old friends make new friends

Fifteen years ago, I was an exchange student to the University of Washington. It was my first big adventure away from home and, needless to say, I had a wonderful time in Seattle!

When I first arrived, I was hosted by a very generous couple: Roz and Phil Greene. I have kept in touch with Roz intermittently, but I have to admit I'm not a very good letter-writer. The last time I saw Roz was in 2006 when we met in Denver and stayed with her daughter (Rhonda).

Well, actually, that's not quite true. The last time I saw Roz was just last week, in Albuquerque. She and Rhonda were in town and called me out of the blue. What a happy surprise! We arranged to meet up for breakfast at The Range (yum!) and spent a good couple of hours yakking and feeding Paloma pancake.

It was great to see Roz and Rhonda and get a chance to show off Paloma. Hopefully we will get to see each other again soon, maybe somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

sneak peak: Heron Lake trip

Howard will soon be writing a blog about our wonderful (and quite miraculous) trip to Heron Lake. In the meantime, here is a summary of what we did:

(That's Howard in the tent, rocking Paloma to sleep.)
(That's Semilla chasing a stick and swimming. She likes to do that A LOT.)

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.

naptime!

Now that Paloma has figured out how to sit up by herself, naptime has become increasingly interesting.

Generally, this is what we hope for at naptime:

But sometimes we get a surly little girl instead:

Or, a very grumpy little girl.

When I was working from home last week, it took me several hours (yes, HOURS) to convince her that an afternoon nap was worthwhile. Admittedly, her teeth have been bothering her (but no new ones yet!).

She didn't like being trapped in (jail) her crib one little bit.

Or maybe she did???

After all, in her crib she gets to hang out with Ella (the elephant), Yuri and Brilee Bear. Brilee Bear has a bell in her tail and we hear it jingling when Paloma wakes up from her nap - such a happy little sound!

Most of these photos were taken on that long, long, long afternoon. Can you tell that I have a new camera?

row, row, row your boat

Howard is very, VERY excited about our new inflatable canoe. We have scheduled our first canoe trip for next weekend. We're thinking about leaving Semilla behind, because she gets a little wee bit excited about swimming in lakes - but Paloma is definitely coming along!

Unfortunately, the canoe hasn't arrived yet. Let's hope it gets here before we leave for Abiquiu Lake...

Fortunately, Paloma's life vest is already here!! As soon as it arrived, we ripped open the parcel and tried it on. She seems to like it.

Here she is, practising breaststroke.

It looks like fun, doesn't it?!

It's also very important to check that the life vest tastes good. (I think she gave it the thumbs up.)

Canoe adventure, here we come!!!

breakfast time

Maybe this is why it takes us so long to get ready in the morning....

Turn up the volume so you can hear!