aside from the numerous and varied notices that people have been, are, and are probably right now siphoning gas from someone's car in the parking lot there were lists, and posterboards and cards notifying you of what everything in the hotel cost and no one was going to hesitate to charge you for it. The room was also plastered with both handwritten and typed notes stating the value of different things that you might find on your bill if they didn't find it in the room. On top of that, as Katie was nursing Andrew back to sleep in the middle of the night she found a hardcore porn channel streaming into our room. And we thought New Mexico was different.... Anyway, that ended up being a free stay. I mean, after all, if they're going to provide free porn, they might as well provide everything else free. So we made out with a new set of towels, robes, washcloths, bedspreads, pillows.... what? It's not like they're going to charge us...

The next day we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnsion National Park. The pictures speak for the themselves.

The river that cut the canyon has enough force during spring runoff to push boulders weighing hundreds of pounds down the canyon, effectively deepening the canyon by the thickness of a fingernail every century.

We took these next pictures at the bottom of the canyon. It is the first time I have driven a paved road that had an 18% grade. The trail to the damn up the canyon was closed because the huge boulder I'm standing next to came tumbling down the canyon and just ripped the asphalt into the river. Katie had fun forcing me into telling geology lessons. Let's just say I'm still not sure whether my kids think mica is a diamond or just shiny little flakes found in rocks. However, it's pretty clear now that pegmatyte dikes have nothing to do with homosexuality (They are giant fins that cut out from the canyon walls as they are made of harder rock than the surrounding material).

After Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we took our trial, I mean trail through Grand Junction and stopped at Fruita, CO for the night. After that it was a mad dash home in a race for our sanity after having spent so much time in the car. We're still recovering as you might can tell...

It's Offical!

I have been waiting a whole year to post this post. It's offical...Kallie is potty trained!!! She loves her big girl panties and really never has an accident. She is such an amazing little girl and as soon as she decided she was done with diapers she was done! We are so proud of her and don't mind the stock of M&M's we now keep in our home for potty treats!

"We don't do that!"

While swimming in the pool the other day we over heard this conversation that went something along these lines:

Kallie: What is that on your shoulder?

Alex: It's a drawing.

Kallie: We don't do that! I'll clean it off you.....Uncle Alex it won't come off!

What makes this even cuter is the fact that Kallie had marker all over her arms and legs. She had drawn on herself before we went to play and I had had the same conversation with her. At least I know she was listening!

Thanks again Alex for spending so much time with Kallie and swimming in the pool with her! You are the best and we love you!

G & G's House

We are so lucky to be able to live close to Christopher's parents. The kids beg and beg to go up and play at Grandma and Papa's on a daily basis. We love to go and play and get to make fun memories with Grandma and Grandpa and any Aunts or Uncles who are over too. These are just of few of the fun things the kids do while playing at Grandmas. It is like going on a vacation when we go and play. The kids have fun on all the toys and I get free babysitting and get to hang out with the family. The only hard part about going to G & G's is leaving! We love to be there and don't like it when it is time to go home and be back in the real world again.

My Little Man is a BIKER!

Today was a big day. For a few days I have been watching Ben ride his bike and thinking "Man I think he could really do this without the training wheels". I mentioned it to Chris a few times, but with things a little crazy with his schedule nothing really got done about it....until tonight! Chris went out and moved the training wheels up and BAM - off went Ben on two wheels. I'm serious it was really that quick. He was going all over the driveway and around the cars and even went off into the street to try out some street action - with Kallie and I standing in the middle of the road in case a car came.....good thing we live on a very quiet street. We are so proud of Ben and he is pretty darn proud of himself!
I know this post is about Ben, but a quick update on Kallie...notice anything different about her??? If not check back in a few days and I'll tell you what it is :) (HINT - it is NOT another haircut...after 4 haircuts I have learned my lesson and the scissors are out of reach...I know I know...I'm just a slow learner!)

The Aquarium

The next day we decided to take Grandma and Grandpa and entourage to the aquarium at the Biopark. It was great because at the very beginning they had "native New Mexican" fish in their "natural habitat". This consisted of two or three aquariums filled with cutthroat trout swimming through old beer bottles and other trash. I kid you not. It was the most realistic reproduction of a fish habitat that I've ever seen... Nathan was sad because there were no lifeguards at the aquarium.
Ben was happy, because we let him throw things into water.
Ten bucks if you can see what's wrong with this picture.

Ben got his first real close up with a fish.
Grandpa points out that some fish come equipped with a little razor blade to slize your skin open while Nathan prays for deliverance.
Sting rays are always cool..... unless of course you hunt crocodiles...

Ben and Kallie standing by some of the grossest water I have ever seen.... anywhere.
It made the perfect backdrop for a family shot.
As well as a renewal of our vows.

Okay, at the aquarium we encountered THE creepiest fish I have ever seen by far. I call it the Quasi Moto fish, and the entire time we watched it was trying to swim through a plexiglass divider to eat all the beautiful fish that laugh at it.

As you can tell from the expressions, by the time we got to the end the excitement level was along of the of, "Oh, look, another fish."
So we then went to see a movie and go miniature golfing, but our camera ran out of battery so all of those shots are on Grandma's camera.