Family Walks

Family walks don't happen quite as often as they should, but we do try.

Not far from the house there is a "lateral". Laterals are turn-outs from the main irrigation channels of the Rio Grande. They are opened in the spring to feed water to the little ranchitos that are abundant in our area. They also make very nice little walking paths.

Autumn enjoys the walks, and was fond of this graffiti until it was covered up.

Erica and I enjoy them also, but the pace is definitely a little slower with Autumn.

We'll probably be taking fewer walks for a while since Erica will be expanding for the next few months, and then we will have an additional non-walking family member.

Sometimes Autumn needs to take a break from walking.

Daddy getting older.

Autumn being cute.

We are Happy Campers.

We were going to go camping a few weeks ago, but no one was really prepared so we postponed our trip to this weekend that just past. I for one had a BLAST. Adam Autumn and I took one car and our friend Jon, (Better Known as Rocketpants) and his wonderful



We arrived late on Friday and instead of choosing a campground BEFORE we left we decided to wait until we got to the 3 sites we were interested in.







It seemed like a good enough idea, but no one considered that there would be no cell service when we got out there. Rocketpants was a little over an hour behind us, but we didn't really know if he was still in range so we went down to the little country store and called his cell from a really cool old payphone.


Since we didn't know if Rocketpants got the message we went down to the entrance to the campsite to flag him down. I am not sure if it would have worked, but fortunately he had already gotten our message so he knew which campsite to go to. That night we didn't have any fire wood and we thought about it after the country store was closed. It didn't matter much, we had fun drinking PBR in the dark wearing jackets.


That first night was freezing. It is hard to believe it can go from being so warm to being uncomfortably chilly. I grew up in the dessert so I SHOULD know this, but we didn't have enough blankets that first night. Autumn woke us all up pretty early, we had a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs and made sure to pick up firewood and extra blankets. That day was spent climbing and hiking, and the evening was spent hanging out by the fire and drinking beer, but not TOO much beer. The people at the campsite next to ours were REALLY loud, but I slept fine anyway, and autumn didn't wake us up at such an early hour on Sunday morning.






On Sunday we packed up and wandered over to Jemez falls, where there is a great swimming hole that we couldnt find, but that was really OK since it was a little cool for swimming. I really wished we were not confined by Autumn and Melvin ( the awesome American bulldog pictured here) because it would have been a really wonderful place to explore.



From there we went to bandalier national monument, which I was super stoked about. Unfortunately when we got there we found out that they do not allow pets so Melvin and rocketpants headed on to Las Alamos and Adam, Autumn and I went into the park.





Bandalier is REALLY awesome. It is a historic sight where you can see some incredible adobe ruins and some native American cliff dwellings. It is in a canyon that still runs along a narrow creek, so while most of it is still typical desert landscape there is a lush green aria as well.



We ended up doing a little more hiking, and in Bandalier you are actually allowed to go in some of the caves, so that was fun.



There is also a very large cave at the top of a 4 ladder pitch. I think it is 140 feet or something. Adam and I took turns going up there because I didn't want to drop Autumn off a cliff. It was pretty cool , and it was not nearly as hard for me to climb up it as it was for me to climb down, but I am starting to feel like I am getting closer to mastering this fear of heights business.





So... How was your weekend?



XOXO

-Erica

Thoughts.

I have a lot to do for etsy. I have a lot that I want to do in general, and here I am , not doing it . Sitting on my butt in front of my computer not doing any of it, except of course, writing a blog. That was on my list of things to do.

I am not sure if I am lazy or depressed. I can’t usually tell the difference, I must admit. Maybe not REALLY depressed, just glum. I know now that I am one of those people that just NEEDS sunshine. If I had not moved here I never would have known. The sun came out briefly today, but now it is gray and cold again.

Adam left town today. He is working somewhere doing something for some biz. He is a wildlife biologist and during the spring that usually means MIA. Admittedly I feel lucky this year. So far this is his first trip out of town. It is going to cause problems for my Derby schedule, but I am abstaining from the draft so it is not that big of a deal if my attendance suffers. The only real problem with that is that I love skating, it makes me happy.

Ahhh, and derby. I miss PLAYING roller derby, but am SO thankful to be involved at the level that I am. So why am I abstaining from the draft? Well, at this time, it looks like moving away from Portland is becoming more and more likely. The draft is intense and there are lots of girls that deserve to be drafted. If I decided to participate and happened to be one of the lucky few who got drafted, I would feel much guiltier about moving. I don’t want a team to waste their time with me, and then move away. I also don’t want to take a highly coveted draft slot from anyone else who will be here for a long time. I am not going to drop off the fresh meat team because I love getting to skate as much as I do and on the chance that we decide not to move I don’t want to lose the postpartum derby progress that I have made. Besides, if we stick around I don’t want to lose my slot on the fresh meat team.

SO, Tonight is fresh meat tryouts. I am thinking about going to watch. I want to, but it seems silly to drive out there just to watch, plus, they may not appreciate having Autumn on the sidelines. I also have all these things I want to do, but that is not an excuse because so far today I have not done them. Either way I will be rooting for Frisky Sour, Knotty La Rue, and hot mamma Stormy Monday.

Oh, and my new derby name is Sultry Confinement, Thanks to permission from Sally Terry Confinement in Colorado.

What else? I am excited to be doing a custom order on etsy. I will be making a dress. I need to get some exercise today. I am sick so I skipped Sunday practice, that and it was Easter. That means it has been two days since I have done anything seriously active and my body can feel it. I also started playing with youtube. I wish I knew how to edit video, but I have put up a few awesome baby Autumn videos.

I could go on, but I know that most people have probably already lost interest, and I should have really broken this into multiple entries. Cheers to everyone who made it to the end of this blog! You are surly less ADD than I am.