Early Halloween Peek

More to come. After the candy wrappers are torn.

Gettin' out with the girls

Look at these girls!!! All decked out, hyped up, and ready for the park. Sophie and Ella took Claire and Paige to a park near their home dabbed in leaves and fall colors. Oh, and of course, swings and slides.



Earlier in the week, Ella's dad and I took the youngest ones hiking in Forest Park. Nothing like traversing a 900-foot elevation gain in the city limits of Portland with a 20-pound bundle on your back.



Yes, that's a cup of coffee and some spectacles Mark employed to keep from tripping over tree roots. Ella and Paige slept much of the way while the men talked about their wonderful wives, politics and bodily functions, in that order.

Nueva Mexico Buenisimo

It's been nearly two weeks and many warmer days since we got back from the Southwest where dining out, chile, retirement planning and swing sets reigned.



Yes, nana and papa have a swing set, so all was well with their two granddaughter. Claire hopped on the swing every day. She even wanted on when the trees above started hailing walnuts in a windswept gust.



One reason we traveled when we did was to attend Brent's 20th high school reunion. Here Claire huddles with Stacey Hill Inal's 1-year-old daughter Skye. They got along better than their parents did growing up! These are the moments reunions are made of.




Nothing like being in Espanola without stopping at Arlo's fruit and vege stand. We picked up a bushel of Chimayo green chile, though we had to come back to get it roasted after a flywheel on Arlo's roaster broke. Claire volunteered to help fix it....



Claire also offered to help papa dig up his potatoes. Here papa hands Claire a fingerling potato that looks more like a russet.



With mom and dad preparing to sell our house and move into a retirement community in 'burque, mom got out a lot of my toys to determine which to save and which to send to the dump in El Llano. Out of the closet emerged a worn Charlie McCarthy, who could still talk in his owner's lap. Charlie made a fast friend with one Claire.




Unfortunately we didn't have a seat for Charlie on the flight back to Oregon...







But we did have an extra swing.....





..and story time....



Paige officially began sitting up unassisted, save for the occasional story time from big sister ...



...and frequent in-your-face interactions with big sister. Whether Claire is reading, jumping up and down, shaking her or throwing a fit, Paige gets a kick out of it. Big smiles all around.



Nana and papa did their best to spell the parents, a thankless job at times, when you think about playing in a sand on the floor of a carport and pushing a swing repeatedly.






All parties claimed to enjoy it. (THE PROBLEM WITH THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN FIXED. YOU CAN NOW VIEW IT! SORRY!!!)

Success!

SORRY!!! FIXED THE PROBLEM WITH THE VIDEO! IT'S NOW AVAILABLE!




Paige's first bits of food.

Senorita Huevas Rancheras

A day removed from New Mexico, Sarah and I so hankered for more native food that we made a batch of Chile Colorado and tried to replicate the huevos rancheros we had yesterday at Tia Sophia's near the Plaza. I located some red chile powder in our freezer and found a good recipe online. Sarah tried the sauce and said it had "some heat." I would classify it as medium, itching to be hot.

I made a version of huevos -- corn tortilla, refries, fried egg and cheese -- without the chile for Claire to make sure she didn't get overwhelmed by the heat. Then I made some for Sarah. Before we knew it, Claire had downed her huevo and moved over to Sarah's plate, despite our repeated warnings. Aside from asking for a glass of water, she munched on Sarah's dinner without complaint. "Hot chile is good for you!" she declared. We knew here papa would be proud.



More from our trip to the Southwest soon.....