Albuquerque

(I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Vinnie and I had individually escaped to our own little happy places.)

Here we are bundled up and posing at the top of Sandia Peak amidst the nasty cold and blistering winds.    You guessed it, I didn't really give them a choice.  This peak is a 5 minute drive and a 15 minute tram ride away from Vinnie and Deborah's new home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It is the longest tramway ride in the world -- apparently 15 minutes is long.  However, depending on when you go, the wait to ride it back down is even longer!  Like two hours longer. We learned the hard way there but at least we were in good company.  And luckily, for Davis's sake I randomly had couple of ketchup packets from a recent visit to Chick-fil-a hanging out in my purse.  Ketchup never tasted so good. Good company was the theme for our week long visit with Deborah's family and Sarah who drove down from Denver.  We had a lovely time, thanks for letting us invite ourselves!

Here's the same shot with Aunt Sarah swapped out for me.  And sorry about cutting off your head in that pic, Vinnie.  I'm sure that's not the first time someone's apologized to you about that. 

Sopapilla's with Aunt Sarah.  

Just arriving in Old Towne for dinner and touristy stuff.

 

This unique florescent tree is comprised of water bottles!  I love all things recycled.  I'm trying to pass that on to my kids.  The kids are on board and are mimicking me rather nicely.  Kyle is the one that we all take turns getting after!  Anyway, I thought it was a great use of the bottles and a great example to all those who visited it.  As well, it made for some good pics.  I seem to remember a ginormous tree like this that was put up in New York over the holidays.  I just hope more inhabitants of the earth are catching on.

This is a renactment of how Deborah and Vinnie's prom picture might look -- had they ever gone to prom together.  Deborah needs a fake rock like this for her home to elevate her.  Then she and Vinnie would have to see eye to eye on everything.  Seriously, the guy is 6'7 and Deborah is 5'3 on a good day. It's a case of the opposites attracting!  :)

The lovely Jaden and the adorable baby Scout!

You can't see it but Reese is also giving a hooke 'em horns behind that mitten.

 Snow!  We don't even know what that means around these parts. For Reese this was her first encounter with it.  And it did not disappoint.  

Game Day

Sanford's vs. Harris's

 I can only imagine what kind of inspirational speech we are receiving from Kyle here.  Oh, wait, I was there and couldn't believe what I was hearing, something like:  "this could get bloody but you all remember we will give no mercy."

I love this shot with the littlest Sanford shown escaping the huddle in the background.  She wanted no part of this.  I guess she knew what was good for-- although she walked right through the middle of our game more than once.

 

Family Fun Center 

 I love this photo.  Reese was in tears because her dad was in the bumper boat with her cousin instead of her.  Aunt Sarah saw an opportunity to win Reese over and seized it.  With a little chocolate and plain old logic she was able to talk her off a ledge.  Just look at that look Reese is giving Sarah!  It melts my heart.

Other highlights from the week included:

• Taking Sarah's new puppy, Ellie, on daily walks.
• Having the children disappear with cousins for hours on end.
• Jaden watched The Help with her aunts while the men were out to watch a UFC fight.
• Kyle toured a famous UFC gym.
• On the 14 hour drive home Ty did NOT get out of the car once.  He left Albuquerque and didn't step foot anywhere else until Pearland.  He didn't relieve himself for the duration.  However, I will say that the last 20 minutes of the drive were almost unbearable . . . but we are against pulling over when you are that close to home.  
• Bike rides.  Their community had plenty of trails and paths for exercising just outside their door.  Using the bikes that were available to us, some of us rode bikes that were much too small and we payed for it later.

Flag football -- round two

Sequence 1 -- a last second flag removal.

Sequence 2 -- "A" for effort

Ty did not go down here.  I don't know how that was because I surely would have.  He changed directions and kept after this kid keeping on his heels as the boy ran it in for a touchdown.  You'll notice that the two of them met on field on more than one occasion that day.

