Read the Writing on the Wall

I woke up one morning to what sounded to me like pencil scraping on the walls!! YIKES! (Abby is so nice to not wake me up as soon as she's awake... but there definitely is a negative side or possibly an alternative motive, to that kindness!) I jumped out of bed and found a couple of these lovely "people" on my bathroom wall. I had such mixed feelings...it was Abbies first person she had drawn...so I was happy for that. She explained it had a head and eyes and legs...a person you know. :D But on my wall???

She helped me scrub every little bit off. It was a learning opportunity right?

Double Bath Time

Abby can't stand to see Joey bathe and not get in! So we do a lot of double bathing right now. Joey doesn't mind, he just has to fight for his toys more. He's learned to splash Abby in the face pretty well now. :)

CCHHHHHHEEESE!

Every time we looked at Joey he had a letter or a duck head sticking out of his mouth!

Our Joe the Superstar!

Yes, he is already loving being on his feet!

Running for first!

Joey Splashin' his Greens

He was having so much fun we couldn't stop him. Although, it was pretty gross being splashed with his green muck!

A Day Out Back

Our cantelope was kind of a late bloomer, but we got a couple good sized ones off the vine. It was super sweet! It was a fun and pretty vine to have in the garden and was well protected by some mean looking enormous spiders!

Check out the roots on this puppy!! This is an artichoke plant we had to transplant. We put two in a row about 2 feet apart, but they needed to be about 4 ft apart...so we dug and dug and DUG until we finally were able to pull this monster out of the soil. I thought I had killed it, but it's thriving like never before. Hearty thistle of a plant! I hope we get some nice arti's off them next year!

You can't tell really how deep this is, but this is the hole it came out of.

My favorite people chillen out back on the patio.

Chillen' cuz they are TIRED! :) So cute.

Apple Annies Orchards

On the way home from New Mexico we stopped at these orchards to pick some apples for baby food and have a little homemade apple crisp ice cream made by Annie! :) It was delish!

This is from way far, but can you see Abby down the lane? She was in her own little la-la land here. She must have been tired.

Here's the zoomed in one. Dave is standing in the same spot as the picture before. She just stood there for quite a while.

When she did help pick the apples, it was all we could do to keep her from taking a bite out of each one! :)

Our Joey is sweeter than apples!

White Sands, New Mexico

This was a fun stop for us...a nice little drive with some white soft sands to run around in for a while. It was SOO white it hurt our eyes to look at! An amazing work of nature!


These were picnic benches that Abby called boats! They sailed around in one for a while.


At the top of Daddy & Abbies hill they carved "I Love U" in the sand to me down at the bottom! It was so sweet!


Joey went for a drive while they played in the sand. He nearly fell out of the car right after this! Don't worry, I caught him!

This is the hill Abby & I conquered!

I.U.F.O.M.

International UFO Museum baby! Oh yeah! What else do you do in Roswell, NM?? Really, pretty non-eventful place with steep hotel prices! But, now we have BEEN THERE! We love going to new places!

Note to ourselves and any others that reach the sound of our voice....NOT a children friendly museum in the least! Abby was horribly bored and was constantly getting in trouble. Poor kiddo.
I mean, look at her in all of the pictures of her...and the one with Dave..she's faking! Now we know...you must be old enough to want to read ALOT to go here.


Joey was good though. He only had his two bottom teeth in this picture but his top FOUR were coming in all through our vacation...yipeee! Actually it really wasn't that cool, but he's got six chompers now!


This was some cool, alien wood carving thingy. Maybe Dave can remember more about it?


Well, we went and we are glad that we did. It was probably a 2.5 out of 10 overall. However, they are building a new one that looks like it will be super cool! Maybe 2026 or something it will be done?? lol

Carlsbad Caverns ROCK!

Man, I AM getting better at these pun things! :)

Isn't this the cutest picture ever? And not just because Dave is carrying both of the kids & I none! :) I love these three!


Not many shots turned out inside the caverns (which were enormous)! Not because our camera wouldn't take them, but because each of us had a kid strapped to us nearly the entire time which makes it impossible to take a non shakey picture. You'll all just have to go check 'em out sometime!

I love spelunking! :) Even when I don't get dirty.


And for all you out there wondering how it works with kids (because there are many drop offs of death) there was a paved path through it with rails the entire time. And no strollers are allowed, so little kids pretty much have to be held or strapped to you the entire time. It is way worth it! Could've spent hours in there! Oh, and note to self and others that haven't been, it is 80 stories under the mountain (or something crazy like that) so it's actually kinda chilly. Everyone had jackets but us...who told them huh?? It actually felt pretty nice for a change!


Don't they look so happy? This Cave made people happy! Although...
WARNING- kinda long story following:
Joey did freak out BIG time right in the center of the cave route...like 40 minutes from the exit. Those silly teeth of his coming in...he wouldn't eat all day (he seriously went 8 or 9 hours without eating which is UNHEARD of for this boy) and when we went to put him on my back instead of Dave's, he started screaming...because he wanted to eat (he can smell me!), but then he wouldn't eat because of his teeth. He cried at the top of his lungs for at least 15 minutes in the most quiet, echo-y place in the entire country (I swear I'm not kidding!). It was an awkward place to be...dark, yet, we were at the most visible place in the cave, and i'm trying to nurse a screaming kiddo that would not eat although he was famished. Then Abby started crying to get attention. It was awesome. We finally strapped in two exhausted, crying kids back on our backs and just started walking toward the exit. Joey stopped crying within 45 seconds and konked out. Abby wanted to sleep on my back but it would've tipped me off balance in the huge backpack thingy and I wouldv'e fallen over the railing. hehe! We laugh about all this now, and count it as quite the memory! :D Yet it makes me tired to even re-tell the story.

El Paso Hotelin' It

Check out those cute pig tails!

Attack!!


Sunday we stayed in El Paso. We had fun even hanging out at the hotel and just being together as a family. Love it!