Some people get stamps at post offices

While we had overseas visitors we went to the Post Office. Liam and Grandma went in, they got stamps but while there Liam managed to make a new Friend. I gave his mother our contact details and she called a few days later.

We visited with them late last week it's really good 'cause there are two five year olds and two almost two's, so the older two play and the younger two ignore each other or follow the older ones around. Liam stayed for the afternoon at their house while Madeline had her sleep.
We did the oposite yesterday except in the morning we went swimming at the indoor pool (and Ice ring!) as it looked like rain, outside pools close if it rains, they don't want you out there in a thunderstorm, and Alex came over for the afternoon. Madeline slept all afternoon so the two boys played unsiblinged all afternoon.

They have invited us to a housewarming at their place on saturday -our first party!

So I was sitting here at the computer fully intending to use this time while Liam is at school and Madeline is sleeping to tell you what has happened here, but instead I've read your blog's and some other peoples and looked at the new photo's I just got (but haven't put up anywhere yet) and now it's time to get Liam from school again! How did that happen.

So this is/was Garden of the Gods we were there two weeks ago.

Too cool

Liam seems to have a theme going at the moment.
He was sticking his head into the bath to get the front of his hair wet so he could spike it "Jimmy Newton" style Jimmy Neutron is the cartoon character. Still he a Madeline had a bath together which he's been refusing for a while and she thought it was a laugh.

Water Boy

Today when we were at Target I got Liam a diver who came with fish seaweeds and a shark.

As soon as we got home he ran a bathtub full of water, dressed the diver in flippers and mask and they all got into the water. I'm now hearing "I'm going to eat you" and other shark type sounds coming from the baathroom.

Our House

This is the inside of the house. Playroom, Lounge, dinning area and Kitchen. 

I've got rhtyhm

Last night after we did somethings round Santa Fe we went to the Santa Fe Brewing company for burgers. They had a live band who started playing while we were eating. Liam was fascinated. He started out waving his arms around then shook his head (reminded me of Ray Columbus in the She's a mod video), he was totally engrossed in the music and having trouble with how it made him want to move. His attention was totally focussed on the band and the music. After the first song, and he realised we were looking at him he started eating as well, I thought it might have the oposite effect but he ate all his dinner while engrossed in the band. According to Liama they were too good! High praise, maybe we should have more dinner bands.

Aproaching the edge

It's a while ago now but the bread did turn out tasty. It wasn't really a picnic, we ate the bread on our lap as we drove 80 m/h along the I-40 West from Albequerque to Flagstaff AZ, a new state so we photographed the border sign - happened to be some nice rocks there to but a bit hot for much time out of the air con.

We managed to get away from Santa Fe before 3pm so most of the driving was in day light, but most of it was also on the straightness that is the I-40
Liam was distracted by the creatures we saw road side. They went on for several miles so it was a great distaction. Once we left Flagstaff it was beginning to get dark so we could only faintly make out the canyon landscape around us in the final leg to Desert View Campground. When we arrived the welcoming party was out and two children excitedly exited the car to see their grandparents. Liam had been keeping himself awake but he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Still several walks later and a cup of tea we had our camp set up an all got to sleep.

It's a giant!

We are getting ready to go away tomorrow. Liam and I made bread to have to tea tomorrow night. Referred to as a "Jamie Bread" many of you will have consumed some. It has, in this case, prosciutto, egg, basil, sundried tomatoes, brie, blue, sharp, feta and parmesan cheese. 

An unseasonal day

This is the outside of our house. It's a pretty typical central Santa Fe house, you can't see the bits of wood that stick out across the front 'cause they're behind the tree - but we do have them. We also have a porch swing but its on the back porch, it's very pleasant in the late afternoon and evening. It was hailing this day as we arrived back from our drive to Taos. 

