Los Alamos and Santa Fe

Day 10 - Tuesday - August 1, 2006

0700 - Felisa wakes me up. Doesn't this girl need any more sleep than that?

0830 - Ron heads out to the lab for his seminar; Grandma and Grandpa head out to work.

I spend the morning on the computer, checking email, entering more into my blog.

0950 - I really need to get a move on before the clouds leave and it gets hot! Maybe we should do the duck pond first and then the museum.

1102 - Still getting ready... On the plus side, the DVD player and leapsters/v-smile are inside and charging. The Pampered Chef stuff I transported for Lourna has been brought inside. The new decals are on the license plates. Just in time! Neither Ron nor I recall seeing the renewal notice come in the mail. Good thing we saw it before I left! I'm already a ticket-target because of my out-of-state plates. No need to give the police another reason to pull me over!

2:15 pm - We are back from the duck pond, lunch, LA Museum, and book store. The museum visit consisted of Melissa enjoying the exhibits while the other 3 did a routine of run, run, run, push (the display buttons), push, push, run, run, push, push, run, push. My routine consisted of "Stop. Don't do that. Where's (fill in the blank)? Stop. Come back over here. Stop." Hopefully Melissa at least had a good time! I would recommend that museum only to children over the age of 10 and adults. Even the kids' area was geared toward older kids (6+). Such are the sacrifices parents will make for the benefit of a child... The bookstore afterwards was a similar comedy routine so I cut the visit short and headed for the shelter of home. Which turned out to be good because a huge gully-washer thunderstorm came through at about 3:00. The thunder is much louder at 7,000 feet elevation, you know!

4:00 pm - the rain has passed. A check of the weather radar online shows clear skies coming. We head out to meet Ron in one of the lab parking lots and follow him to Bandelier National Monument. Had a nice hike around the cliff dwellings, including climbing up into a couple caves.

6:00 pm - leave Ron, Melissa, and Ryan to go on the extra trail with the 140 feet of ladders. I took the girls back to town.

7:30 pm - Ron, Meliss, and Ryan finally make it back to the Hill Diner where we enjoy a delicious dinner of chicken fried steak, fried mushrooms and zucchini, and the requisite chicken tenders, grilled cheese, and fries which have been present at about every meal we have eaten out thus far. The kids did get broccoli this evening though.

Back at home, Ron went to work downloading pictures from the camera while I went to bed and read a book.

Day 11 - Wednesday - August 2, 2006

Grandma left for work this morning with 2 different shoes on. Luckily she noticed before they got too far down the road! Ron went back for another day at the seminar.

Melissa is mad because she can't get Alex's new number in Germany to show up on her cell phone. Which means she can't call him or text him. And his email has been closed and she doesn't know his new email address yet. Oh the horror! So instead she checks out colleges online. A couple of the schools are much cheaper than I thought they would be. I guess there is a difference between in-state tuition at public schools and the tuition at private schools! She was a little hesitant about the chemistry requirements of a Biology major/zoology. I told her though that tutoring assistance is available, such as through TA's and if she really wants to be a marine zoologist, she can make it happen.

1015 - Ron calls with a schedule change. Lunch break will be an hour later. Which is good because I'm running behind!

1043 - Big explosion outside. Tell me again what it is they do here at this lab?!?

1115 - take Felisa with me to pick up lunch at Sonic. I LOVE Sonic! And I've converted Melissa too!

12:30 pm - Visiting Grandma's office. The first person we meet offers them candy. Never mind that 30 minutes ago they were so full they couldn't possibly eat all their lunch...

1:00 pm - meet Ron and head for Santa Fe. We visited the Cathedral and did a little shopping around the plaza. So many things here I would love to have in my house... for now I'll have to settle for my southwestern pattern curtains, red chile lights, and the triangle table and tall shelf.

3:30 pm - leaving the plaza. Got lost - again! Only made one loop past the Catherdral before we made it out the right way.

4:30 pm - the car is flashing a message to me... "Oil Life 0%" Uh-oh!

4:41 pm - arrive at Grandma and Grandpa R's house in Albuquerque.

6:05 pm - back from Smiths with milk and a Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. Also dropped off the roll of film from my camera.

7:30 pm - Met Baby Seth! He was born only a week and a half ago on July 24. He is soooooooo cute!

8:40 pm - Back home. The toys were cleaned up and the dishes were done - wow! Tres impressive!