Quarters From Uncle Tom

One evening before dinner Uncle Tom had the kids line up because he had something for each of them. To their surprise, he pulled out a roll of quarters for each of them!

Now some of you may realize how valued quarters are in this household but for those of you who don't, he may as well have given them each a gold bar! We went to the mall today and they each got to spend some of their quarters on splat balls, too much fun!

Thanks Uncle Tom!

The Great Outdoors

We spent most of our days either outdoors or with the house all opened up enjoying the fresh air. The weather in Santa fe is amazing, if you're warm all you have to do is step in to the shade and if you're chilly you just step in to the sunshine! I absolutely love the climate there and it made me sad to even think about coming back to our humid, heatwave! 

The kiddos loved running back and forth between the front and back yard and being able to go through the house without hearing, 'hurry, shut the door!' and I loved it to! It's also monsoon season right now so occasional light afternoon showers are typical. One afternoon grandma got out rain gear for the kids to play outside with. She is always thinking of them and makes everything so much fun!

The afternoon before we left we spent time out on the front lawn enjoying the fountain and conversation together. The kids found a stash of silly hats and brought them out to model for everyone. As you can see, grandpa was king of the lawn, ha!

We followed our visiting with the traditional send off dinner at Dion's for pizza. We went back to the house for a short bit after eating and said our emotional fair wells. It was a wonderful visit and we packed so much into a short amount of time. We will be missing everyone greatly and already look forward to our next visit!

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

We love to spend time just hanging out with everyone when we travel down to Santa fe. This trip was a bit last minute,  grandpa's health has not been good and we especially wanted to spend some time with him while he is up for it.

His body may be failing him but his mind is sharp and he still gives us a lot to laugh at. He still enjoys piddling around in the kitchen and watching me while I cook and I really enjoy the time we spend together! 

Grandma is just as busy (actually busier) as usual but we got to enjoy time with her as well. Aunt Netta surprised her and I with spa pedicures so we could get away and relax a bit together, it was wonderful and we may have over extended our welcome just a little so that we could enjoy the massage chairs a little longer! 

The Opera

Wow! It was quite an experience that's for sure! 

The opera house was really something, the structure as well as the scenery were beautiful. 

We've never been to anything quite like it and had fun dressing for the occasion. 

The story was interesting and there were little electronic screens in front of each seat with captions so you could follow along and it was very entertaining. To be honest though, we were a bit worried about sitting through the whole 2 hours but we enjoyed ourselves and it went by fast!

Thanks for inviting us grandma, we had a good time and were glad to experience something new together with you.

The Pantry

As usual, we had to eat at the Pantry at least once on our trip!

It's going to be a busy and fun day. After brunch we're on our way to a movie then the opera is tonight!

It Smells Like...

Santa Fe!

There is always a lot of good food and we've been having a feast today!

On the left was breakfast and the rest is dinner for tonight.

Plus chicharones!

Destination Reached

Well, after a very long, eventful and somewhat traumatic day we started a long journey and have finally arrived at our destination! 

We made pretty good time and as you can see, the rest of the crew is perked up after napping a lot of the way! Since some of us have been up going on 22 hours and it's still technically the wee hours of the morning I'm going to highly recommend a little more napping before we get too far!