Memorial Day

I received an email from the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad in Southern Colorado a week or so ago. Apparently, they were running a promotion for their opening day weekend (this weekend). All seats on all trains on Memorial Day weekend would be $18.78 in remembrance of the year the route was begun. This is a big discount from the $50+ the seats usually run.

Well, as we're supposedly in saving mode right now, I read the email and promptly ignored it. But I didn't delete it. More telling still, I kept coming back to it. Finally, after a few days, I decided to mention it to QT to see what he thought about it. Surprisingly, QT liked the idea. He even booked our hotel room himself!

That morning, I'd taken the kiddos to the park so, by afternoon, I was scrambling to get ready for our last minute trip. We ended up leaving the house at 6. Because of traffic, we didn't make it into Pueblo until many hours later and didn't get to sleep until sometime after that. Still, the next morning, we were up bright and early for the last leg of our trip into La Veta.

The train trip itself was fun enough, I suppose. Pumpkin and QT loved it. Of course. There isn't much to do in Alamosa, which was our destination that day. We just had a quick lunch at a pretty lousy Mexican restaurant then we reboarded the train for the return trip. We picked up extra passengers for the return trip so it was a bit noisier than the way over but still not too bad. All in all, a very nice and relaxing way to travel. I'm looking forward to our next scenic train ride.

Mother's Day Redo

The day before Mother's Day, I came down with strep throat. I guess I'd had it for a few days because I felt completely awful by the time I landed at the Urgent Care Clinic. Needless to say, my Mother's Day this year was remarkable mostly in how lousy I felt...and, of course, in the lovely card and gift Pumpkin made for me at school...and the beautiful flowers my goddaughter Lis sent me. At least, QT was able to postpone his departure until Monday so that he could go shopping for groceries and get the house in order for me before he left.

To make up for it, we decided to have a Mother's Day Redo the following weekend. Before we could get to that point; however, QT first had to go out of town on business for almost the entire week leaving me home alone with the kiddos. And, to liven things up even more, Pumpkin also came down with strep throat the day after QT left...though, in light of symptoms that I only came to understand afterward, I have to say that he'd probably had it at least as long as I'd had it only with less severe symptoms thank goodness.

For our redo, Pumpkin wanted to take me out for some ice cream and glow-in-the-dark mini-golf. As usual, QT did his best to ruin our morning by getting all grouchy on us, and I contemplated just leaving him behind, but in the end, I didn't say anything. Well, I didn't say anything about wanting to leave him behind. I had plenty to say about his grouchiness. Believe me.

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I forgot to mention that Pumpkin performed in his school play last month! They did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Pumpkin's class sang (and kinda sorta danced) in the opening numbers. It was really cute though Pumpkin appeared to be starstruck by the older kids that appeared on stage with them, haha. I will try to post a video clip, but I have the same problem I had with his last school video. That is, our Video Camera does not transfer videos easily onto the computer. I'll give it a try sometime when Giggles isn't yelling for me from her room. In the meantime, here's a picture of Pumpkin all duded up for his big number. Plus, a few more pics too just for fun. :)

Going in Reverse

Hooray, Giggles is sitting!!

She'd started sitting up a few days earlier but still needed to lean on something in order to stay upright. (see above: kids playing in the crib.) Then, one day (April 23rd to be exact), I sat her up, and she stayed up on her own! QT was out of town when it happened so I sent him this picture (left) taken on my cell phone (my camera was out of reach, and I was afraid to leave Giggles unattended j.i.c.).

That's the big news, but there's more fun stuff to report. A few days before our sledding outing, Giggles had her first baby playdate at home. I invited a couple of friends over who have babies of about the same age as Giggles, and we let the babies "play" together on the mat while us moms hung out and gabbed. Of course, Giggles being Giggles, she immediately started rolling over the other babies, but fortunately, both boys are bigger than Giggles so no one was hurt.



And, the week before our playdate, QT, Giggles, & I accompanied Pumpkin to his school, where I showed Pumpkin's classmates how to make cascarones. Pumpkin was so excited to have all of us at school with him. He helped me write our project on the daily board then stood beside me in front of his class as I explained to them what we were going to be doing. I explained to the kids how we break cascarones back home, a practice which everyone over here always finds unbelievable, haha. The kids thought it was cool, but in the end, we thought it best to have the kids break the cascarones against the wall rather than on each other's heads. Just to be safe. [p.s. Rollie Pollies is the name of his class.]



I have to add that the kids in his class are SOOOO cute! I've always professed not to be "into" kids that much, but I've found that I just love to watch Pumpkin and his little classmates in action. They're just amazing and so intelligent! They're like tiny little adults but with 100x the energy, haha. I will miss this when he gets older, I think.