Single shots:

Longhorns vs Cougars

Our family, along with our good friends, the Smith's, hit up this exciting game back in September.  Neither Kyle or myself attended UT but since we have lived in Texas these last 10 years, they've become our team.  The kids and Kyle take it pretty seriously.  Ty takes it too seriously.  Kyle selected all of our fancy paraphernalia for us.  It goes without saying that we were decked out for the game.  It's fun to have a team to root for.  Just one reason we have chosen UT as our team is because we think their mascot is the coolest ever.  What's cooler than a longhorn for a Texas team mascot?  Nothing.  We had a great time with our friends, Ryan, Brenya, Jake and Chloe.  We want to publicly give our condolences for your loss that day.  :) Thanks for coming with us!  Let's do it again next fall.  Oh, and what's that you're holding, Ryan?  Is there something you want to tell us?

Really?  We had to sit directly behind these guys?  Don't worry, I asked him to take that off so I could have a better view of the Longhorns winning.

October visitors

Before I can post another thing, I need to rewind to October.  We had a whole slew of visitors during that month; all from Kyle's family.

Kyle's only and favorite brother, Ryan, was our first visitor.  He quickly passed through on his way to San Antonio for a golf tournament; he stayed just over 24 hours.  And apparently that was just enough time for these two to become besties.  Reese was in tears as she watched Ryan take his luggage out to his rental.  She thought he was leaving without saying goodbye.  She ran straight to my bathroom where she found me doing my hair, wrapped her arms around my legs and sobbed uncontrollably -- like the incoherent, slurring of words kind.  It was minutes before I understood what was going on.  She pulled it together and leapt into Ryan's arms giving such a sweet goodbye.  (I should add here that this cuddly guy was recently sworn in; Judge of the Third District Court in SLC, UT.  He's not but 39.  His black robe won't intimidate us because, well, I've always been intimidated by the man.  Apparently, Reese is not.)  Who knew those two would click like that?  We rarely see Ryan.  Maybe Ryan reminded her of a younger, less hairy Lynn?  Which leads us to our second visitor.

(This is an old pic from his last visit)

This trip I saw Lynn long enough to exchange a quick hello and hug.  He and I literally passed each other in the airport on my way to spend five days with my sisters in Seattle.  We'll time that better next time.  And, of course, I took my camera with me, so there aren't any pictures to post of their weekend together.  But, by all accounts, it was fabulous!  I'm positive they ate out for every meal, the kids were spoiled rotten, no one immediately cleaned up after themselves and that they basically ran around like barbarians.  But that wouldn't be saying much.  This is what happens each and every time I leave the kids with their dad.  I'm sure it was a similar weekend but on steroids, as I'm sure their dad's dad added plenty of fuel to the fire.

Next up, Kyle's mom came in for a much anticipated visit.  It's always a treat to see her and we are lucky when we do.  She and her husband, Kirk, share eight children and 23 grandchildren (so far).  On top of that she is still acting Principal for Canyon Crest Elementary.  So like I said, we are so lucky to be graced with her presence.  Pat is such a hands-on Grandma.  I'm not sure how restful her weekend visits to see grandchildren are.  I can tell you that when she visits our home every waking moment is spent soaking up our children.

During Pat's weekend here she was able to see Jaden and Ty play in their soccer games.  It was a gorgeous day to be sitting through those.  Her trip was timed perfectly as it was the Children's Sacrament Meeting Program on Sunday.  Jaden and Ty each had a part.  Jaden was the closing speaker and her part included a 5 minute talk that wrapped up the program.  There were pictures and stories from Grandma Patsy and Grandpa Kirk's recent travels to Europe.  We had our very own cooking show, compliments of Reese and Pat; where they made a yummy carrot cake together.  And I'm sure our game of hullabaloo has never been, nor will it ever be played for a longer amount of time than it was played by the three ladies below.  Reese requested that Pat sleep in her room which worked out great as they were both in need of a cool mist humidifier that weekend.  Reese still talks about Pat having slept in her room with her. We loved your visit, Pat.  Thanks for fussing over all of us and showering us with your love and undivided attention.