COVID Trip to Carlsbad

We took an overnight trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  Wesley remembers the last trip we took as a family- he was very little and swore he didn't need to use the restroom- that is until we were deep in the cave!  A ranger took pity on us and gave Wesley a bag to go in- he went around a corner and she so kindly took the bag from there.

We traveled with the Luke and Jen Graham's family and stayed in our own rooms in a brand new Hilton Home2Suites which was super nice and fancy.  

This trip Wesley took a stakeboard.  He and Luke received skateboards from Santa.  After crawling around in the cave we ate lunch and skated around the Carlsbad skate park.  Wesley used the Canon 30D digital camera (color photos belo) and I (Jason) used a Canon A-1 film camera (B&W photos below) to capture some scenes:

After the skate park, we checked out the "Flume" an ~100yr old aqueduct that carries Pecos river water for irrigation diverted upstream and then crosses again the Pecos river.  We sang "THE LARGEST CONCRETE STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD!"  After some fact checking the tune became "THE LARGEST CONCRETE aqueduct IN THE WORLD at the time"!  ;-)  All were confused why we stopped for it but we had a great time goofing around.

It's going to be a good year!

We spent the first day of this new and hopeful year together, as a family, skiing!  ⛷️

And if this year is anything like it's very first sunset, it's going to be a good year!

Happy 9th birthday Luke!!!

Luke came in our bedroom just 2 minutes before he was born 9 years ago.  We counted down the final minutes to the time Luke, the "bringer of Light" arrived.  

Joy Ride...

Joy and I are the proud and poor new owners of a couple road bikes:

We went on our first road ride together to the north end of Tramway and up to Tierra Monte on the way to the La Luz trail.  What a great date!

Oh, and guess who scored a (used) extra small road bike today?

No roads for awhile, but the Tramway trail was a great first spin- up next? A shifting lesson...

Balloon Fiesta weekend: galloping grace pumpkin patch

Flower Girl

Joy and I attended the wedding our friends Maria Rodas to Cody Hooper (awesome artist- check out his website).  They are both wonderful people-- and I don't have a single photo of them ;-).  Why?  Well, here are the the flower girls- Ava and Rachel that's why.  (These are just cell phone pics- we're looking forward to seeing some of the pro photographer's photos!).

She did a great job, but got a little bored during the vows and army crawled away and over to the golf  fairway and rolled around in the grass a bit just like a flower girl should do...

They came back afterward, picked up pedals and had some more fun...

More flower girl snapshots

The band was outstanding- we stayed and danced until the end. Somewhere in all that dancing and rolling around in the grass Rachel stepped on her dress and the bottom ribbon ripped off :-( .  It did however make a sash that she used to dance and spin around with.  She was a hit really.  People could not get enough of her.  Rachel and Ava were the first ones on the dance floor that night.