A Day in Santa Fe

This is the Mormon Battalion Monument.  It was erected to mark the trail where the Mormon Battalion soldiers marched on their way to San Diego.  It's just off the side of I-25 on the way to Santa Fe from Albuquerque.   I don't know why the picture went here instead of below my opening paragraph, but it did, so here it will stay.

We really didn't go anywhere for a vacation this year.  Schedules just didn't work out that way this year.  But Susan wanted to go spend a day in Santa Fe.  She had only been there once, (when the Dad had an interview with Governor Richardson) and she really didn't remember much about it.  We asked Chelsea to come along, and that was fun.  Brian wasn't finished with school yet, so he couldn't go.

This is a picture just outside the Round House.  (The NM State Capitol Building.)

Here we are inside either the State Senate or the State House Chambers.  They look the same to me.

We walked around the Plaza for awhile.  We came upon the Clan Tynker Circus doing a free performance under the Gazebo there.  It was fun.  It was also hot, and we were sitting out in the sun, so we didn't stay to the very end.  (Besides that, we were getting sunburned and hungry.

The pictures got all out of order.  This was in the Round House.  This is the one thing about Santa Fe that Susan could remember from her last visit to Santa Fe.

This is the miraculous stairway inside the Church of San Loretto.  If you want to know the story of the staircase, read about it in Chelsea's blog,

 

This is the Mission of San Miguel.  It is the oldest church in the United States that is still in use for Sunday Mass.

We ate lunch at Tia Sophia's.  It is a New Mexican food restaurant.  It was delicious, and we were hungry!

Hmmmm.  What to order.

Cub Scout Day Camp!

It's been awhile since I've been to Cub Scout Day Camp.  In fact, the last time I went to Day Camp was back when Brian and Steven were Cub Scouts.  But since I'm the Primary President, I decided it was high time I went to Day Camp again, so Liana Madrid, the counselor over Cub Scouts, and I volunteered for the weekend.  It was all day Friday and Saturday June 12, 13).  Liana took her daughter to help on Friday, and I took Susan to help on Saturday.  I had a group of seven boys that I took from station to station both of those days.  I am only showing pictures of William Mortensen and Eric Mangum because I asked their moms if it was okay if I put the pictures in my blog.

Are we not the most gorgeous Den Leaders ever?

The kids were using javelin throwers to throw replicas of ancient javelins.

Everything is more fun with paint!

Who Needs Nascar?

Wal-Mart had a huge bin of Hotwheels cars in the toy department.  We decided that it was high time we got the Hotwheels track out again.  It's been a long time.  We each picked a new car from the bin, and for Family Home Evening while Steve and Angela were here, we had Hotwheels races.  I forgot how much fun those old tracks could be!

These are the cars.  Can you guess by looking whose car is whose?  Mine is the green one.  The dad's is yellow.  Susan's is pink.  Steve's is red, and Angela's is white.

Some pre-race entertainment.  (Actually it was earlier in the day.  It was really pre-race!

Monday is Fish Night for dinner.  We saw a show on Food TV about breading and panfrying with with panko crumbs.  We decided to try it and make fish sticks.  It was delicious!

Getting the track ready--It's amazing how much we had forgotten--like having to weight down the loops!

Before we started the actual races, we got out all the old cars and ran them.  It was amazing that we could still remember which cars were the fast ones, and which were the... duds.

Then it was time for the races.  We ran the cars in heats.  We added one more car from the old cars to make it even.

This was Angela's first experience with Hotwheels tracks!

Sadly, Angela didn't have years of experience in scrutinizing cars and choosing winners.  The car she picked from the Wal-Mart bin was a dud.  (She picked it because she liked its looks and color.  She's much more Hotwheel savvy now, though.)

Who would have thought that the mom could be so Hotwheel competitive?  The final results.  The mom's care came in first place.  Steve's was a close second.  Susan's and Dad's flip-flopped back and forth for third, and well... Angela's came in dead last every time.  (It had a hard time making it out of the starting block.  It kept getting stuck!)

The Hotwheels race was good practice for the Provo Deckers.  The employees at Steve's work are having a Pinewood Derby coming up.  Steve and Angela worked on their cars while they were here.  Power tools are much easier when it comes to shaping a Pinewood Derby racer!

It's been awhile since Dad has helped anyone pour lead into the cars.  See!  All those years of collecting lead weights has paid off!

Saturday and Susan's Senior Recital!

On Saturday evening, Susan had her Senior Recital.  Heather likes her piano students to do Senior Recitals, and we put Susan's off until this weekend, because we knew the boys and their wives would be here.  She did a great job!  I was proud of her.  Small and casual is exactly what she wanted, so this was just perfect!

On Independence Day, Angela helped the dad line a box with aluminum foil.  Dad wanted to make a box oven to slow-cook ribs for Saturday.

On Saturday, it was our turn to clean the church.  It was a good thing that we had a big crew at home, because the Deckers were the only ones who showed up to clean the building

One last check before we left to make sure the building is ready for Sunday.

After we cleaned the church, we walked down to Alicia's for breakfast.  Alicia's is a Mexican Food restaurant in the back of Lowe's (The California Supermarket on Ford and 66).  It's just about my favorite place in town to eat out.

The red hen is a bully.  It has been picking mercilessly on one of the Auracanas.  Angela made it her quest to keep that red hen away from the others so it couldn't keep pecking them.

Getting the box oven ready for the ribs.  It really didn't work very well.  We couldn't keep the heat up high enough.  Steve spent the whole time it was cooking heating it up with the blow-torch when the temperatures dropped too low.



McMullins came over for dinner before the recital.  Kyle and Steve played badminton against...

...the Charlie's Angels of the badminton scene.

In spite of all the work of the box oven, the ribs were delicious, and dinner was a success.

Susan is ready to perform.

Susan played seven piano pieces.

Look how intent she is!

Susan and Heather played a duet of "Cruella Deville."

Susan also sang "Happily Ever After," from "Once Upon a Mattress."

Susan and Heather at Susan's last recital.  She's still going to take piano lessons next year, but she said her recital days are over.

We made Coq au Vin for Sunday dinner-Brian's special request.  Brian and dad made the pasta.

It was tasty and delicious!

Isn't he lovely!

Independence Weekend Continues!

On Friday, Susan had to go to work, so we missed having her with us.  We went up to the walking trail behind the college to get our morning workout!

Steve called the hotline number on a sign to report problems with the Fit Trail, and one of the workers came and got him in a cool little John  Deer maintenance vehicle to show him where the problem was!

We set up the volleyball net in the backyard.  Since you can only see the pictures, you'll just have to take my word as to how amazing we are at playing volleyball. 

I suppose you can see our skill from our position and stance.

After Susan got home, we played Cranium.  Here she is acting out the word "baptism."  I got it!