::summer sunsets::

Out here in the desert we have some pretty spectacular sunsets. Not always is the light perfect for photos though. The other night we were eating dinner with friends and I happened to look out the window into the courtyard and saw the most superb light shining in from the sunset. I ran and got the camera and inflicted people with my photo taking for a while.

It was worth it. The light was gorgeous!



I love the sunsets and the evenings out here. They're very pleasant and often pretty spectacular.

And yes, also silly.

::8 whole months::

Our sweet little Sandy is eight months old today. To sound predictable, I just wonder where the time went. And it also seems like he's been with us forever--how could our family ever have done without him?
We sure do love the little guy.


And I have so many more fun blog posts to come if I can just find some time.

Happy birth anniversary to cute Sand!!

::fire::

The fires out here are finally starting to get under control, and I'm finally getting around to posting a few pictures.
We all noticed the new fire out by Los Alamos as soon as we came out of church a week or two ago. It looked like there had been some sort explosion--there was a crazy large plume of smoke heading out of the mountains out towards the sky.

That night the smoke was pretty spectacular. We were all sad, since the mountains on the other side were already on fire, and this new one was obviously huge. But watching the smoke was still pretty fascinating.
Check out the sunset scene.


A little later.

That night we climbed a ladder in our courtyard and we could see the flames out there burning and dancing. It was pretty scary looking.
This is what I saw the next morning.


It's been pretty smoky ever since. And the poor folks in Los Alamos had to evacuate for about a week.
Here are a couple of poor quality iPad shots of how the smoke looked as we were driving to UT.


Pretty crazy stuff. We'll be so glad and relieved when that fire is out!

::10::

Our ten year wedding anniversary was last week. It's hard to believe it's really been ten years. It seems like such a long time--I'm sure someday it will seem short, but for now we're in a bit of awe over it.
I just have to say it's been a wonderful, difficult, challenging and highly rewarding ten years. I'm so glad to be who I am and where I am, and I'm just delighted that I get to do it all with Kris. Love you tons honey.

::many happy returns::

It's Kris's birthday!  His thirty-second, to be exact.  This seems crazy to me, but it's true.
He had to work most of the day, so we all came in to work to keep him company.  We do this lots of days anyway, but we definitely wanted to keep him company today.  We had pizza for lunch with the staff and then finished up with the patients a bit early and closed up shop.

After that we went downtown to do a bit of window shopping in the galleries and eat dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant overlooking the plaza in the middle of town.
The view was nice, and there was a little mariachi fiddle group playing down on the green.  Max really enjoyed watching and listening to them during dinner.


And here are some photos of my goofy menfolk--we were waiting for our dinner at this point, so they were a little hungry and silly.


Bet you can't guess who's the goofiest around here.


Oy.

After that we went home for some cake and presents. (Max got Kris some curry ketchup, one of his favorite things. I was so impressed with him for thinking of it all by himself!)
We had cream cake with berries on it. (From the store, since I was at work all day.)
Then we played pool together for a bit before bed.



It was as close to a perfect day as a work day can get I think--and I hope Kris thought so too.

Happy birthday to my man amoung men! I LOVE YOU!!

::::

I love this face:

And this one:

And this one of course:

This one too:

But I think this one has to be my favorite:

At least for today.

::finally::

This is old news for us--from early May in fact. But not too much of old news for the rest of you because you haven't been to our house yet!
The baby finally has his own room. At our last house--our rental here--he had a corner of our room. His little drawer unit was in there, and his teency Moses basket. And his clothes hung in our closet. It was temporary because we knew we would be moving sometime soon. And plus, he was such a bad dang sleeper that I needed him really close to maximize the short periods of time I got to sleep.
So all that aside, now he has a real room. All his (for now.) And it's cute. Not too fancy or anything, but cute because it's his.
He has built in bookshelves right inside the door. Max is a little envious that he gets all those books, but I think it's a good thing since we need to share anyway.

Then he's just got some mismatched furniture in there and a lovely crib that I got on a deep sale from Pottery Barn. It's really nice, maybe one of the nicer pieces of furniture we own right now. It makes the room I think, along with the cute little mobile from IKEA.

Lucky Sand has lots of toys--most of them used to belong to Max, but he does have a few of his own. The little giraffe with the rings around his neck is a relic from Max's babyhood.

The very best thing in the room though, is the little snort that sleeps in it.
He's adorable, and he's been doing great on his naps since the new room. They've definitely improved. And now, with Kris's help we're getting him to sleep through most (ok maybe more like a lot than most) nights. At least from about 10 to 5:30. And at this point any decent sleep at night is something we're grateful for. And he's sleeping in his own bed, which is good because the moses basket just doesn't accommodate his big boyness anymore.

So there you go, cute baby in a room all his own.

::spits::

Please enjoy....

::table::

Woo Hoo!!!