Adobe Western Railroad

The rain/snow broke a record of 143 days without measurable precipitation in the Phoenix Metro area. We can always say that we were here when the record was broken. It stopped raining and we braved our way across Mesa, across Tempe, across Scottsdale and across Phoenix to the Adobe Western Railroad - Home of the Maricopa Live Steamers. It was cold and breezy but Jamie & I rode 3 trains and had a great time. Unfortunately, this event occurs only on Sunday afternoons or we would have chosen a different day to do this. Our experience last year was much more favorable but, nevertheless, this was a great way for a train loving kid (and his mom) to spend an afternoon.

SNOW????

So, we are in Mesa, AZ for Spring Break. It rained all day our first day and we woke up today to snow covered mountains. HUH??? The peaks here have more snow on them than the peaks in Alamosa did before we left. It's pretty sad when I have to come to Arizona to see snow covered peaks!!!

On the mend...

One week later, Jamie & Julie are recovering from their recent bouts with strep and other bacterial infections. Alamosa is having a "strep" epidemic and five more of Jamie's friends have tested positive this week. I heard of one classroom that had 17 of 23 students out with strep one day last week. Next week is Spring Break and it can't come soon enough!!!

So, speaking of Spring Break, we are breaking out of here for a couple of weeks. Jamie & Julie will go to Mesa, AZ this Friday and Bill will fly in to Phoenix on Sunday for a week of fun in the sun! (With our luck, it'll rain all week!) We already have a couple of Spring Training baseball games lined up and will visit Julie's mom and several friends who live in the area. Bill will fly home at the end of the week and Jamie & Julie will stay until her mom gets tired of them and brings them home. Even though we have had a mild winter in Alamosa, we have been cooped up and are all looking forward to spending a lot of time outside. Jamie is looking forward to being spoiled by grandma.

Strep happens

Julie and Jamie just returned from the doctor this afternoon. Julie has a sinus infection and Jamie has either strep and/or an ear infection. The doctor didn't do a strep test on Jamie because he said that he was going to prescribe antibiotics anyway.

Jamie's friends, Justin & Ryan A., tested positive for strep yesterday. Today, as we were leaving the doctor's office, another friend of Jamie’s (Ryan H.) was there with a sore throat and throwing up…another one bites the dust! (All four were at playgroup together last Friday.)

So, Julie & Jamie are armed with antibiotics and will be hanging out at home for a couple of days.

Julie's FIRST Stampin' Up! workshop

Emily and Rhonda co-hosted Julie's first ever Stampin' Up!® workshop in Red River, NM. They rounded up seven of their stamping and scrapbooking friends and we had a great time!

Julie demonstrated the use of lots of different Stampin' Up!® products and everyone had the opportunity to make four different projects. The workshop was a huge success with over $700 in sales. Emily & Rhonda earned five free stamp sets and $95 worth of free merchandise!

Jamie was excited to go to Red River also, as he was able to visit his cousin, Shelby, and his friend, Cade. Jamie and Cade played with their "Thomas The Tank Engine" toys while the grown-ups played with the stamping and scrapbooking toys. A good time was had by all!

Computer kid

Jamie has taken a recent interest in the computer. Our library has a nice section of computers for kids with fun games and we also have a few fun games at home. He especially likes Mr. Potato Head and likes playing the dot-to-dot game. He is learning to maneuver the mouse very well. Sure wish we could find that cool "Thomas The Tank Engine" computer game that Jamie got for Christmas. Oh well...

Moon over Mt. Blanca

This is a beautiful shot of the moon rising over Mt. Blanca. This is our view to the east from our front door. The sad thing about this photo is the LACK of snowpack in the Sangre de Cristo's in mid February.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Julie's cousin, Jan, sent Jamie these adorable stuffed animals for Valentine's Day. Jamie loves them! He calls them his "snuggly bears" and has wanted to sleep with them several times...an honor usually bestowed upon his train collection.
Jamie's preschool/daycare had a Valentine's Day party and although it was on a day that Jamie is not usually at preschool, he and Julie went to spend the afternoon. Shirley & the other kids had baked cookies in the morning so we all got to decorate and then eat yummy sugar cookies. Harvey came in with a bag of Hersey's kisses for everyone, scoring MAJOR points!!

(Katrina & Jamie)

Jamie had fun with the frosting and sprinkles and especially enjoyed eating his cookie.

After the cookies, the kids exchanged their valentine's. The sugar rush kicked in by then and all of the kids were ready to PLAY!!!

