2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part II--Sledding in New Mexico

Ready for some more pictures from our cross-country trip? I'm slowly getting all my pictures re-sized and uploaded. I didn't realize how snap-happy I am...I took so many pictures!

So here they are, sledding in the Jemez Mountains outside Albuquerque.


Jordan in his cool shades



This is where we go sledding...a nice bowl-like area that we've gone to on 3 or 4 different visits now. It's big enough for the bigger boys to have fun, while not being too dangerous for the little guys. Win-win!



Joey



Joshua



Jonathan, tired of waiting for his turn with one of the 3 sleds, decided to go down one of the steeper sides on his rear end.



I just love the expression on Jordan's face here!



Waiting his turn



Josh tried sledding on his backside as well



Joanna's first run, from the safety of Daddy's lap



She wasn't sure about it at first, but she was smiling by the end.



Josiah trying to decide if this whole sledding-without-a-sled thing is worth the risk



Jon about to take off



Once Joanna discovered how much fun it was to sled, she pulled her princess status and got her brothers to pull her back up the hill in the sled. She sledded at least a couple dozen times, and I don't believe she ever had to walk back up the hill!



Another intense expression!



Little miss princess



Josiah



Joanna sledding with Granddaddy...look at that expression of pure excitement on her face!



Josiah getting ready to brave a steep slope on his bottom


And he's off!



Jordan



Daddy couldn't be shown up by Jonathan and Jordan, who were going down the steeper side slopes repeatedly. Here he is about to give it a try...



And he's off!



Yes, he was airborne a couple of times!



Jonathan



Jordan helping Josiah get on the sled

I'm really glad we got in some snow play while we were in the southwest...now that we're back home in the northeast, there isn't any snow around here. We get a bit now and then, but not enough to stick around. It's a far cry from our record season for snow last year! Oh, well...I can be thankful we aren't having to shovel any!!

My Sweet Valentines

I have not 1, but 8 Valentines to spoil on Valentine's Day! Some years I get more creative with their treats than others...namely the years I'm NOT pregnant, haha! This year I made my sweeties sugar cookies. I was trying to make them look like conversation hearts.

This was my first time to try royal icing on cookies. I've made it before, but only to use as cement for gingerbread houses at Christmas. I colored it with Wilton gel colors. I think they turned out pretty cute, although the icing dried funny on some of them. They look wet around the edges, but they're not. Hmmmm.....



My lettering skills need some practice!




I also followed our tradition of giving everyone a box of actual conversation hearts. Candy always goes over well around here! It's okay to eat cookies and candy for breakfast if it's a holiday, right?? (We did follow up with scrambled eggs about an hour later!)


A little darling (with a bad case of bed head!) inspects her candy.



Mmmmm.....yummy!



Joseph enjoying a cookie.



Jordan

Just in case this helps someone else...

I cut out my cookie dough with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, but they spread out just enough to look kind of weird and misshapen in the oven. I just re-cut them out with the cookie cutter while they were still warm, and voila!--perfect heart shapes again! Now, those of you who bake a lot have probably already figured that out, but it was new to me, so I'm sharing. :) I had lots of eager tasters waiting around to eat the edges that were cut off, so nothing was wasted. (As if cookies could EVER go to waste in a house with 7 kiddos!)



The cookies were enjoyed by all. And I got a sweet card AND a box of chocolates from my honey...Yum!!

Valentine's Day totally sneaked up on me this year! I mean, I knew it was coming and all, but not so quickly. I'm not ready! This is not a holiday that I make a huge deal out of, but I have several things I've been working on for the loves in my life, and they're not done yet! I still have this evening, right?

This is my lone Valentine's Day decoration this year:


A heart garland made out of red and white felt. It was inspired by something I saw posted on Pinterest, which is my new internet obsession. Like I have time for any more internet obsessions. Anyway, the original is here. I thought hers was cute, but since I didn't have the bead-looking things to put between them, I thought I'd add dimension by making the individual hearts multi-layered. I started with 3, but my sewing machine totally balked at that. Two it is, then.

We had a super-cold weekend, so we spent lots of time sitting around playing games and drinking hot chocolate. Jeremy found us a new Mille Bornes game, since our old one had too many cards missing to really play it.

It is.....Cars themed! The little boys were thrilled.


The draw/discard decks sit in a plastic Lightning McQueen. How cute is that?



And the cards all feature characters from the Cars 2 movie.


For some reason, several of my children weren't allowing me to take their pictures...


It might have something to do with the iPhone app I downloaded recently that makes the subjects of your photos have cool facial hair or bald heads. I thought they would find that amusing. You never can tell with these guys, though. Apparently Josh, Jordan, and Joseph don't trust me with a camera at the moment.

But Jon let me take his picture:



And so did Josiah:



Well, I've got Valentines to prepare and very little time left. Got to get to work!!

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part I--Hiking in Albuquerque

Our first destination on our cross-country trip was Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sure, it took us 4 days to get there and we stayed in many a Wal-Mart parking lot along the way, but it was worth the drive...we had tons of fun spending time with Jeremy's parents, or Granddaddy and Grandmommy to the J-kids. One of our first outings was hiking at the base of the Sandia Mountains, right where the tram leaves to carry passengers to the peak.


First we had to go purchase gloves and hats for several children. After living in the northeast for 4 winters now, I still don't understand how one family can own 30 gloves and not have more than 2 complete pairs among them. Maybe the gloves are hanging out with all the missing socks. I don't know.

Anyway, while glove shopping I couldn't resist this adorable hat for Joanna! Or the matching gloves that she was constantly asking someone to help her put back on.





The boys all had to search for the perfect walking stick.



Joanna and her Granddaddy



Jon



Jon with his walking stick, which is really some sort of dried cactus






Joshua



Here's Joey trudging up a hill. He has a special talent for looking like he isn't having any fun at all--until it's time to go home, and then he doesn't want to leave. Ever.



The younger children got bored quickly, and had to be placated with snacks. We do much more snacking on the road than we do at home, which I think is one of the primary reasons our kids put up with all the traveling that we do. I'm quite confident that they ate more sugar in the last 5 weeks than they will in the next 5 months here at home.



Gather 'round the snacks, boys!



Nothing like kickin' back in a hole in the ground to enjoy a graham cracker. That's my Josiah!



Jeremiah enjoyed watching his brothers from the snuggli.



Joshua



Jeremy and Jeremiah



Jonathan sliding down a very rough boulder. Yet another reason why I'm glad I never pay full price for boys' jeans.



Overlooking part of Albuquerque



The bigger boys were determined to make it all the way to the first tram tower, so they ran ahead. They didn't make it quite that far, but they did manage to be right underneath the path of the tram as it returned back down the mountain.



They are barely visible in the lower left of this photo, just behind a bush.



Jordan



Joey, Josiah, and Jon heading back down



Joshua found this footprint in the snow and was sure it was some fierce wild cat or bear. I thought it was just a large dog print, but he was having none of that! It doesn't look like it from the angle of this picture, but the print was about the same size as his hand.



My sweet Josiah, giving me his I'm-too-cool-to-smile look



Heading back to the parking lot

We didn't make it very far up the mountain, but we had fun and got some good exercise, too. Jeremy and I keep saying that on one of our visits to Albuquerque we're going to hike all the way to the top. Maybe when the kids are a little older (and I'm, uh, back in shape) we'll actually try it!