The Dog Yeller

Actually, she's calling Sunshine, who is just outside the frame, but he doesn't appear to be listening to her.

Sledding with Pumpkin

It was such a pretty day out yesterday that I decided to take Pumpkin and our neighbor's kids sledding at the park behind our house. It was such a spur of the moment decision that we didn't even grab our jackets (though all the kids were at least wearing their gloves since they'd been making snowmen prior to our leaving). Luckily, QT was able to run over from the house to bring me my gloves, a jacket, and a bottle of water to drink (b/c I didn't want to have to resort to eating snow to stay hydrated, haha).

We had lots of fun! Here's a video montage of our sledding adventure:



BTW, I love that youtube now allows us to put borders around our videos. Looks great! Thanks, youtube. :)

p.s. If you'd like to take a look at the original video w/o background music, you can find it here.

Spring Break 2009

Let's rewind a few weeks and review our trip to New Mexico.

We traveled first to Albuquerque, where we spent a day at the Biopark (Zoo, Aquarium, Beach, & Botanic Garden). There's a train that connects all the parks and another train that runs within the Zoo so, naturally, our first order of business was to ride all those trains. Pumpkin was so proud of his wristband, which enables the wearer to unlimited train rides within the Biopark, that he wouldn't even let it get wet whenever he washed his hands, hehe. There's also a G-scale railroad at the Botanic Garden, but unfortunately, we dallied too long with the zebras and camels and didn't get to see the garden railroad that day. Instead, we spent the last hour on our tickets exploring the Children's Fantasy Garden, and we made plans to return another day just to see the garden railroad. Because we'd promised Pumpkin after all...



The next day, we braved the icy roads to get back to Santa Fe because we had tickets to ride the Santa Fe Southern Excursion Train. We arrived at the depot with barely 2 minutes to spare, but as it turned out, all our rushing about was for naught. The outing was canceled due to the snowstorm that had blanketed the area the previous night. Sure, we were bummed that our excursion was canceled, but we were still happier than if we'd delayed our trip like we'd been considering and gotten stuck in Denver instead. As we hung out at the historic depot pondering our next move, what should arrive with a loud blast of air but the New Mexico Rail Runner Express! Turns out, one doesn't even need advance reservations to ride the NMRRE. You simply board and pay during the ride. Sweet!




In a nutshell, we drove to Santa Fe, left our truck at the depot, took the train to Albuquerque, strolled around downtown Albuquerque on foot, took the train back to Santa Fe, picked up our truck, and drove back to Albuquerque, where we had a nice reunion at our hotel with our dog Sunshine. What a crazy day! Believe it or not, we actually had a lot of fun. Pumpkin was beside himself with joy at riding the Rail Runner so that made it all the better for QT and I.

On our last day in Albuquerque, we packed up, checked out of the hotel, and returned to the Biopark. It was such a pretty day (compared to the previous one) that I opted to stay in the truck with Giggles, Sunshine, and a good book while QT and Pumpkin checked out the garden railroad. Dog and baby both napped the entire time so, believe me, fun and relaxation was had by all! After the guys returned, we headed back downtown for a late lunch then walked Sunshine to the park across the street before hitting the road back to Santa Fe, where we planned to spend the night so that we'd be that much closer to Denver when it came time to return home.



The next day, in Santa Fe, we took a quick driving tour of the sights, had some lunch, then hit the park at the Railyard to let Pumpkin and Sunshine work off some energy before heading back to Denver. You can see some pictures from that outing clustered with pictures from our last day in Albuquerque (above).

As usual, we stayed a bit too long at the park and, as a result, didn't roll into our driveway until well past midnight. I don't recommend that! Yuck. We were all exhausted, but it was a great trip regardless.

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What struck me most about both Santa Fe and Albuquerque was the resemblance of their historic districts to that of my hometown of Laredo TX. Laredo, which was once also under Spanish rule, has its own charming plaza complete with a raised bandstand, sidewalk vendors, a really cool historic hotel, and a very old church (now a cathedral). If you walk around the area, you'll even find plenty of those distinct, low-ceilinged shops lining the streets. So, visiting these 2 cities felt more like a homecoming to me than a new discovery, which was still very nice. I definitely plan to return and soak it all in again.

Originally built in 1767; present structure, third on site, dates from 1872. Was elevated to the rank of Cathedral on Aug. 9, 2001. Part of the Webb County Heritage Tour. On San Agustín Plaza in heart of old Spanish section.

