Elephant Butte and White Sands

We decided to get away for the weekend and went to Southern New Mexico. Here we are at Elephant Butte Reservoir. We stopped for an hour and let Alex play in the sand and get his feet a little wet. He especially liked skipping rocks in the water with his Daddy.

Here we are at White Sands National Monument. We had a great time. It looked like snow, and felt like brown sugar. The sand dunes are made of Gypsum which always dissolves in water and the only reason it is possible to have Gypsum sand dunes is because of the lack of rain in the area. We enjoyed sledding and building sand castles in the White sand.

Japanese Garden, Albuquerque

Yes. There is water in Albuquerque, but you have to search for it. Here we are at the koi pond at the Japanese Garden which is part of the Botanical Gardens in Albuquerque. We went as a field trip with Alex's playschool group.

Alex's 3rd Birthday

Alex is 3 already! I can't believe it! For Alex's 3rd birthday, Doug and I took him to the zoo and the aquarium taking the train to travel between both locations. We had a blast! We ate lunch in the Shark Reef Cafe and watched sharks, large fish, and sea turtles swim by as we ate.


Here is Alex when we first arrived at the zoo. He loves to ride in the wagons you can rent.

Riding the train on Daddy's lap. Alex was a little nervous going through the tunnel.

All tuckered out after the zoo and aquarium. He feel asleep while grasping his new pirate ship bath toy he got from the gift shop.



I made a custom "Thomas the Train" cake for Alex.

One happy kid! He'd been asking to eat the cake all day.

Alex's birthday present is a tool bench complete with a shop vac, faux wood projects, hammers, pliers, wrenches, nuts and bolts, a saw and a power drill. He has lots of fun with his tools. A couple months ago, Doug took Alex with him to the tire shop. Alex watched with excitement as they rotated our tires. Since then, he "fixes the tires" of all of his toy cars. Now he has his own tools and doesn't has to keep steeling his Daddy's tools from the garage.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year in St. George, Utah with Alex's Grandma and Grandpa Bergevin. Alex was thrilled with his stocking. He meticulously went through each item and piece of candy. He would have been happy with just the stocking, but little did he know what Santa had for him wrapped under the tree!

Alex found a Dukes of Hazzard car under the tree!

Santa also gave him a train set, a Mr. Potato Head, and play dough.

Albuquerque Has Snow!

Mid December, Albuquerque experienced its first real snow storm. The schools were cancelled and the children all stayed home and played in the snow. I was going to wait until the afternoon to let Alex play outside, but soon realized that the snow would be melted by then! We rushed outside and Alex was able to experience snow for the first time (that he can remember).

Making a snowball!

After a while, Alex thought it would be fun to run and belly-flop into the snow. He'd start in the corner of the yard and say "Ready... Set... Go! ", Then he'd run and fall on his stomach.


Hurray for snow! Hopefully we'll get at least one more snow storm before the winter is over!

This is a picture that Jared took of us on Thanksgiving. We had gone to the park to toss the football, but it started sprinkling. Toby didn't like being out in the rain. Alex was doing pretty well trowing the ball and also throwing a Frisbee that we had brought. He would have liked to play out in the rain all day. We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my brother Jared as our guest. I made four pies: apricot, apple, lemon meringue, and pumpkin cream. The lemon meringue didn't set as usual, but that didn't stop us from eating it. We are having a good Christmas season and look forward to seeing our families at the end of the month.

Our Little Cowboy

Alex was a cowboy for Halloween. He enjoyed going Trick or Treating with Mom and Dad. We also had Tom, Jami, Animal, and Guinness visit us for the weekend. We ate lots of fondue and watched Halloween movies.