O'keefe country

 

Scenic Steam

Having seen many stationery steam trains it had been promised to Liam that we would ride on one. Friday night we packed up again, after what seemed like no time at all in Santa Fe, and headed back to the northern part of New Mexico. After Espaniola we took a different route than previous trip and headed past Ghost Ranch through some fantasticly sculptural landscape. The colours in the rock are hard to describe. I think they range was possibly greater with the rain wetting the rock in places. We camped at Heron lake which was giving a good demonstration of how severe the drought had been here. The water level must have been 10 -12 metres below normal. There's a marina and boat ramps which all looked very strange. The ramps go off a cliff to nowhere and you look down a long way onto the floating marina pontoons. The lake must be very deep as there are still some large boats there. I imagine the fishing might be easier - less places to hide /try with less water.
Still while we were there the rain decided to fall so we set up camp in the rain, one of my least favourite ways to set up a tent. It rained almost all night, enough for the water to run down the road, the ground was very soft and as we left the next morning our car was sliding with so much mud on the tyres.
The train station was in Chama and the train we were catching the Cumbres and Toltec scenic railroad which runs from Chama to Antonito in Colorado. It's a narrow gauge railroad and the remains of a much larger system dating from mining, farming and forestry activites in the area.
The train left in the rain but the weather cleared as we chugged along. Richard and Liam spent lots of time outside on the open carriage. I wasn't so keen to take Madeline out there so we enjoyed the view from the carriage windows. The motion soon had Madeline asleep. The advantage of all the rain we've had is that there are alot of wildflowers in bloom , they have lovely names like Indian paint brush and fairy trumpet . The train winds up through rocky country to Osier for a lunch stop. We had a look around the engine here to while the engineers oiled bits and refilled water and things. After lunch you either return to Chama or head on to Antonito, we did the later a longer trip but very worthwhile. There were two tunnels in this section and some amasing rock formations. the track winds down off the mesa again one corner is named whiplash curve because of the corners. The trip takes about six hours with a bus ride back to Chama. The road follows the rail track for alot of the way so you see where you've been. What takes 5 hours by train takes 1 by bus. We had dinner in a cafe called cookin' books the food was excellent as was their selection of books, they had so many I wanted to read I couldn't choose. We'd decided we'd drive back to Santa Fe that evening it was only a couple of hours and then we'd have sunday at home.

As we were leaving Denver the sky was looking grey and we were watching lightning in the sky but it cleared as we drove into the hills, we took the 285 out of Denver and turned off at Grant onto the Guanella Pass Scenic and Historic by-way, our map showed some campsites here. We camped at Burning Bear campsite, and though several other cars came by they didn't stay so it was us and the squirrels and bugs, worst bugs we've had anywhere!

Richard and the kids made dinner and I set up the tent.










Richard Liam and Madeline climbed up the rocks behind the tent in the morning after we had our first rainy night in the tent, held up OK and since it was fine again by morning the tent was dry again to pack up.

You can't see it very well but there is a little creature in the photo with the car (our car incase there was any doubt). The other two photos are just scenic views from the camp site.

In the morning we continued on to Georgetown, an old silver mining and train town, which is very pretty especially with all the flowers and flags out for Independance day. Our trip was developing a mining theme so we comtinued on to Leadville, home of the National mining hall of fame and museum, naturally there was a train as well. We visited the museum and matchless mine which is associated with it. Interesting but kind of kitchy too. The dioramas gave Liam a good understanding of mining thou. Madeline wasn't very keen on the walk through mining types. It was raining again as we headed out south and east we passed through Beuna Vista and over cottonwood pass(12126ft) on the main divide to Taylor park resovior and the Taylor creek. We'd planned on stopping at one of the many campsites along the river but we'd forgotten to get cash and campsite envelopes don't take plastic. So we drove on down to Gunnison, got cash and dinner and headed to another campsite on the lake nearby. The lake is another dammed canyon and along the side in places are some dramatic pinnacle formations, the digital camera battery had runout by now so you'll have to wait till the film is developed for those pictures.
Campsites are commonly a pull in area a table and some grass area with a metal fireplace/BBQ, so you can park you're RV and put out an awning over the table and have a fire. The ground isn't always that flat but we've done OK so far. Interestingly you can have a campfire here which is the first place we've found,everywhere else is too worried about fire risk. I this case we had views of the pinncales and lake from the tent door. After breakfast and pack up in the morning we drove further up the side road we'd taken to the camp and went for a walk. The weather had improved when we crossed to the west of the divide but there has been enough rain for a lovely display of wildflowers. We didn't walk too anywhere but after about an hour we turned back, just after we started to hear thunder so it seemed like a wise choice. Along the way we had some great views of the pinnacle formations and the creek we were walking up appeared to be occupied by some industrious beavers. We also found a tree which chriped and on further investigation housed some woodpeaker, there were about five very round holes up the trunk, and as we stood we saw a baby peak out, mum was getting agitated by our tanding round though so we walked on.

