Lazy Summer Days

Haha yeah right. I wish we had some lazy summer days, there is never a dull moment in the Gharrity household. I swore that I would get everything done during my break between terms that I didn't have time to do at the beginning of summer, and of course it didn't happen. Now I'm scurrying around trying to get everything done all at once. On the list for this week: Garage sale, clean out closets, get ready for Marley and me to start school, and apply at SFPS. I can't believe Marley is starting Pre-K next week! I know it will be so good for him, and he will absolutely love it, but I just can't imagine him not being home all the time! I think Meliya is going to have a hard time with him being gone during the day. She is so used to him being there to play with her, and he really does take care of her. But I also think it will be good for her to have more daddy and mommy time.
So since I was feeling the summer crunch, I decided we needed to accomplish at least one of the things I told the kids we would do this summer: Ride the train. If you are not familiar with the Railrunner, it's the train that now runs from Santa Fe to Belen. Pretty cool. So on Saturday afternoon, I packed up the kids and we got on the train to Albuquerque. We spent the night in a hotel, went out to dinner, swimming, and lots of jumping on our king size bed until the kids were really good and worn out. The next day, Patrick graciously drove to Albuquerque (the train doesn't run on Sundays) and took us to the zoo!



It was pretty hot.

But lucky for us, there was a place to cool off.

We had a blast. The kids were so good, they really did well on the train, in the hotel and at the zoo. They are true adventurers. I love how the more adventures I take them on, the more I feel like we can branch out and do more. I guess it's part of growing up. For all of us :)

Now it's time to get ready for school. *sigh*. Summer's almost over, Patrick is midway through the busiest month of the year, next weekend is one of the busiest weekends of the year for Santa Fe, Indian Market. Yep. Never a lazy day in the Gharrity household. ~Trish

Into the woods...

We did it! It took some creativity...



The kids were totally comfortable and contained nicely...

And thanks to our new Thule, we were

able to fit everything we needed for 3 days...

We had a blast, it was so nice just to be together. We went up north between Questa and Red River in a campground called Columbine Canyon. The weather was great, it only really rained when we first got there after we set up our camp. It poured on us! We drove around for awhile while we waited for it to pass and when we came back to the campground, we saw that a different amazing site opened up near the river. So being the insane people that we are, we packed everything back up and re-set up camp near the river. We carried our tent to the other site. It was great. Our kids were looking at us like we were crazy people. This is why Patrick and I go so well together. No one else I know would take down their fully set up camp after only an hour of being there and drag their two very young children to a whole completely different site just so we could be by the river. Gotta love it. This is our spread :)

We went on this really cool hike that supposedly takes you about 9 miles up the canyon to a wildflower meadow. We obviously didn't make it that far, but it was a nice hike for what we accomplished. The kids were real troopers.

And considering Patrick carried an extra 30 pounds on his back, I guess you could say he was a trooper as well.

Patrick built us amazing fires and cooked fantastic meals.

We can't wait to do it again!

In other news, I FINALLY finished Marley's quilt I've been working on for months. He picked out all the fabrics and I pieced it all together. I think it came out pretty good, and he likes it so that's the most important thing.