a trip to a cabin

Our good friends Jason and Katie invited us to join them at their cabin near Taos, NM for the weekend.  On our drive north out of ABQ, the landscaped changed... by the time we neared the cabin, we hardly recognized that we were in New Mexico. Fields were full of green and flowers.  Trees lined the road. Green mountains stretched on all sides. 

Eva, Kennedy, Elijah and Merek... such good little friends.  The kids had a blast together!

The little friends hug!

We traded off taking family pictures in such a beautiful spot.  You should have seen the song and dance there was going on behind the camera to get all of us to look and smile!

Jason rigged an ingenious trailer for his motorcycle so he could pull the boat from the cabin to the lake.  Merek joined him on the bike and Kennedy princess-waved from the boat while the rest of us walked!

Paddleboats! Elijah was nervous the first day, but tried it the second day.  Afterwards he announced "I LOVE paddle boats! That was my highlight!" Another thrill was seeing beavers playing in the pond. We searched for them in the paddle boat but didn't see them up close.

As trade-off for getting the guys to do family pictures (hahaha!) Katie and I agreed to hide a tracker device so the guys could go on a "fox hunt" with Jason's tracking device.  They put the tracker on a "golden shovel" for extra drama. 

The little guys were excited to help their Dads "find the golden shovel!"  Elijah was delighted to discover we had hidden it on a backhoe's shovel. The little girls, Katie and I followed in the car, the little ladies happily munching on snacks and listening to kid tunes.

Elijah found a great stick and pretended to go fishing like some of the men he had seen at the pond earlier that morning.  

Eva is our rugged little thing!  She trots alongside us, insisting on doing anything the big people do.  She falls, but picks herself up and keeps on going, not letting that slow her down. She was covered in mud and soaked with stream water from her multiple trips, yet she insisted on keeping going!

It was so stunningly beautiful, we didn't want to leave at the weekend's end!

Eli's first fishing trip

Last weekend when we were in Taos, Eli saw some fisherman pull out a couple fish and wanted to go fishing himself. He's been talking about this all week.  It's not often in life that you get to do a "first," so we decided to seize the moment and give Elijah his first fishing. This morning we picked up a little fishing kit, including a pole, and went to Tingley Beach here in ABQ to give it a try. It's tough to capture the excitement that Eli had to go fishing. He asked about every 10 minutes from 8am until we went at 11am. He helped assemble the pole and open up the lures and was very careful with the hook.

Although he didn't catch a fish (which he was a bit disappointed about), he sure picked up the casting part pretty quickly. 

In a way I was glad he didn't catch a fish because I was afraid it would pull him into the pond. 

After his rest time he was begging to go fishing again. "I just love fishing!" he kept exclaiming.

Happy retirement, Poppi!!

Happy retirement, Poppi! We are so proud of you, and your faithful work at Caterpillar all these years!

Elijah spent such a long time working on a picture for Poppi with "no white spaces." This is a tremendous labor of love for the boy who does NOT like picking up a pencil or marker! When I told him his hard work really showed, he responded, "Yeah, it really shows how much I love Poppi, and Oma, too!"

Eva kept announcing "Poppi," and nodding.

We are celebrating in Albuquerque, and are looking forward to lots of visiting time in the future! :)

We love you, Dad/Poppi! We are so proud!

Santa Fe Children's Museum

Earlier this summer we explored the Santa Fe Children's Museum and were pleasantly surprised with the number of interesting activities for the kids.

Eva loved the bubble table and spent a fair portion of the time blowing extremely large bubbles. 

Eli was having a blast re-discovering gravity. 

With this mechanism Eli could pull his own weight. 

Both the kids loved the face paint section where they liberally applied their own designs while expressing their inner artistic feelings. 

Hiking the ABQ Volcanic Cones

Early this summer we had a great hike up one of the volcanic cones on the west mesa of Albuquerque. Unlike the east part of the city, the west Mesa is pretty barren in terms of vegetation. Protruding up from the rim of the mesa are five little mounds formed by some ancient volcano.

Although Eva started out with much enthusiasm she began to get tired and hot pretty quickly. 

The view from the top of the cone was beautiful. 

Both Eli and Eva loved the hiking around the top of the cone and exploring a little cave. 

Elijah at 4

Poor Elijah had his well-child check up. Even though he adores his pediatrician, the trial of being 4 is knowing that shots are coming at the end of the appointment. He's still grieving. Eva is moaning along in sympathy. Elijah said, "Mommy, Eva thinks she got a shot, too."  We're hoping a little pizza therapy helps. :)

A visit with Great Grandma!

We had the privilege of seeing Great Grandma Voss on our way home from the Midwest along with Hank and Johanna and their kids. It was such a blessing to spend time with her (especially as we missed the Voss reunion this summer)! We had a great lunch and a great time talking together.

In the below picture Eva loved coming up to Grandma and touching her arm to try and make her laugh.