Earthship

The place we stayed at in Taos was an "Earthship," which is a term for a weird looking smurf house that is half buried underground, mostly solar heated, runs on solar panels and does water collection and waste composting on site. There were banana plants growing inside while it was around freezing temps outside. It was a bit humid inside, but not enough to bother us. Contrary to what the name might suggest, an Earthship cannot move, though in appearance it looks ready to fly off with the aliens next time they visit Roswell.

Ready for the apocalypse or alien invasion.

Is this where we go in?

Alien baby.

Alien baby and alien Dada having their coffee.

New best friend.

Alien tractor beams coming through the door of the bedroom (bedpod? bedhole? bedcave?).

Watch out!

ET's arrival.

Funhouse bathroom.

Hiding in the Livingcave while Aug napped in the Closetcave in the Bedcave.

Friendly ships.

Mama and Aug "enthusiastically" accompanying Dada to the Earthship visitor center.

The moon is high. The sea is deep. They rock, and rock, and rock to sleep. -Sandra Boynton

Giving Thanks

We are so thankful this year to have a happy, healthy 10 month old (Brett always rounds up to 11 months when people ask and I get mad at him) who allows us to cart him around everywhere and do things on whatever schedule we feel like for the day.  Today we got up and had breakfast before heading into Hyde Park State Park above Santa Fe.

When we got there, I had some serious doubts about my abilities because there was snow everywhere and because the hike kicked off with a 1000 foot climb in the first mile.  But Augie's spirits were high and that lifted mine and we made it.  After the first climb, we had to pause and take off our outer layers because it was so warm once we got climbing up.  Augie waited patiently.

After our hike, we came home and Augie took a 2.5 hour nap.  Brett and I almost didn't know what to do with ourselves.  When he woke up, we heated up our Whole Foods "Thanksgiving dinner for 2" that was perfect, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, green beans, and dinner rolls.  We finished it off with some individual portions of pie -- I had pecan and dada had apple and Augie and had a little bit of both.

What do you mean, the dinner didn't include pickled herring?

After dinner, things got a little zany (may or may not have resulted from an Augie-daddy wrestling match) we determined we needed to take a family walk.  We walked down to the plaza and back and that just made everything normal again.  Dada read Augie our go-to bedtime book, Goodnight Moon, and Augie turned the pages for him.

We are so thankful for this week that we get to spend together, for our family and friends near and far, and for so much more.  But this year we are especially thankful for our little boy and the joy he brings every day.

Taos Pueblo

We got to spend time at one of the oldest continuously inhabited structures in North America yesterday.  We went on a tour and then got to explore on our own a bit too.  This was really special for Brett who had done a project inspired by the building in architecture school.  Augie was very quiet and patient for the first 30 minutes of the tour, then he needed some extra bounces, crawls, and just to be carried in Daddy's arms.  It was a beautiful day and Brett got some beautiful photos.

High fives

We had no choice.  He had to crawl.

Finally!  The three of us!  But we're working on a better one.

First stop: Colorado Springs

Out of order vacation photos!  Our first day we packed up the car in the morning and got on the road in time for first nap.  Augie slept to Denver and then played quietly by himself all the way to Colorado Springs.  We went straight to my first year college roommate, Sasha, 's apartment (I have never known how to deal with a possessive when you also have to describe who they are).  I hadn't seen her since June and she hadn't seen Augie since the week after he was born.  We discussed how this was inexcusable!

Sasha had a big surprise for Augie -- she had found some of her old toys at her parents' house and cleaned them up and had them out for him.  She also had a clean peanut butter jar that you could put things in and SHAKE!  Sasha knows babies well.  She had put something in front of her fireplace, gotten plugs for her outlets and even locks for her cabinets, so Augie was able to explore with relative freedom.  He loved all the different toys especially.

After a bit of squirm time, we headed to the Air Force Academy chapels, which were a must-see for the architect in the family.  I had already seen them three years ago when we lived here and I visited Sasha, but they were just as amazing the second time around.  It was quite brisk for a Colorado November day -- just hovering around freezing.

We quickly stepped into the biggest chapel - the Protestant chapel, to get warm.  Augie LOVED it because the lighting was so interesting, and he got to practice his first word a lot -- "light."  It sounds more like "dit" but he's really consistent in using it and points at all different types of lights (including fire, we learned yesterday) and says it, so I finally concurred with Brett that it is his first word.  

After that, we stepped back outside and toured the other chapels in the basement -- the Catholic church, the Buddhist temple, and the synagogue.  While they weren't nearly as breathtaking as the Protestant chapel, they were all very nice and didn't seem slighted, just smaller.  We then got a few more photos before heading to Garden of the Gods.

Contemplating a new career.

After the AFA, we boogied to a Jimmy John's because we were all starving and Augie passed out as soon as we got into the car.  We ate that on the way to Garden of the Gods, which was beautiful and not too crowded thanks to the weather.  This was also a first for Brett and a second for me.

After this, we headed back to Sasha's for some good old fashioned squirm time and a nap before we went out to dinner.  We went out to a really nice place in Colorado Springs called Nosh and Augie ate like a king!  He was a very adventurous eater that night.  We left after breakfast the next morning to head to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Augie loved playing with Sasha's pumpkins!

Pre-nap books

His favorite toy was probably her jingle bells.  I think he liked the way they tasted just slightly more than the way they sounded.