Lunch was just over before the rain started. Richards current complaint is sweet bread, most of the white bread tastes sweet, I think it's lack of salt in the dough but it's not that good for ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches.

It was a long but very scenic drive from here back to Santa Fe, we followed the Rio Grande river alot of the way it we hit the plains and some very straight roads. Got back to town in time to visit friends still at the Marriot and watch the fireworks which were put on at the high school. There was a dramatic lightning show at the same time west of the fireworks which was one of the best we've seen. We were looking onto the side of the front so the lightning was in much the same place all the time.

Water world

For the fourth of july weekend we joined a collegue of Richard's and went to Denver.
We left home on friday night after work collected takeaway at Las Vegas and found a camp at Sugarite State Park before dark. Sugarite Canyon is a beautiful with cliffs along the top edge there has been extensive coal mining in the area in the past. The top end, almost on the Colorado boarder has been damed to form a lake (Lake Maloya) We camped at soda pocket campground about half way up the canyon. The drought here combined with the thunderstorms and dry ligtning strikes has ment that the campground closed on the 3rd of July, this is happening alot around the state they are most concerned about people getting trapped by fires rather than creating them. Still it provoded us a a conveniant stop and we saw deer, hummingbirds and butterflies.

Since we had a destination in mind we headed straight up the I-25, we stopped for supplies at Pueblo and had a look at Trinidad and Colorado Springs, in fact we joined hundreds of other people at Garden of the gods park. I think it was just as well we weren't trying to walk any of the trails as it was bedlam. Much like Bandelier was on Memorial day. But the rock is incredible, so the slow traffic wasn't really a problem.
We had thought of camping near Denver but weren't really surprised to discover the campgrounds full when we arrived. We decided to stay in a hotel in Winchester the Marriot Springfield suites, very similar to the Residence Inn we were so familiar with. We did some shopping had dinner across the road at an Italian resturant, it was really nice though the area seemed very new and there were no houses near by. We were headed to a water park in Denver It was much bigger than the one in Amarillo, lots of rivers which you ride rafts on and a couple of wave pools, some big sides and a nice area for the under 48"ers with several small slides and water fountains and things. We had a great day there, Liam liked the Lost river of the Pharaohs best. Madeline enjoyed the river rides as well thou she wasn't so keen on going backwards, but neither was I!

We left the park about 4ish and headed into the hills.

Rid'im cowboy

Some time ago now it feels like we spent a saturday in Santa Fe, we went to the market and did things round here. That evening we went to the Rodeo. It was fun, Rodeo queens and princesses, who need to be able to ride AND be pretty. Cowboys in big hats and chaps. We were sitting near one end of the ground so could see the animals and cowboys all getting ready. There's more to rodeo than I realised, bucking horses, riding bulls, ropeing calves alone or in a pair, barrel racing for the girls and mutton busting for the kids 4 -6ish (try riding a sheep!)


Liam has cotton candy - after a transation problem -they don't know what candyfloss is here.

I've missed you - but I'm back now

I didn't realise what an important relationship I developed with the internet - I'm not sure it's healthy and I'm pretty sure it didn't miss me, still I have it back now and it's still cable so I don't have to wait too much if this hardware would behave more I'd be completely happy.

What have I been doing without the internet you ask - Well we're in our house and its good. There are a few strange things, have I mentioned we're one of the only people in Santa Fe with a basement? They don't do them here but the guy who built our house was paranoid so we have a basement and bomb shelter, with water supply. I've been told we don't get earthquakes or hurricanes here and I can't get bothered about terrorism so I've resisted stocking up with non-perishables and stashing them down there.

We have a train room - some might have a playroom but train seems to be the only thing happening there, its good 'cause Liam, Madeline and I can all try train together and not be on top of each other.

I have spent time and money getting set up to be able to create food in the kitchen, sleep on beds and wash. I'm still pleased with my choices of pots, knives and sheets, but we still need to find a bed for Liam and maybe Madeline.

