life in LA

I am falling so far behind on blogging!  But it’s because we are BUSY and we are busy doing wonderful things.  From taking scenic walks to playing with friends to making new friends, the twins and I are having a great time in New Mexico.  If Jonathan could be here it would be perfect, maybe even better than perfect.  But as it is, we are still enjoying everything.  Los Alamos, NM is beautiful this time of year!  The Aspen trees are changing colors but the Juniper and Pine trees are always green, so it makes for a beautiful combination. 

I am loving all the outdoors walks!  Oh, Los Alamos how I missed you!

so beautiful!

We have also gone to feed the ducks a lot.  Little Buddy LOVES the duck pond.  I hear "duck pond, duck pond mama" almost every time we get in the car!

finally made it on a sunny day

Andrea (aka: Auntie Ann) and I even managed to get the twins and all 3 huge dogs and meet up at the dog park.  The dogs sat in the shade but Austin and Lanna got some good running around in!

and while we are talking about Auntie Ann:

Lanna is also finding her love for boots :)  it must be genetic!

We are loving being around family (but missing Jonathan)!

The Blazer of Trails

I have not realized until recently how attach to my car I have become.  Really, my Trailblazer has been good to me.  The miles we have gone together, the diaper changes it has endured, we are tight.  But lately it has been having a rough time.  It all started with the fateful fan clutch going out, now there is a reverse light out, a brake light out, a head light out, it’s leaking something....probably coolant, it’s making some weird clicking noise and another squeaking noise.  Oh and the passenger seat belt won’t always retract.  Not so good.  And people keep saying things like “it may be time to replace it,” and it makes me so sad.  That car and I have been through so much.  It has been there for me!  When some poor lost soul decided to drive the wrong way down a street with a concrete barrier on one side, it was there when I had to jerk out of the way after coming around the corner.  When some random dude decided to slam into the back of us while driving down a street in Santa Fe, my faithful Trailblazer stuck out its trailer hitch and it escaped more or less unscathed, while the big truck that hit us took a beating.  It’s hauled me, the twins and the dog all over the USA, literally.  From Colorado to Georgia, from Georgia to South Carolina and back, from Georgia to Florida and back, from Georgia to Arizona and all sorts of trips in between.  We are tight!  Tomorrow I take my faithful steed to the doctor; hopefully it will not cost my children’s college education money to fix. 

Since The Blazer of Trails is currently not functioning at its highest, we move the twin’s car seats into my mom’s car to run a few errands today.  Austin and Lanna got a kick out of it!  They kept talking about Grammie’s car.  :)   Hopefully the Trailblazer will be up and running soon (and without too much damage to the bank account).  In the mean time, we will be without our little piece of home.    

oh fall, I love you!

I took the twins to music time at the library this morning .  Who knew a little tiny town would have music time at the library on a Saturday?  It was great.  The twins had fun and I was totally shocked that there were FOUR dads there!  Well done men, way to represent!  After the library, I realized I was hungry.  I forget to eat breakfast so many mornings, with all the craziness that is involved with getting the twins out the door, it just gets skipped all too often.  Anyhow, we (and by “we” I mean “I”) decided to go over to El Parasol and get breakfast burritos and take them over to the duck pond and have a impromptu picnic.

It was wonderful.  The air was crisp but not cold.  The sun felt great.  The food was so yummy.  Loved it.  And Austin and Lanna loved the ducks!  We will be going back and with some bread to feed the ducks soon.  

After naps...

 

(not sure I should put proof on the internet that I still let my kids sleep with binkies...)

...we all meet at Bandelier.  I love Bandelier!  So many wonderful childhood memories there and it is so peaceful and scenic!  We took a walk, ate dinner, threw anything and everything into the creek and watched it float downstream.  And on the drive home the lights on the Trailblazer decided not to work.  Thankfully the brights (for some odd reason) did!  My apologies to the car I passed, it was brights or nothing friend, I hope you are not blind!  ;)  

being silly at dinner

they have too much fun ;)

The Smell of Green Chile

I took the time to upload some pictures from the move until present, so they are late, but here they are!  This is what I looked at for four days straight....pretty much....

sometimes I took a break and looked at these (but only brief glances)

Beautiful Sunset on the way to Abilene 

Windmills on the way to El Paso, I thought they were so cool!  The twins, on the other hand, were not impressed.

 

What it looked like when we were LEAVING Las Cruces to travel up to Phoenix (late but pretty):

This is on my drive from Phoenix to Los Alamos.  If there was ever a need for a 80+ mph speed limit, this would be the place.  USA Autobahn candidate? 

and this part was actually kinda curvy, I could not find my camera for a while so I did not get pictures of the forever long straight part!

I am now in New Mexico.  The twins, the dog and I traveled from Phoenix to Los Alamos last Sunday.  We had already picked out houses that we liked and since Jonathan would be starting his job and moving to a hotel that did not allow dogs; we decided that it would be easiest if I just took everyone for a vacation back home until we closed on a house.  It meant another 9 hours in the car, but we all lived through it.  Even though Austin had a poopy diaper explosion!

Being in LA has been great.  Having grandparents and an auntie around to help, entertain and love on the kids is always amazing.   Here are a few pictures from the park with Auntie Ann:

Holding hands to go down the slide:

Climbing!  and poor Auntie Ann with her hands full, wishing that I was helping and not taking a picture ;)

This morning my wonderful mother volunteered to take care of the twins while I made a trip to Santa Fe.  I have been a little bummed that we missed the green chile roasting in LA as I was hoping to take some home with me, but today I hit the jackpot baby!  Thank you Santa Fe thank you!  Here’s my plentiful bounty:

 

  me and a green chile pepper:

all bagged up and ready for the freezer and then transport back to AZ:

I am so excited, words cannot express.  All the way home I could smell the chile peppers in the trunk.   I would take a huge breath and think “mmmm, smells so good!”  Then take another breath and think “those are going to taste amazing!”  Then another breath and think “this has to got be a small taste of heaven” and so on and so forth the whole hour home.  I think the green chile smell is going to be hanging around mom’s car for a while though, sorry mom! 

Have I mentioned how much I love green chile?  If not:  I LOVE GREEN CHILE!!