Month: July 2015

Well the vacation, yes had to end, but now we eagerly await Mommies coming home!!

Me and the kids, well more the kids really, throughly enjoyed our great time visiting family and friends in and around Santa Fe, NM. We spent just over a month being able to explore Northern New Mexico and visit with cousins my children rarely get to do! Everyone was soooo welcoming and loving, it really shows how family is oh so important in life.

It was a total whirlwind, from simple pool and trampoline time at my sisters home, to river fun in the Sangre De Cristo mountains!! Leaving as always was sad, and brought bouts of tears from my kids, but the memories made are priceless!

Our trip home was punctuated by a short visit to My Aunt CC and Uncle Duane, who cooked us a great home cooked meal and let the kids do some garden picking as well. Wishing we could have spent more time, but sometimes life throws certain curveballs that we have to just adjust too.

Drive home was very uneventful, which by the way is a GOOD thing! A lot of travel was done early in the morning, so the kids were asleep for a majority of it, but some of the drive through Arkansas, Mississippi, and even Alabama was gorgeous, all be it very hot!!

Now we are home again,and prepare to greet the Mighty Iwo Jima as she returns to port after an arduous 7 month deployment!! The kids are very excited, everyday they ask, “Is it Monday yet?” This will actually be my first time on this end of a coming home, spent so many times on the other end slowly waiting on the ship to make its way to the pier, I remember the time seems to crawl by as the ship moves at what seems like a snails pace through the channels and waterways, finally catching up to the tug and boarding the pilot. Then even more time as you slowly move toward your assigned pier, waiting inexplicably, excited and anxious, for first the call of “First Line, shift Colors.” and then much later for posting of the watch, and “liberty call, liberty call!” Now we get to be the one on the pier, waiting as patient as possible to see our family matriarch to walk off the gangway!

Well leaving family and friends is always hard, but the longer you stay, just makes departing that much harder. I wont say sorrowful cause there was nothing sorrowful about this visit/vacation!!! This was a rare opportunity for our slightly un-full family, and the kids had so so so much fun with all of their family! As i suspected, Angelica is taking it the hardest, much like she is taking her Mommy being gone the hardest. Have to patiently wait though short bouts of tears, but the thought of seeing her Mom soon helps, but she is only 5 years old, so it isn’t fully comprehended, and she just wants to see her cousins!!!

Words in no way can say or convey the appreciation to my NM family for the warm and loving hospitality they gave me, and especially, my two young kids. I know that they will remember this for a very very longtime!

We left early Friday morning, heading East for OKC to see our OK family. As is always the case, travel was smooth and uneventful until freaking Texas and Oklahoma!! Those damn crosswinds just suck as they pound the side of our 35′ home on wheels!!! Makes an 7.5 hour trip seem like 15 hours!!!!

However we made it unscathed and none the worse for wear. checked in at park and quickly got in the car and headed north to Perry, OK (passing as quickly as possible through enemy territory, Stillwater, OK!! I did everything possible not to VOMIT!!), to see our dear Aunt Cecelia and Uncle Duane. Auntie made us a GREAT meal and we visited as the kids ran rabid all around the house and Uncle Duane’s garden, picking tomatoes and squash! Wish we could stay longer but we have a schedule and of course they have one as well. Next Stop…. who knows, after a trip Norman, then its Eastbound and down again on Sunday!!

Well it was a long and good day again spending time with family, and of course the kids got to spend lots of time with their cousins!!

Started out the day at the Pork and Brew at Santa Ana’s Star center casino grounds. Sorry to report, overall it was a bit disappointing, and pricey too. There were less stands then I had envisioned both on the Pork side and Brew side. Plus it cost money for the small samples they gave… To top it off, none of the meat was anything special, nothing that made me stop and say.. MMMM!!

It started down-pouring on us midday and we piled into the Star center Auditorium, where the kids got to get a little of the bouncy fun in.

After that we headed a little more south to the Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta park to get a little of their Freedom 4th celebration, which turned out to be really nice. Weather was cool, sun was in the clouds and couple of pretty good music acts, Brett Young and Thompson Square! The grass was tall and lush and made for a perfect relaxing way to sit and wait for them Fireworks. Those fireworks didn’t disappoint, they were loud and, bright, and long, and punctuated a great end to a great day. NOW the downside as always was the traffic leaving! We always seemed to be in the wrong lane, and so more then an hour later we finally got on the highway home! Still it was a long day but we most certainly loved every minute of it!!

Northern New Mexico Mountains

Some of my fondest memories as a kid growing up in NM are the camping/hunting/fishing/picnics we had. Like those when Me, my Pops, Uncles, and cousins got on horse back, packed up as much as we could carry behind our saddle and a pack horse, rode up the Sangre De Cristo mountains for 3-4 days all while fishing in the little river that flowed alongside the trail. That and going up the Pecos river, finding a swimming hole and swimming all day long! So I definitely wanted my kids to experience that in some way, and with all the rain NM has gotten it was the opportune time to see some actual flowing water in the rivers, and so we did, up past Mora in Canyon Creek State Park!!

It was so beautiful and green, the weather was cool to cold at times, the river was a little chilly but not for my kids and there cousins!! Didn’t take long before they made a bunch of little friends amongst the other campers!!!

Made a feeble attempt at fishing a little, and trying to fish whilst telling my kids NOT to throw stuff in the river or pulling and jerking on their high speed Princess and Spiderman fishing rods proved to be not very fruitful….

There was lots of river playing, even a little swimming, much running amuck the green forest, and of course the campfire and s’mores was a huge hit!! We dodged almost all the rain, and it was nice to get a cool breeze flowing through the RV at night,and having to blanket up a bit!!

The real test of a good day for the kids is two-fold.. first being the black ring of dirt that came off their bodies at night before bed, and the deep long sleep the had every night!!

It was the best of times with one exception… They still miss their Mommy and several times mentioned how she would love this or that, or tried to save some stick or leaf to give to mommy!!!

You know, it had been some 20+ years since  I had been to a Santa Fe rodeo, and of course it seemed all so different from this “experienced” age. BUT i was pleasantly surprised that it was a very good event and I actually enjoyed it more then I thought i would. Kids, well I think they enjoyed it a bit, but there was a ferris wheel in the distance so they were somewhat distracted… Although Angelica definitely wants to do some Muttin Busting!!!

We did make it over to the carnival side a couple days later, and it was one of the cheesiest ones i have ever been to, but again it wasn’t about me, and the kids, and their cousins loved every old dilapidated rusty ride!

 

Kids loved the lake so much we made another venture up to Abiquiu lake and took some of the awesome hospitality of one of my Mom’s oldest friends and HS classmates, even ran into and old schoolmate their as well!! small world sometimes! Not only did they get to swim in the lake again but they got Jet Ski rides as well, even MOM got a ride with her son-in-law, which was AMAZING, but of course her old friend was their and she had to impress ya know!!!

 

Then in was up tot he Northern New Mexico mountains to a place called Canyon Creek north of Mora, NM!! Wanted kids to experience a little of what we used to do as kids in the Pecos river. The ride was absolutely awesome, I sometimes forget the beauty of my Home state. It was nice riding up the little NM highway alongside the Rio Grande and actually see water in the river!!! The windy little roads through Velarde, Dixon, Penasco, and Mora brought back soo many memories of my youth, a time when I definitely did not appreciate any of it. It was something beyond words to describe, and traveling in an RV, slow, made it all that more awesome!!