Time to set another goal

I ran three miles today. I knew on Monday that I could do it, I just had not allowed enough time before my class.  This morning I went in and ran it.  I am thinking that I can probably go on to four miles fairly quickly.  The three miles didn't hurt as much as reaching two miles did.  It is such an exciting thing for me, but outside of here, I don't talk about it two much.  I have been on the other side and did the mental "and so?" before.  Yea Me!

Father's Day Card

I really like the card I made Ray for Father's Day.  It is based on a design by Alice Golden in the May Cardmaker Magazine.  Someone recently commented that once you get started using banners it is addicting and it is the truth.  It was a lot of fun draping them across the card.  I plan to use them again.  The paper makes me feel happy and is KI from one of my monthly kits from Paperworks.  Paperworks recently upgraded the paper and embellishments in their monthly kits and are such a good deal and so much more fun to get each month.

Big Texan Steak House

In our part of the southwest, there are iconic places.  You have heard about this place for years; the sort of places where your family or friends have stopped and came back talking about it.  The Big Texan Steak House in Amarillo, Texas is one of them.  Everyone knew about this steakhouse long before Man vs Food or Anthony Bourdain discovered it.  It is a big tacky carnival of a place complete with Cadillac Limousines that will take you to the Big Texan for free if you are staying in any of the hotels along I40.  However, it does have good food.  None of us were up for the 72 ounce "Eat it and it's free" challenge.  I had a delicious steak sandwich, Ray had a hamburger and Wyatt had a child's rib dinner.  It was all good. 

While we were there, there were four men who were doing the challenge.  One  person fizzled out really quickly.  He probably didn't last fifteen minutes of the hour allowed.  One man did finish, so it isn't an impossible feat.  However, we did take on the unofficial Big Texan Carrot Cake Challenge.  This was a four layer slice of cake.  For reference, the plate is a full size dinner plate and before I cut the cake up into pieces for all of us, the cake covered the entire plate.  It was good and I did eat all of my share.  I am salivating right now thinking about that cake. 

Needless to say, our meal at the Big Texan kept us satisfied on the road all the way back home.

Water Boy

If you ask Wyatt hat the best part of our vacation to Ruidoso was, he will tell you it was the swimming pool.  He went from arm floaties or a life jacket to a noodle and dog paddling.  Our grandson will be swimming by the end of the summer.  As far as Wyatt was concerned, we could have spent all day at the pool and that would have been all he required.  We would be there for over two hours and he was still unhappy when we had to go back to the condo to eat.  There were a lot of other children there as well, and he attracted the attention of "older" women, like the little girls who thrilled him by flipping him over in the water.

Sleepy Boy

The whole week we were gone, Wyatt would wake up fairly early, no later than 7:00. We were all for letting him sleep in, but that was not happening. So Saturday morning finally arrives. We wanted to be gone by 8:00. Guess who turned into Mr. Sleepyhead? We finally had to wake him up to eat and leave. I took this picture of him, Wyatt looked so sweet.

Carlsbad Caverns

We went to Carlsbad Caverns on Wednesday. The temperature above ground was at 100 degrees. Down in the cave it was 53. Wyatt is too young to do any of the tours but the big room. the walk was over a mile, but he did the whole distance by himself. He was fascinated by all the formations and his imagination was seeing fairy towns and all sorts of other things. He was also fascinated by the idea of doing things that weren't allowed in the cave. "What if.... Papa? was asked constantly during the tour.

White Sands

We went to White Sands National Monument on Tuesday. It was in the upper 90's but with the very low humidity, it wasn't that uncomfortable. But it was hot! The gift shop sells snow dishes to slide down the hills on. I went down a couple of times before Wyatt was ready to try it at all. He really enjoyed it when he finally worked up the nerve to try it. Ray wouldn't even try once. There were a lot more plants flowering this visit, and I took a lot of photos of them. It will be fun to scrap these pages.

All talk and no pictures

Here I am in New Mexico on vacation. I am having a great time. Normally I would post photos of all that we are doing. It won't be happening until I get home. I bring my laptop with me and work from it. I print stuff for my scrapping and post and print photos. We just put in Ray's notebook on a whim in case Wyatt wanted to play games. I get the laptop out yesterday and apparently something has gone corrupt on the Vista. I can't even sign in. So now all of us are using the notebook. I think that I would be having severe withdrawal if I couldn't check in on my online life for a week.

Cutie Pie

Andrea is getting to be such a big girl. I put the hair clip in her hair, and got a picture. Then she pulled it out.

The Bee

Like so many photos, this was an accident. I was taking pictures of the magnolia blossoms. They are so huge and beautiful. When I pulled this one down closer, there was the bee, it was minding it's own business. The original thought was to take a picture of the bee on the flower. However, it chose to take off right as I took the shot. You can see the blur of the wings. I love it and I feel lucky to have been able to capture the moment.