You're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy

A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed a visit from Mum and Dad/Barbara and George/Grandma and Grandpa. After a couple of days recuperating from the flight, the Burdetts (and Paloma) left Howard at home and headed out for a trip across Kansas.

Here are a couple of the highlights:

Kansas reminded me a lot of home! I almost feel as though I am looking out over the hills, across the Hopkins... it made me very homesick... Ironically, I kept wanting to click my heels together and get the Wizard to send me back home to Oz...

We drove a lot. Paloma napped in her carseat a lot. She was really quite wonderful for the whole trip.

We visited the great city of Burdett, Kansas. We had a fabulous time there! We toured the town, enjoyed a picnic in the park, took lots of photos and met a few of the locals at the diner in town. Here's a little fact for you: the guy who discovered Pluto was born in Burdett (and then went to work in New Mexico and Arizona).

Can you see what it says on the silo? (hint: it's the name of the town and our last name)

Can you see what it says on the building behind Mum? (hint: it says BURDETT SENIORS INC)

Of course, the highlight of the trip was for Aussie Grandma and Aussie Grandpa to spend some time with Paloma. I think she may be the most photographed girl in the world. Well, maybe Suri Cruise is the most, but Paloma is probably the second-most photographed girl in the world...

Here she is again, enjoying a road-side stop on the way from Fort Garland to Taos.

After all of the driving, we stopped in to visit Paloma's American Grandmommy and Granddaddy in Taos for a couple of days. She kept us all transfixed...

Plan B worked out pretty well...

Well, our boat didn't arrive in time for us to make it to Abiquiu Lake as we had planned. Apparently, it was floating across the Pacific Ocean on it's way from Taiwan. We hope that it was in a box, on a shipping container, rather than floating on its own...

Anyway, we decided to make the most of the weekend and head to Taos to visit the rest of the Brandenburgs.

Paloma enjoyed spending time with Grandmommy Claire...


... and the rest of the gang. (Thanks for dinner, Aunt Cathy!)


She showed off some of her crawling skills....


.... and did some general monkeying around.


We visited the Shrivers too!


Enzo did a great job keeping Semilla happy with a ball outside....


...and Paloma and Max got to know one another better.


And then we headed off for a hike along the Rio Pueblo.


Beautiful!


Semilla loves it when Howard goes fishing.