Liam has had a week at La Casita this week, over summer there are two three week 'summer schools' which run 9-1 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He's really enjoying it. Madeline and I went on thursday for our participation day, its hard to get Madeline to leave after dropping Liam off so she had a blast. On your participation day you take morning tea for everyone, set that up clean it up join in or do an activity with the children and do the clean up at the end.

Last weekend we stayed in Santa Fe for saturday. We went to the farmers market for veges and bread then trolled around yard sales without success. Sunday we went to Taos but stopped at a moving sale and got a $25 sofa some mats and a jug.

There are two ways to Taos, the high road and the low road, so we went up the low road and back the high road. Both have really beautiful scenery the Rio Grande has a dramatic Canyon south of Taos and you drive along the river before climbing up onto the Mesa to Taos. Lots of artists have spent time in Taos, so there are lots of galleries and cafes and resturants, we didn't spend much time in Taos itself but we have lunch at a diner.
They had a solar music festival on so it was busier than normal (Taos can be quite popular anyway) There are several other drives we want to do from Taos so we though we could investigate a bit more another day. The high road home passed through mountain and forest and several small villages Robert Redford filmed the Milagro Beanfield wars in one of them.
Thunderstorms and lightning set in as we were almost home and hail about pea size, apparently it can get alot bigger than that here, just as we got into Santa Fe, we dashed from the car, the yard looked like it was snowing.

A quiet week

So unsurprisingly with lack of car, it's been a quiet week for us, we ventured forth from the hotel room only occasionally and mostly to the pool or tennis court. Had thought this week I'd collect up basics for the house. Oh well no plates cups etc sure we'll cope.

Monday we did walk to the supermarket but there no footpath most of the way, so the mountain buggy got three punctures from the nasty thistles. Richard's got quite proficient with the repair kit, we get a puncture almost every time we use the thing. I think the checkout packer was a bit surprised when I said she couldn't help me to my car as I was walking. Didn't inspire more trips thou Richard has walked at least one way to work each day. (Maintaining his trim post builders laboring form!)

We're trying to eat in a manner consistent with the local flavors (it's my current meal planning inspiration) so we had Enchiladas de Pollo y Queso, Maple-Barbecued Spareibs and London Broil
All were very successful and Richard was the envy of several in the lunch room at least twice.

Our lease on the house comenced on thursday, but we haven't moved over yet thought we'd use the weekend and the car, actually took some bags and toys over this morning so we could wait for the new washer and dyer to arrive, nice of the landlord really, least I could do was have the door open.

As it turned out the cable guys came to disconnect, so since they are the company we thought we'd use we asked them not to and signed a contract - so we now have 75 channels and no TV, we're not actually planning on getting one either but it's easier to get internet with the cable connected. Kinda brings me to once we move from here tomorrow morning I'll be offline till said internet is connected. arghhh. No phone, no internet, no TV. Hope there's some money shopping looks like the only way to go.

Train tracking

We decided that since there was such interest in the Madame Queen, we'd go and see her, you always go to Texas for a weekend drive.

Friday morning was La Leche League series meeting so Liam, Madeline and I went to that and meet up with the group here. I think it will be interesting. There were similarities and differences with meetings I've been to in NZ some of that's probably individual style. Quite a big group and several leaders which will be different. Still I've met some more people and we'll probably hook-up with some of them again later this week.

The kids and I packed up the camping gear we'd brought on thursday afternoon some clothes and food and collected Richard from work. Our outward journey was fairly straight forward once we overcame a diversion for petrol (called Gas here - the locals get so confused) leading to a different route out of Santa Fe, we got to Santa Rosa where we'd decided to camp that night in good time, realised we didn't have fuel for the cooker and didn't really have dinner food anyway so got drive thru food and headed to the lake where there was camping.

It spattered with rain occassionally but once we'd put the tent up it stopped. There's a kids playground at Rocky point campsite so Liam and Madeline gave the place the thumbs up.
Mostly the rain ment we were treated to a great sunset as it passed through the rain clouds and some spectacular lightning in the distance at and just after dusk.

Our tent was a success, not to big or small but we decided that should we see another WAL-MART or the like we'd get some pillows and another sleeping mat. One of the two we had has a serious puncture and the glue in the repair kit has dried up, it's also delaminating on one side so we'll definately need more glue, and another mat two between four is tight, otherwise a pleasant night (thou I didn't have the inflated mat).

