catching up

O loyal blog readers, I have neglected thee terribly.
This is by far the longest we've ever gone quiet here at RandBs, but not to worry. It wasn't because of crises, just an overload of fun and travel.

First, we went to Seattle, which was like this:

table set for Tanksgiving dinner:

a peak at Pike's Place market:

bah-ket-ball HOOP!

Lunch with Johanna:

had some "rock band" fun (and discovered that L. rocks the guitar, A. knows all the lyrics to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and BR is not too bad on the drums):

Then we came home and had a couple days to get ready for our next adventure. Gramom came to hold down the fort and take care of the kiddos while J. and I went south to New Mexico to check out some job opportunities for 2011 (since we won't be able to go there this time next year, because of the whole India thing). I forgot my camera but found the following photos that capture the essence of the trip.

We visited the Navajo Nation at Shiprock which was a little like this:

but the hospital compound was kind of more like this:


next, we went to Gallup, NM (which was actually like this since we happened to be there during their annual Balloon Festival):


on the way home, we made a stop at Aztec, NM (which never had any Aztecs, but did have Native American populations a long, long time ago as these 900 yr-old ruins prove. Yes, apparently the US does indeed boast some 900 yr old structures. take that, Europe!)


We're home now, and glad to be. The kids loved every minute of Gramom's visit from what I can gather and I will have to collect photos from her. It was hard to drag them away from Seattle, though, because "Grammie and Papa's house was WAY more fun" than they'd realized it would be, according to L.!