Santa Fe

We started the day in Albuquerque. We visited Petroglyphs National Monument, located in suburban Albuquerque. That is where Trisha posed by these chili bouquets. The monument itself was pretty underwhelming. It consisted of some pecked petroglyphs on the varnished surface of basalt boulders (aged 100-200K). I swore off taking photos of petroglyphs years ago, so I have nothing to show for our visit.



We arrived in Santa Fe at lunch time and located Harry's Roadhouse on the old Las Vegas (New Mexico) highway. It is a Triple D location, so we stopped in. The menu was quite diverse, and everyone enjoyed their meal.



Bubby and Marilyn enjoyed their root beer, and by the way they giggled, you would have thought it was something stronger in the bottles. They shared some eggplant dish that looked really good. I had an amazing grilled cheese, and of course we all had some dessert. Mine was strawberry rhubarb pie with a dollop of ice cream.



We left Santa Fe and drove west toward Los Alamos. We visited Bandelier National Monument just south of Los Alamos. This is a beautiful monument and we really enjoyed out time there. The day was sunny and fair, the monument scrupulously well maintained.



The ruins at Bandelier are partially hewn out of an ashfall volcanic tuff. Bubby and Marilyn enjoyed using the ladders and exploring the dwelling interiors where ever they could.



I took this one for Jake. It was the fattest lizard I have seen in quite awhile. He even posed for a photo.

We left Bandelier about 6:00 PM and stopped in Los Alamos, the site of the completion of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan to end the 2nd World War. It is still a national laboratory but the current research emphasis is homeland security. We will definitely bring our participants here in June of 2010. There are several world class museums and the community is beautiful.

On Monday morning, we rose early, were on the road by 7:00 AM, and with the exception of fuel and a lunch stop in Kayenta, AZ, we drove non-stop until we arrived in Cedar City at 6:00 PM. That's a lot of road hours. I am wondering about the wisdom of taking our in-service teachers so far, but hey, I don't make those decisions.

It was great to sleep in our bed last night, although I was at my desk at 2:30 AM. Lots to do today.

Buboppy

Red or Green

We headed out this morning at 6:20, stopped to pick up Big Jim, and drove to Kanab. We met Gayle, Marilyn, and the Other Larry D. there and headed for Albuquerque. It was a long, long drive. We stopped for lunch in Holbrook, bypassing the opportunity to be "standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona". We left I-40 at Gallop and drove to El Morro National Monument.



I convinced Bubby and Marilyn to pose for a photo outside the visitor's center. This is an interesting place. It is a cultural site, supposedly most occupied by refugees from the Chacoan civilization. The Anasazi's were here from 12-1300 AD (I think). There is great water in the area and the native peoples built significant dwellings. They also drew extensive rock art on the cliffs of El Morro.



The Spanish came up from Mexico in search of gold in the 16th Century. Bubby is posed by a diorama of one of the Spaniards making his inscription on the cliff face at El Morro (inscription rock). Because of a natural water source, the Spanish used the site extensively through the 17th century. Next the pioneers came and added their inscriptions to El Morro. This site really does record, with petroglyphs, the history of this region of the Southwest.



The rock itself is locally called the Zuni Sandstone. It is Jurassic in age, correlative to the Entrada Sandstone of southern Utah, and the Cow Springs Sandstone (in which Window Rock, AZ, is located). It is poorly cemented, which makes it easy to inscribe and full of iron stains produced by woody materials (branches and twigs) that were buried when it was deposited along the channel and edges of free flowing streams.



Of course, in its present form, it stands in relief above the valley and provides significant views within the pinion-juniper forest. I had a great time taking photos.



We saw our first "alligator juniper" at El Morro. Bubby couldn't resist having her photo taken next to the trunk, which is the source of its name. It really does look like the skin of an alligator.

Tonight we had dinner in Old Town, Albuquerque. We got asked the "State Question" Bubby and I answered "Christmas". The food was great, and we are settled in for the evening now. I am watching "Rudy" as I write this. Tomorrow, we are going to look around Albuquerque and then we will head to Santa Fe, where we will sleep tomorrow night.

This is a spring outing that we look forward to every year.

Buboppy

Too Long Away

Properly chastened by Booty (on behalf of Laurie), we again set fingers to the asdfjkl; keys and update. We have been involved in a lot things since last we posted, so this will be an attempt to bring you all up to speed in as few words as possible.



As one last perquisite for our service in the CCU 1st Stake, the outgoing stake presidency took conference tickets. We had tickets for Saturday morning, when the newest apostle was named, General Priesthood, and Sunday morning. The conference was inspiring and uplifting. Beany and Dan went with Poppy to priesthood and Babsy joined them afterward for a Thai dinner at one of Sugarhouse's local establishments. The food was excellent and the company unexcelled. We brought sticky rice and mango home to babysitting Bubby and she declared it the best ever. The photo above shows the Sunday morning crew on Temple Square before the session. We got to ride Trax in, which is part of the fun.

Of course while we were in SLC, we participated in the Wells sister's birthday parties and much else. Lots of fun for us.



The next big events for us was Easter weekend and the St. George Arts Festival. As you all know from reading the other family blogs, we all went down and enjoyed some quality time with the extended family. Uncle Jim was still celebrating a birthday and Auntie Nell and Uncle Rol gave him this nifty T-shirt in commemoration of one of Uncle Jim's political heroes. I am confident that the shirt was purchased with stimulus money and must be worn immediately, in order to maximize its impact on the US economy.



As others have reported, we did get to see Ashley, Ruskin, and Rowan. I thought Bubby's shot of him was one of the best. Our Bubby is developing into a very competent photographer and I am very proud to post her pictures.



Easter Sunday was family day. We had church, a big ham and potato dinner and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. What follows are the photos of the egg hunt participants. All were taken by Bubby and they represent well our beautiful grands (except our Leondus, who was far away in Tejas). Miss Kate was resplendent in her Easter dress. She is a very lovely young lady.



Katie biggest fan, our Drewfy, was in heaven with his cousins. He is showing some maturity (well, for a 3.5 year old) and loves to come see his Bubby. It is obvious to Poppy that seeing only Poppy does not fulfill Andrew's needs very well. He loves to play with is Bubb.



Jake is getting so tall! I cut his hair for him and he looks handsome and ready for summer. Bubby thinks his suntan needs to fill-in a little. He had fun participating in the Easter festivities. Jake loves to play games and waits patiently every evening for a turn to play with the adults. He fancies himself a Skipbo master.



Bubby caught this semi-candid of Evelyn getting some love from her Daddy. She is a very sweet little girl. We all enjoyed being around her and it is so fun to watch her personality emerging.



Speaking of personality! The last morning Sarah was here, Miss Lydia went upstairs before Bubby headed out to swimming. Bubby turned "Franklin" on for Lydia, and thinking that Sarah was just behind, slipped out the door. During a commercial break, Lydia reported to her mom that Poppy had turned "Franklin" on for her and that he was upstairs. Thinking that Poppy was "on-duty" (he left the house at 6:00), Babsy bathed, did her hair, and finally came upstairs to discover that the "fox" had been in the hen house for at least an hour and half, unsupervised. Lydia ate four Cadbury caramel eggs, wiping chocolate on Bubby's bedspread. She finger painted Bubby's towel with toothpaste, and much, much more. Of course, much like any bad puppy, you just know she could use some stern correction, but look at that face. Do you want to administer the punishment? We don't.

Buboppy