Soon after sunrise as is the case with camping and children we were up, packed up and ready to find Amarillo and the train. Many local Santa Fe'ans rate Amarillo 26th destination to pick from a list of 25, so it came highly recommended!

Still we'd not driven on the I-40 -it looks straight on a map - it is.
Santa Rosa at some point in it's past was a bigger town, or at least more people stopped there for gas, there are a lot of deserted gas stations - five in a row at one point, thou one is now a chinese resturant and varying quality of motel - at least two were deserted, the rooms open and wrecked. It's a town of tall neon signs for major chains and references to its site on the former route 66.

After spending an hour driving around looking for the 'city' shops (and failling) we went to a small grocery store for some rather over sugared danish and drove on the Armarillo.

More long straight roads but interesting for us - so many trucks! and the odd train. The trains are huge they are able to stack two containers on top of each other so they are high, and then they had three engines and lots of trucks.

So Amarillo on the way in we almost missed Cadillac Ranch as we drove by - but didn't quite amazing - and strange.

So to find Madame Queen. We drove around a bit, found the train tracks probably close. Checking the address before we started would have sped up the process but we hadn't so asked a hotel, heard of it, "used to be in front of the Santa Fe building but it was moved and don't know where to" asked about pamphets about Amarillo, yes have one. Flicking through in the car and bingo "Madame Queen" corner of second and lincoln OK lets go. None of our maps had this much detail. But we found lincoln and drove down hit the train tracks - good sign we thought, found a second street - NO TRAIN humm lets see if lincoln continues on the otherside of the tracks.
Yes, and another second street and Yeah a train!!

It was a hit Liam and Richard did a walk round looked at it all. There are plans to create an education centre with the train.

It was about lunch time and very hot, Richard had found a water park on the net so we had an address for it and went there for a great afternoon. Liam's favorite was the lazy river which pushes you along, Madeline seemed to like the wave pool and the baby pool slide. A great way to spend a hot afternoon. We went and found our pillows and mats and when to Applebees for dinner (avoided cooking all weekend!) then headed back to Santa Rosa Lake State Park to camp again, figured it would be late but we knew the place so it would be OK. I was except
on the way, just after sunset the battery light came on and didn't go off and the voltage meter registered dropping volts in the battery Oh oh humm. So using nothing electrical except the headlights we drove on Got to Santa Rosa lake figured we'd deal with the car in the morning and camped. A very comfortable night, pillows and mats all worked well.

The Ranger gave us a jump start and we set off. The warning light had started beeping as we'd stopped the night before and it started just in Santa Rosa, with it the ABS light comes on the steering gets heavy all sorts of other things -everything- is electrically assisted. So we pulled into a wreckers where we thought we might get some help. As it turned out an Auto Repair guy across the road lived at his shop and we spoke to him. after soem discussion of possibilities we charged the battery for a couple of hours figuring we'd driven OK on battery to Santa Rosa and with a good charge hopefully we'd get home. Sat around with the car talking to his family for a while then went to a diner and had some food and coffee.
Got in set off. Voltage seemed to be dropping faster -see how we go.

Got to Clines corners and the warning bell started -stopped straight away there was shade, gas stations and food. Good place for a wait. Really weren't sure what to do next. Rang AAA (who we'd joined ) they could organise a tow but the truck would only have room for two humm.
Spoke to the guy from Santa Rosa, he'd mentioned that he might be going to Espanola later anyway, he wasn'tsure yet if he was going or not, call back. Neither really good options but what.
Richard decided to see what one of the guys he works with was doing, he helped us looking for places to rent too lets see what he's up to.
Rang and he came and met us (about an hour from Santa Fe) and we charged the battery again off his car and set off in tandem, when the bell came on we stopped and charged again, three times and we were back at the hotel. What a relief!

Now we just have to deal with the car.

Rang the car yard we got it from and they set up a tow truck and garage to look at it - he came took the car away.

Yu The Green Dragon

dragon_small, originally uploaded by XyV.

Megan gave Liam some money to get his own birthday present when he got to Santa Fe. This green dragon is what he chose.
It's a puppet and it has a story that goes like this ...
Facts of Interest:
In Chian and Southeast Asia, dragons are thought to bring good luck and prosperity.

