It has been awhile

Yes, it has been awhile since I have updated this blog. During Christmas break I will catch up. I have been busy with El Tour (yeah, I completed it), and the Christmas crunch. But, here are a couple of pictures to hold you over.

The dogs enjoying the snow a couple of days ago.

My beautiful girls.

Future Dave Koz

This year Bailey has decided to take up the Saxophone. Since Frank played in his younger day, we had a sax for to use. Oh, the sweet sounds she makes when she practices. :o)

Balloon Fiesta Time

Entrance into the park This was the special shapes balloon glow.

Well, this time of year is always fun for us. Even though I have lived in NM all my life, I still enjoy seeing the wonder of the balloons flying around. This is the second year we camped at the RV park. We were able to use my Dad's RV and life was good. Our Motley Crue grew to about 10 families. The more the merrier. The pictures on the slide show are from the balloon glow. We took a shuttle from the RV park to the balloon park. Our group almost took up the entire bus. We even sang some Girl Scout songs on the the way down. The girls had a blast running to all the balloons collecting trading cards. Their collection is up to about 400 cards.


The last night we were there, we had the annual fish fry. Lots of yummy food including red potatoes, shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp, corn and various sausage. Not to mention good desserts. I did not stay that night since I had to get up early to go to my bike ride. The mass assention was canceled on Saturday and Sunday due to bad weather.

Future Mechanic

Frank has decided that MacKenzie should help him rebuild his ATV. He bought this thing completely stripped. It does not have a motor and who knows what elese it is missing. As he is getting parts ready, Mack goes out to the garage to help him. Right now I think she has only bolted some things on. Who knows, she may get into this car rebuilding thing. She has been willing to go out and help. I think she just wants to drive it and if she can help the process go faster she is up for it.

Silly Silly Girls

Bailey loves to make her specialty salsa "Boo's Hot Stuff". She has gotten to the point of wanting to do everything herself. I still like to cut the jalepenos for her so she doesn't burn her skin. Since onions is one of the key ingredients, and we all know how onions affect our eyes, just look at Bailey's way of dealing with it. She just gets her goggles out and no problem.



MacKenzie has no desire to make salsa. She would rather sit on the couch and wait for the salsa to be done so she can eat it. She was not happy when I was taking this picture.

Birthday at the Wine Festival.

Frank and I celebrated his birthday Sunday at the Wine Festival. This is our 12th year to attend. We actually had our first date (blind date) here 13 years ago and we have been coming back every since. The girls were at grandmas so we were able to enjoy the day all alone.

Happy Birthday Handsome... I Love you.

Matt and Reina joined us for the fun.

First Day of School 2008

My babies started school once again. MacKenzie started 7th grade three days before Bailey started 5th. Here are pictures of Mack walking to school. We sure did give her a hard time. And, a picture of Bailey the morning she started school.

They are both off to a great start. MacKenzie made the volleyball team. She had to try out. And, out of 45 girls she was one of 20 girls chosen. Bailey starts soccer practice tonight and is in a new age division. Bigger field, more running, more complaining.

End of summer trip

The summer is coming to a close and, it has been a busy one. I think this summer the girls went to more camps than ever. Not only did they go to Girl Scout camp, but they went to a horse camp for a week and learned how to vault. They also did a couple of parks and rec camps as well as dancing camps.

We just came back from visiting our very close friends Mike and Chris Chavez (no relation) in Winsor Colorado. It is very close to Fort Collins. We were excited to see the house they just built and I must say, it is BEAUTIFUL. We stayed with them for almost a week and had a blast. We went to the county fair and saw the Bobcat rodeo and the all the 4-H kids showing off thier livestock. We were able to see the barrel racers and of course Bailey wants to do it. We went to the river and spent the whole day just chilling. The kids were able to use two rafts and tubes to float and play. They jumped off rocks and splashed and just had fun playing. We did run into an afternoon rain and all nine of us huddled under a make shift tent. Yes, we looked like a bunch of rednecks.

We spent a day at WaterWorld and again... had a blast. One night Mike got a fire going and we did smores. I think I had more mojitos on this trip than I can remember. It is almost 500 miles exactly from our front door to theirs. Only 7.5 hours of driving time. It was worth it. Thanks guys for making us feel at home in your new place. We can't wait to see you again at Thanksgiving. XOXO

Off To Camp

Frank and I are free for one whole week! What are we going to do with ourselves.

We dropped the girls off at Girl Scout camp. They come home next Saturday. While I thought this is going to be great, I was already missing them when we drove off. I hope it doesn't rain too much for them. They are going to try and go canoeing and sleep outside. I hope Frank and I don't kill eachother while they are gone.

MacKenzie, Taylor, Bailey and Dulce.


Dulce and Bailey.



Home away from home for one week.

MacKenzie turns 12

My beautiful baby turned 12 this past week. She has grown to a lovely young lady. Still silly as ever, but a sweetie none the less. This years birthday celebration was low key. We spent her birthday going to lunch at Red Lobster and then the movies. On Friday, we had a small bbq with my sister and grandparents... a couple of friends too.

Swim Team

This is the second year the girls have been on the parks & rec swim team. It is probably the best deal of the summer. The swim meets are not mandatory nor are the practices. If they want, they can swim every weekday night (weather permitting). Swim meets are on Saturdays and they don't have to go if they don't want to. Because we have been so busy this summer, the girls have swam most night but only made it to 2 meets. They can choose the events they want to swim. Bailey chose the 25 butterfly, 25 breast stroke and 25 freestyle. MacKenzie chose the 25 breaststroke, 50 backstroke, and the relay. It does not matter what place you come in, everyone gets a ribbon.
This week they are off to horse camp.



Bailey doing the breaststoke.






Mack doing the freestyle.



The backstroke.

Acting Class and Family Night

As usual the weekends fly by. Below are a couple of pictures of Bailey as she completed her acting class at the Albuquerque Little Theater. While she did not get the leading part of Thumbilina, she did a fabulous job as the mother mouse. The week long class included making a mask and costumes and learning how to really annunciate words with "character". Bailey had no

problem acting out any part..

.

The weekend was a little rough. I took a big fall on my training ride on Saturday. Go to my traning blog for more information. http://mypurpledragonfly.blogspot.com/ We needed to finish up the condo since we had people moving in on July 1st. Frank has been working like a mad man and will need to extra thanks and attention from me when everything is done. Sunday we decided to rent movies and stay home. We bought a dough ball from Dion's and made our own pizza and for desert Frank lit our chimnea and we had smores. It was perfect to just sit around

and do nothing.

MacKenzie the gangsta girl.

Mack loves marshmellows.

Silly, silly Boo.

Jazzmine joining the fun.

Osa was also trying to get goodies.

The Dancing Boo

Bailey took a dance camp last week and she had a little performance at the end. She too got her hair cut when I got mine done.

Hair Cut

For the third time in my life, I have cut my hair and donated it to Locks of Love. It took me about 3 years to get it this long, and it took my hair dresser 5 minutes to chop it off. While I liked it long I am glad to have it short for a while. The haircut he gave me has lots of layers in it and I don't think I like them much. But it is hair and it grows back. He took about 12 inches total and now the hair is above my shoulders.