Easter 2010

The boys had a great time finding candy and Easter eggs hidden all over our upstairs. Thankfully, Sadie didn't eat any.

Christmas 2009

There is something to be said for spending Christmas Eve at home. We went to church, had a quiet dinner, opened gifts, enjoyed just hanging out. Life is good.

St Peter Clinic

After 35 years in the same cramped, colorless clinic, we finally moved to a beautiful new facility May 2009. I'm only a year behind (and had to take the pictures today to finish it).

And a Conclusion

I expect more conclusion pages to look like this, a hint of what will be in the next album. It's probably hokey, but paper's relatively cheap.

Last Page

When I don't have a single page layout to start or finish an album, I had been either leaving it blank (which is ugly) or putting a page that states it was left as filler (which is almost as bad). I decided recently that I should have actual pages. Some of them, as evidenced by this one entitled The End, will be very simple. This is a great picture, though, of the last sunset we saw in West Virginia before heading home in August 2008.

Carlsbad Caverns

Jeff & I have been to many, many national parks and monuments, most of which are interesting, beautiful, etcetera. Carlsbad Caverns, which we visited in April 2009, tops them all. The boys and we walked both the Natural Entrance and the Big Room tours (2 1/4 miles in total) and were awe-struck by the size, the formations, etcetera.

Minnesota River Flood

This is probably weird, but I love it when the river floods. It seems more powerful than it usually does and creates cool views. I can say that down here because only abandoned Riverview Farm and the Coachlight had damage. Also because we live far, far up the hill without any possibility of flooding.

Breakfast with Santa

For the first time, both boys enjoyed talking to Santa. Liam asked for a video game. Cole asked for a hug.

Cole in July

Cole approves of this page. Liam thinks we should really do a page about him.

Chamizal

It just seems to wrong to dedicate two pages in a scrapbook to a place where we spent 10 minutes.

3 Year Old Cole

Cole has been watching me work on this page since yesterday. He tells me it's good.

Missiles

We stopped briefly at the White Sands Missile Range visitor center. We parked at the gate, walked through security and were told only to take pictures in the direction of the mountains. Okay then. The best picture anyway was of the boys walking together holding hands. If only they got along that well most of the time!

Gila Cliff Dwellings

If you're ever in western New Mexico, definitely take the time to go to this national monument. It was a beautiful walk and the cliff dwellings are very well maintained. I would advise, though, not to feed your children a big breakfast before driving 2 hours through the mountains to get there.

22 Snapshots

Liam is busy many months of the year, but last June was one of the busier: camping, gymnastics, classes, traveling. His last month of four was awesome.

White Sands

Last April, we visited White Sands National Monument as our last stop of the day. It was overcast, so we didn't take any stunning shots of the sand, but we had a blast anyway. Liam loved dumping sand everywhere, making sand angels, and trying to keep his shorts up. (I figured a shot of his plumber butt would not be appropriate for the internet nor eventually appreciated by him.) Cole loved dumping sand on Liam.

Salinas Pueblo Missions

I've tried to do this page many times, but have never been happy with the results. I finally worked through it and the results are reasonable. My oldest outstanding page is now April 27, 2009!

Fort Davis

On our way home from Big Bend National Park, we stopped off for a brief (in the 100 degree heat) visit to Fort Davis National Historic Site. This mid-19th century fort offered protection for travelers on the El Paso-San Antonio Road, as well as many other functions.