Chinese dragons of old were ferious, bearded creatures that could be as small asa silk worm or as large as the sky.

Asian dragons breathe out misty clouds, not fire. In winter they sleep in pools and rivers, and even the sea.

In the spring, the dragons fly up to the sky where their fighting causes summer rain. If they fight too hard, the rains are so heavy that there are floods.

THE FIRST DRAGON
At the beginning of time, the yellow Emperor, creator of all, became angry. "People are doing wicked things," he said, "and I'm going to flood all the land to get rid of them!" The Emperor's grandson Kun, was sorry that everyone would die. He asked a wise old totoise for help. "You will need the magic mud that the Emperor keeps in a jar in his treasure-house," said the tortoise. So Kun changed into a white horse and galloped towards the Emperors palace. But the fire god threw a bolt of lightning at him and he fell down and lay still. Something grew inside him then and sprang out shortly from his body: it was Yu, the green dragon with golden wings, strong and fine. The young dragon flew to heaven. He bowed his head and asked the Emperor for the magic mud. The Emperor listened and his anger cooled. "Carry the mud on the tortoise's back and give the people land again," he said. :From now on you shall be the rain god." So Yu and the tortoise recreated the land. The dragon made furrows for the river with his mighty tail, and every spring he and his sons make sure water flows there. (adapted from a Chinese folktale)

Rain!

It was quite an event!
Yesterday was cloudy and threating to rain almost all day, quite a change from the clear blue skys and fluffy white clouds of the past week.
On several other days there have been rain clouds and even some rain to the south but this time it actually rained ON US! and rained at lunch time then later on in the evening. Liam had wanted to BBQ for tea and we actually couldn't.
It's brought the temperatures back down too its supposed to get up to 31 celsius today but we were up to 35 on monday.
The houses have these funny gutter type things that stick out - we almost went for a drive to see the water coming off them - but we resisted.

I've been looking into preschools and schools for Liam here. School doesn't go back till late August but some places have some summer sessions which I think he'd quite enjoy, he wants to play with "American Kids".
We visited a preschool which I really liked its set up is very similar to playcentre, its a parent co-op and the parents form the board and run the school but they have teachers who manage the classroom side of it. Parents do participation days about every six or seven weeks. One of the differences between this one and another parent coop I looked into is that they are happy to /encourage youger children to come on participation days rather than suggesting its a special time for the older child to have the parent to themselves.
Yesterday when we went there was the teacher and a parent there with children doing cleaning. Liam and Madeline both had a wonderful time playing with them, we ended up being there for three hours I think, so I got to have a good talk to the teacher and parent.
My only trouble is that Liam although he said he like it "too much" also said that its not school and he wants to go to school. humm.

Happy Birthday's

June is birthday month in the greater Ellis Vaughan Whanau so happy birthday to, Megan, Dad (Warren), Judith and Cathie for the first part, and Pierre later on - hope I haven't forgtten anyone!

We've had some success in our house hunting since I last wrote, so we'll move into a house on June 15. It's quite central which is great and only about 2 blocks from Richards office, so he'll be able to get himself there and back without, he's threatening to get a bike - we'll wait and see.
It has three bed rooms and a playroom so we have a good amount of space. It has a kiva fireplace, but also has central heating. Funny things to think about in 31 degrees C. It also has a nice yard with a gate in the fence onto the elementary school nextdoors playground - Liam's favorite feature.

We have our car too so yesterday we took a drive down to Albuquerque, its about an hour away, we wanted to look at an ex rental furniture place - we'll probably get some stuff from here, its very resonable and quite good nick too.

We'd thought there might be a water park that the kids would enjoy nearby to but its closed down. You can see the enormous slides from the I-25 but nothing is happening there maybe the drought got to them.

Instead we went to the tramway which goes up to Sandia Peak. Quite spectacular! Liam has become a junior ranger in Sandia National Park. He got a badge and lanyard which he's quite pleased with.

Before we left we went to the farmers market which they have in town on tuesday and saturday mornings. It was mostly reconisance this trip as I did groceries on wednesday but next week we'll get veges from here, they were lovely and fresh looking, local seasonal produce. Lots of fresh garlic yesterday but also lettuces, radishes and other salad type greens.
We got pastries for breakfast and a loaf of bread for lunch both were fresh and tasty.