(Dante, Roman, Cruz & Jamie)

SLV fly-over

A co-worker of Bill's is a pilot and has an airplane. He invited us to go up and fly over the San Luis Valley. It was a clear and calm morning, a perfect day to catch some air.
We took off from the Alamosa air field and headed south and east, then turned back north and flew next to Mt. Blanca and over the Sand Dunes before flying over Alamosa and back to the air field. It is interesting to fly over the San Luis Valley and see the geography...mountains, rivers, ponds, crop circles, etc. Jamie thought it was really cool and had fun playing with the headset. Next time, we'll take his car seat which will lift him up so that he'll be able to see better out of the window.

Mt. Blanca

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Alamosa from the air and Rio Grande River

SNOW!!!

We finally received enough snow to cover the ground and Jamie could not wait to get outside and play in it. His truck made a great snow plow and we scraped up enough of the white stuff to make this little snowman. Everything was melted by the end of the day but we had lots of fun and the photos to prove that we actually did
have snow.

Rose Bowl

On January 4, we were decked out in our USC gear, cheering enthusiastically for the Trojans to win their third national championship! We had fun and it was a good game, but the victory went to Texas.

Cousins

This is a nice photo of Julie's cousins, Esteban & Chick, taken while Esteban was visiting from Los Angeles over the Christmas holiday.

Christmas 2005 - Part II

Jamie looking at Gram's Christmas tree

(MUCHAS GRACIAS to Esteban for capturing these Christmas memories...)

Christmas morning at Gram's house was fun. Most everyone that was there had a bad cold or the flu. Esteban made a drugstore run and everyone sat around, half asleep, sipping hot Thera-flu. We muddled our way through, though, and the kids all had a great time opening and playing with their new things. It was fun to celebrate Christmas with family this year.

Gram & Chuck

Gram & Shelby

Wanda & Austin

Shelby & Esteban

Shelby & Owen

Owen & Julie

Jamie hamming it up for Esteban's camera!

Shelby & Jamie

Julie, Bill, Jamie, Cody & Ryan



Brian, Cody, Sharon & Ryan

Chuck, Melissa & Everett

Tyler, Daron & Chick



Jamie & Bill

Jamie, Bill, Tyler, Daron (in back) and Ryan playing with his new PlayStation

Christmas 2005 - Part I

WOW!!! I can't believe it's February already! Guess it's a good time to update our blog and post Christmas photos.


We went to Albuquerque for Christmas and spent the holidays with Julie's family. Bill's sister, Bonnie, was in Albuquerque with friends and we were glad to be able to visit with her also. On Christmas Eve, we went to Julie's uncle's house for enchiladas and posolé and other goodies. We also drove around and saw lots of beautiful lights and luminarias.

This is Julie's grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. Shelby helped her set up the luminarias (farolitos) that afternoon. They don't show up in the photo very well but the entire cul-de-sac was lined with them and it was beautiful!

We stayed at Julie's mom's house in Rio Rancho with Emily & Shelby and had fun watching Shelby and Jamie tear through their presents on Christmas morning. Julie came down with the cold/flu on Christmas Eve and felt horrible on Christmas Day...you know she wasn't feeling good when she turned the camera duty over to Bill!

Shelby and Jamie scattering "reindeer food" in the driveway on Christmas Eve.

Jamie & Grandma Betty on Christmas morning. He opened one package on Christmas Eve...Thomas PJ's.

Christmas morning - Bill & Jamie

Christmas morning - Shelby with Hilary poster.

Christmas morning - Jamie ripping through the paper!

Julie bought this Thomas computer game last July and was so excited to give it to Jamie for Christmas. He was excited to open it and we took this very nice photo of it. Good thing we have this photo because the Thomas game hasn't been seen since...must have been gathered up with the trash. Bummer!

Christmas morning - Bill and his new Denver Broncos fleece. Julie bought this on eBay from someone in Kansas City. (A true fan will recognize the irony of this.)

Emily & Julie being Christmas couch potatoes. Julie was actually wishing she was in bed!

HIPPY Christmas Party

Jamie has been involved this semester with the HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youth) Program, offered through Alamosa County. The program promotes school readiness and early literacy through parent involvement and utilizes the parent as the child's first teacher. It is a great program and seems to have good long term correlation with school success. The curriculum at age 3 is mostly reading, comprehension and role play which has supplemented and reinforced what we have already been doing.

The annual HIPPY Christmas party was held on December 20th at Polston Elementary School. There were lots of kids, submarine sandwiches and hotdogs, Christmas music, Christmas candy and Santa Claus...with PRESENTS!! Jamie had asked Santa earlier for a 'super fast toy' and, as fate would have it, his gift from Santa was a racing motorcycle toy. He was so impressed that Santa remembered his request and said that it was "just what I wanted". Today, someone asked Jamie if Santa was going to bring him a present and his jubilant reply was, "he already did"!