Carlsbad Cavern

Today we toured Carlsbad Cavern with Drew's Gramps. It was a comfortable 56 degrees inside, a nice break from the 85 degree heat outside. Our two year old was not very excited about walking down the steep hills in the near dark, but I do think she enjoyed at least parts of our tour. Our four year old very much enjoyed our trip. We walked down through the natural entrance this morning. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to reach the elevator 750 feet underground. We rode the elevator up and had a lovely picnic outside. We then took a short drive to give the girls some much needed rest and then took the elevator back down into the cavern to enjoy another 1 1/2 hour tour of the "Big Room." The Cavern is amazing, but I did not have the right equipment or knowledge to capture its grandeur with photographs. Here's a few that turned out okay.

White Sands National Monument

Today we toured White Sands National Monument with Drew's Gramps. We had a great day, the girls had a blast walking and playing in the white gypsum sand.

New Computer and Weekend Trip

We bought a new computer this week. It's a laptop, and I'm trying to get used to this new mousepad thing. It is fun to be up in the kitchen on the computer rather than down in the cold basement which we sometimes refer to as the dungeon. I'm excited about having a faster computer for working with my photos. I'm thankful that my husband did all the research on choosing our computer and setting it up for me. I know very little about them.

We are excited about our upcoming trip to New Mexico. We will be leaving on Thursday and meeting up with Drew's Gramps somewhere in New Mexico. Drew does all of our vacation planning, so I'm not exactly sure where we're going yet. I do know that we will be visiting two national parks. We will tour White Sands, and Carlsbad Caverns. Visiting parks is one of our favorite things to do and it is a bonus to be able to tour them with Gramps who also enjoys parks very much. I will post some pictures from our trip when I can.

Just Like You

Our oldest daughter likes to follow me around the house and do things like her Mommy. She likes to wear my clothes, use my hair gel, and dress alike. The other day she was eating a rather large meal for a four year old, and I said that she must have been really hungry and something about the food helping her to grow bigger. She remarked, "Yeah, I'm going to have a big tummy just like you, Mommy!" This comment might have been slightly flattering if I had been even a few months pregnant. I still laughed at her enthusiasm to be like her Mommy but resolved that I need to exercise more!

I'm So Funny!!!

My little one is quite a character. She is talking nonstop now. She reminds me a lot of my sisters- a chatterbox:) Keira amuses us often with the things she says (see post titled, "I Want to Go Home.") Her newest saying that tickles us is, "I'm so funny!" I guess we have laughed at her enough and told her enough times that she is funny that she is now saying it. Of course every time she says this we laugh even harder. It's good to laugh, and I'm so thankful that God gave us Keira with her wonderful personality.

Weekends

Weekends are great. We really pack our weekends full of activities. We went to a high school basketball game on Friday night. We enjoy watching ECA games. Some of my 4th and 5th grade students are now on the team, and some of the students go to our church. Our team won regionals and are headed to state playoffs this weekend.

On Saturday, Drew and I had the rare opportunity to go snowboarding together. Our dear friends offered to watch our girls for us so that we could have the day together. It was a great day, with the exception of getting up at 5:15 am. I have never been a morning person. On Saturday evening we got together with some friends for dinner. Some friends of ours have moved to Pennsylvania to attend Seminary. They were in town just for the weekend, and it was so good to visit with them for a while. Our children had fun playing together too.