End of March ushered in the season of wind.

Someone stole my clothes and looks better in them than I do.
Harumph.  

It's true, the sunsets here are spectacular

Morris is my cat, or Deanna's, depending on who is feeding him.  He is NOT Ben's cat, and whenever Ben enters the room the cat goes out.  Today I came home from school to find Morris reclining on Ben's side of the bed.  It kind of cracked me up.  

Breaking for Spring

Road trip time!  First stop, the malpais--black lava

Wishing he were spelunking

second stop was the smokey the bear gravesite.  And this place

Then White Sands National Monument!

Have you figured out why it's called white sands?

gypsum crystal

becoming junior rangers

Dad's favorite part of the trip--missile range museum

We really enjoyed out time at White Sands.  Alamogordo, not so much.  The weather was lovely and warm and the wind didn't even blow all that much.  Which is a little strange since the white sands are formed by the wind blowing all the time down there and blowing the gypsum crystals into little bitty sand crystals which are really quite white.  And fun to sled down!

This guy had a school performance

And totally rocked it.  Don't let the impish grin fool you, he was the loudest one there!

The baby boy turns 6

Luckily, he still loves to cuddle in my lap (when it is his idea).  It's a little weird that my baby is so old, now.  Time:  flying!

Snow Days

Here in ABQ there is a dearth of snow plows, which means when we get any kind of accumulation school goes on a two hour delay.  I'm assuming the reason behind this is that once the sun comes up and all the snow melts we can go about our day.  The picture on the bottom shows our one two hour delay.  Top was no delay at all.  The logic of it all defies comprehension.  

Cerillos, NM

While Grandma and Grandpa Cook were here for Christmas, we wanted to show off New Mexico.  We took them to old town, ABQ (not thrilling) and the nuclear museum, and to Cerillos and Madrid along the Turquoise Trail.

In Cerillos there is a trading post where the kids fed the goats and llama at the petting zoo, and the rest of us marveled at how much merchandise was crowded into that small little building.  Even though we froze, the weather was sunny and felt really nice as we were walking down main street in Madrid (emphasis on the 'ma' so it doesn't sound like the one in Spain)  I even scored some cute earrings and a lovely alpaca wool scarf.  

Christmas Day 2013

Queso

I don't always remember to take pictures of us when we are out and about, so I figured we should have some proof of our Christmas visitors.  

'Twas the night before Christmas

Luminarias

See?  Pretty!

Shepherd abiding

I don't think the donkey was happy

 Our Christmas Eve involved lighting up all the luminarias, then quickly blowing them all out since we were afraid the wind was going to blow them over and set fire to our dead yard, acting out the Nativity, and getting to bed early since we are old folks.  Plus eating.  (because:  tradition)