Baby's "1st" "Solid" (aka: nearly liquid rice cereal)

Giggles started eating "solids" this week while QT was away for a few days in New Mexico. I had to pass the time somehow while the kiddos and I were on our own so I decided to finally take a few minutes to let Giggles try some rice cereal.

She seemed to really enjoy it! I think, in this respect, she's got Pumpkin beat. I don't recall him taking to cereal as easily as Giggles seems to have done. By the 2nd day, she was already eating all her serving with minimal mess. By the end of the week, she was able to finish double the amount she'd eaten the 1st day.

A Video

All this technology is going to kill me one day. I just can't keep up anymore. I took this short video of Giggles playing in her crib and posted it to facebook, but I just realized that I never posted it here for those of you who don't "facebook." Egads! And it's a cute video too! So, here it is...a bit late but just as cute as the day it was taken. :)

Giggles at 6mos

Sportin' the new 'do too!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Giggles AFTER

We did it! Lo hicimos!

After some deliberation, I decided to take Giggles to Snip-Its in Parker. I picked them because 1) they don't require an appointment, and 2)I received a coupon from them in the mail, which kinda cinched it for me. This was our first visit to Snip-Its, and it's a nice place. Not as pricey as Lollilocks, though, I suppose it comes out about the same once you account for tolls and gas since Lollilocks is literally a couple of blocks from our house.

Anyway, the stylist was nice, patient. She gave Giggles a bob haircut because it wasn't really long enough after all for much else. For her part, Giggles did great. She didn't appreciate it when we tried to hold her head still for those closer cuts, but other than that, there was hardly any fussing or crying. (Pumpkin's another story altogether, hehe.)

Here, then, are pictures from today's big event. (FYI, I didn't put those little clips on her hair. The stylist did that. ;)





































I haven't quite gotten used to her new, shorter hair. I suppose that will come in time. She's still the cutest thing on wheels, IMO. ;)

Giggles BEFORE

I'm finally going to take poor little Giggles for her first haircut. She has awesome, luxuriant hair for a baby, and I hate to cut it, but the poor baby can barely see for the hair in her eyes. And, in the back, it's already past her shoulders. That side's not a problem except that it kinda makes it more obvious how desperately she needs that haircut, hehe. I'm hoping that she has enough hair to maybe even get a little style of some sort. I took some pictures of her "Before" the haircut, and I'll post a few more "After" we've gone so stay tuned.

I Am Vindicated!

Whenever I'm on the computer at night, QT's constant refrain to me runs along the lines of: "don't stay up too late" or "come to bed" "are you coming upstairs yet?" I've explained to him time and again that I need this "alone time" to unwind and enjoy some peace and quiet after having spent the whole day with the kids and the animals, but he doesn't seem to understand what I mean. I'm not sure how my losing a bit of sleep every now and then in favor of some alone time affects him, but I guess it must because he's incessant about this. And so it goes...EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So, we just returned from a family trip to New Mexico. All things considered, the kids and the dog all behaved remarkably well during our trip. The trip itself was lots of fun. We stayed pretty busy each day and about collapsed into bed each night. Imagine my surprise then when, on the 2nd or 3rd night of our trip, QT stayed up well past our "bedtimes" to surf the 'Net...on his own...in the peace and quiet of night. Two (maybe 3) full days in the company of our wonderful and lively children, and he's finally getting the whole "alone time" vs. "sleep time" thing I've been trying to explain to him all along. No matter that he was doubly exhausted the next day from lack of sleep. It was totally worth it. I say, HA!!! I am vindicated.

My Eyes Adored You

Giggles absolutely LOVES being with her big brother and watching him and perro loco chase each other around the house. When she sees them acting crazy like that, she laughs and laughs and contorts all over the place just to be able to keep them in her sight. I'm sure it won't be long before she's following them around on foot, and then "the boys" will really see what's what, haha.

Bday Pics-just a little late!

We ended up with a very simple celebration for QT's birthday. I made some jello shots, ordered some wings, and invited a few friends over to play games, chat, and help us finish off all the goodies. One of our friends brought a cake, others brought beer and snacks, and everyone brought donations for the Aurora Animal Shelter. While the adults hung out in the kitchen, Pumpkin had a blast "hosting" his own kids' party upstairs replete with their very own party food layout.

Here are some pics of us (Giggles and I dancing to La Sonora Dinamita before our guests arrived; QT holding a tray of birthday cupcakes decorated like billiard balls; and Pumpkin after enjoying a cupcake and then sharing a VERY FUNNY moment with one of his buds).





























Here I am with my peeps (minus one or two, unfortunately):



And, finally, here are QT's cakes: