Labor Day weekend: The Museum of Art and History

Sorry for taking so long - Here are the final pics from when my parents came to visit last weekend.

Sunday morning, we drove to Albuquerque and visited the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me take pictures inside the museum, so you'll have to look at the sculpture pictures from outside. :)

Daddy, Nana and Russ were all waiting for the rest of us to finish wandering around the grounds. Don't they look patient.

After the museum, we drove to Bernalillo for the New Mexico Wine Festival. While standing in line, we walked past this orange motorcycle and thought it was very OSU-y!

The festival had wine (duh), art, sculptures and, the always popular, bounce houses. :)

We went home afterward for a dinner of grilled chicken and corn on the cob and we watched "Yes, Man." 

 

We had a very relaxing evening cuddling with the puppies

I enjoyed having my family visit soooo much!

Labor Day Weekend: The Black Hole

My parents, sister and Nana came to visit last weekend, it was great! 

Saturday, we stayed in Los Alamos and explored the area.  Our first stop was the Black Hole, a recycler of "nuclear waste," in other words, a surplus store of items no longer needed a the lab.

Becca was the only one who stayed at our house, my parents and Nana stayed at a hotel about a half mile away. Roxy really wanted to cuddle with Becca Saturday morning, so she crawled right onto the air mattress and went back to sleep. :)

Later in the morning, we took a driving tour of the town and then headed over to the Black Hole.

We spent the first several minutes wandering around outside of the store looking at all of the big items.

A bowling ball atom...

Some sinks and toilets (ewwww, a second-hand toilet!)....

The lights off the top of police cars....

A missile shell....

A sunflower made from missile shells (wouldn't that make a pretty yard decoration?)...

Inside, there were items everywhere; floor to ceiling, from the front of this huge store to the back. We saw ancient Mac computers, vacuums, beakers, fatigues, and an endless supply of electrical equipment parts.

We all had tons of fun and I know that if I'm ever looking for something specific and have a few spare hours, that's where I will go!

More Labor Day weekend pics will be posted later.

My Seester-in-law Came to Visit!

Russ' sister, Sabrina, came to visit us last weekend.  She had spent her entire summer the San Francisco Bay area and we were her first stop on her way back to OKC.

Here Sabrina is trying out the 3-D TV at Best Buy when Russ was looking around at all of the different televisions. (Did you know that some TVs can't come up to certain elevations...? They could explode.)

Russ made us maple bacon and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast Sunday. Yum!

Later that afternoon, we went to the Los Alamos Library's Harry Potter exhibit. It was pretty interesting to see where JK Rowling got some of her inspiration.

Russ isn't the biggest Harry Potter fan, can't you tell?

Sabrina loves genetics and Harry Potter. :)

We had an awesome/relaxing time with her.  Too bad it rained almost the entire weekend and we never got to go on a hike to the ski hill.

The 4th of July (Weekend with the In-Laws: Part III)

Sunday morning we went to Pancakes at the Plaza in Santa Fe benefiting the local United Way. 

 

Without realizing it, we stood in the line that was sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is where Russ works. :)

This is probably the first time I have ever seen Russ flip his hat backwards! He told me it was becuase he wanted to keep the sun off his neck... haha.

The pancakes were good, they came with fresh strawberries and fried ham, yum! Russ' favorite part was the chocolate milk, the best he'd had since we came to New Mexico. :)

I went with the boys to walk around the car show, while Russ' parents looked at some of the craft booths.

A Model T-Ford. Cool.

I got a hat! I love it and would have worn it to work every day this week if I'd thought that was acceptable. :)

That evening, we went to the Kiwanis 4th of July Extravaganza. If Russ and I had been 5-years-old, we would have been in heaven because they had four bounce houses and a small fire engine to ride around!

Instead, we played the age-appropriate game of dominoes.

As the sun was setting, we sang the National Anthem and then....

BOOM! The sky filled with colors and shapes.

For forty-five minutes, we participated in this sacred 4th of July tradition with the thousands of Los Alamos residents in the area.

Thomas wrapped himself up like an apple turnover because it got to be pretty chilly without the sun.

We had a great time at the park! Next year, we're going to have to figure out how to enjoy it all without participating in the hour-long traffic jam that occurred immediately afterward. :)

Weekend with the In-Laws: Part II

Saturday morning, we spent some time exploring Los Alamos. 

 

We went to the Fuller Lodge and it was awesome! Full of fascinating exhibits about the history of the area before and during WWII.

We then took Russ' parents to the Bradbury museum.

While they were watching the movie about the Town that Never Was, I worked on the puzzle that I couldn't complete when we took my parents to the museum. Got it!

After this, I somehow forgot to take pictures of anything... oops. Here's the recap: We got lunch from Ruby K's and ate it by the pond, drove to Santa Fe to do a little shopping and ate dinner at the Hill Diner.  A lovely, low-key day. Wonderful!