Noah eyeing Parie's Haagen-Dazs and longingly puckering his lips hoping to get a taste!
Quick family shot in front of the same cathedral doors where we stood the year before for a picture on our way to the Grand Canyon.
Now Noah is actually big enough to be seen in the picture this year. At three months last year, he didn't really show up much in our family pictures!
The fountains, music and ambiance of the many courtyards are so special in Old Town.
Precious toy store in one of the courtyard niches tucked away in Old Town Albuquerque. Love these open courtyards with tiny specialty shops surrounding them!
Cowgirl Parie!
We had the same parking spot in the main courtyard park the year before when we drove through Albuquerque. This trip we got to explore the Old Town area much more than last year! It was Grand Canyon or bust the year before!
The locals were putting up their Christmas decorations to beautify Old Town, although it was still the weekend before Thanksgiving!
Tommy was brave to descend the steep ladder into the underground kiva.
Noah was a TROOPER with so much less sleep in the past 24 hours than normal. After an eight hour car drive to Durango, CO where we ate dinner and spent the night on Thursday and then a 40 mile drive to Mesa Verde for our tour of the cliff dwellings, Noah had gotten jipped out of plenty of naps by late afternoon on Friday!
Paris told me at breakfast on Friday that she still loves pink the best, "or Mom, I wouldn't have picked to wear these if I didn't still love pink!" (referring to her pink jeans)
At one point (while he was still two), Tommy's favorite color was "purp" (we all loved how he said purple as just 'purp') but for quite some time now, he has loved green the best. I'm pretty sure it had to do originally with the Hulk being green. Now, he just truly likes green and pointed out this week that Noah and I were both wearing his favorite color on the same day he was wearing green, too. This brought him much satisfaction when he discovered it.
Tommy loves the fighter pilot jacket that Fletcher and he both wore as two year olds. It still fits him fairly well and is just slightly too big for Noah, so he is getting to enjoy it again yet another year!
Tommy LOVED the cave houses.
The big kids thought the Anasazi cliff dwellings were super cool.
Sarah is enjoying learning to take pictures with the nice camera, while Fletcher has fun with "his" ipod touch (a.k.a. our old iphone that we discontinued phone service on years ago!)
We are standing in front of the front doors to St. Francis church in Santa Fe. It is a beautiful Catholic church we enjoyed touring with the kids. Sarah had no clue and wanted to know what the prayer kneelers were in front of the pews (both Charlie and I grew up with these in our home churches). Charlie taught the kids about the paintings which depicted the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ being the stations of the cross which he was taught as a child to pray through once a year. Paris wanted to know who sat in the fancy wooden throne. Fletcher wanted to know why there was a gate with a jail-looking area. We had a great time exploring this special cathedral.
We drove the 12 hours to the Grand Canyon only to arrive at the park ranger station to Earl greeting us with, "There is no visibility. The weather is gonna be like this until Wednesday (it was noon on Sunday when we arrived). Are you sure you still want to go in to the park (for $25)?" Uhhhh, yeah, we do! We just spent the better part of two days driving our VERY excited kiddos all the way across two states to get here...YES, we want to go in no matter what the weather conditions are! Well, we PRAYED all the way to the first observation overlook parking lot and begged God to clear the snow filled skies so we could see His creation! As we sat in the parking lot with snow POURING down and winds causing all kinds of rokus around us, we had to laugh. WHAT in the world?!?! We let Noah nurse and kept praying and laughing! A few minutes later, the snow was lighter, the winds less ferocious, and we were bundled with the winter jackets I packed (thinking we'd never need!) We made a dash for it and wonder of wonders, we got to see God's handiwork! WOW, was it spectacular!! I was squealing, jumping up and down, thanking God for pushing back the clouds and parting the fog so we could enjoy His creation. Marvelous! Wowzer, was it everything I expected it to be! The French tourists were enamored with Noah and giggley at my zealous reception of the spectacular views! I know they thought I was crazy. I thought they were a bit funny for being so preoccupied with Noah when one of the most amazing sights EVER was just beyond the baby!
