Fun with Janie

Well, someone definitely left something behind after the family reunion (ahem, Aunt Jane!  you forgot your daughter!)  We ended up keeping Janie for 2 weeks.  This was some major cousin time for my kids.  They rarely get to spend much one-on-one time with a cousin, especially for that long.  We did our best to keep Janie from getting homesick, but she did threaten to move in with Grandma a few times when little cousins got overly annoying.

All in all though, I was pretty impressed with how well the 3 of them got along, considering the age differences, 6, 9, and 11, and the constant jealousy of Grace or Harriet of the other when Janie gave too much attention to one girl. I tried to keep them as busy as possible to cut down on the squabbles and distract Janie from missing her family and her dog.  She missed her dog the most.

Week 1 - send 'em to basketball camp!

I thought this was such a brilliant idea.  They would have something to do every day, but it wouldn't take the whole day, I would get a break, and it was inside so they didn't get hot and I didn't have to worry about sunscreen.  Brilliant.  Until Grace broke her elbow as she tripped over a girl while playing basketball.  What the crap?  That's a nice way to start the summer!

The girls seemed to have a great time though, and Grace was so insistent on not missing any camp, that I let her finish camp before taking her to the doctor for her arm.  I was in denial that she really had broken it.  Poor girl - playing basketball with a broken arm.  Mother of the year.  I've held the title several times, so I'm used to it.

(trying to shoot with a broken elbow)

I'm still kind of in shock that she broke her arm.  We worry to death about all these other things, biking and skateboarding with helmets and pads, riding horses with helmets and ultra safety rules, but I just drop her off to run around a hard-floored gym with 50 girls and she breaks her arm.

Grace got her cast on Friday morning.  I remember the stunned, sad, pained, look on her face when the doctor nonchalantly said that she'd have to wear a cast for 4 weeks.  She cried pretty hard, and then, she put a smile on her face and rarely complained after that.  It was pretty amazing.  I am super proud of her for how well she took it.

Friday night we went camping.  Sure, take the girl with the fresh, clean cast that needs to last 4 more weeks, and go sleep in the dirt!!  I'm keeping my mother-of-the-year title.  It was actually a good thing for her to have something to be happy about because she was very bummed about having that cast put on.  We also really wanted to take Janie camping.  She had never been in her whole life!  (my kind of girl actually, but... then I married David and had his children)

good thing I love this car... I'll probably have to drive it til I'm 80... it still does a good job camping

The puppies were happy too.  They haven't been camping since we lived in Salt Lake.  Probably 8 years ago was their last trip. Too bad we had to keep them on leash, but I guess it's for the best since Velvet dog is deaf anyway and can't be called back.

We were warned to not let Grace sleep with anyone.  People with casts roll over in the middle of the night and break other people's noses and give them black eyes.  No room in the tent for solitary confinement, so we hoped for the best.

not a bad way to wake up:

even better that HE cooks breakfast!

Oh, to be fair... our friends, the Claytons, actually invited us on their camping trip.  It was fun to get to know them better.

And then we went on a little hike.  1.5 miles is about all Velvet can do these days, but we really can't believe she's still as strong as she is.  At 14 years old, we are very grateful for her long and full years she's had.  We know they won't be much longer, so we are trying to savor them.

 And, then we found a little water fall.  (Jemez falls)

This was a major source of contention.  I wanted to be so protective of Grace's arm.  David stepped in and insisted that I let her go into the river.  I really was freaking out - this cast was ONE day old!  I had nothing to cover it, and if she fell in, I knew we'd be paying for the new cast out of pocket.  We had so many more days to get through and the "DO NOT GET THIS WET" lecture from the doctor was very fresh on my mind.  Check back for later posts on how long I let it ruin our summer.  David was right - we had to let her do things within reason.  I adjusted my definition of reason pretty soon after.

 My happy little camper giving her "purple baby" a piggy back ride on the hike.

Let's see, what else did we do with Janie?  Week 2:

We spent a couple days at Galloping Grace, playing with chickens, ducks, goats, mini horses, and riding the big horses.  

Poor Cochise.  This is the last time we would see him.  He died about 5 days later.  We miss you Cochise!

Grace, riding with a cast.  It's really amazing how many things you can do with a broken arm in a cast.  It didn't stop her from much of anything.  We found really only 4 things she couldn't do at all:  play her guitar, go to karate class, go under the water in the pool, and take a shower.

 Miss Janie - we love our fellow horsey cousin, riding Bones.  

The girls spent TONS of time in their rooms upstairs playing dress up, having crazy little conversations, and listening to Taylor Swift.  (I found a sweet little list they had made called "steps to get famous."  It was seriously funny.)

 I had to throw this one in.  My friend, Keisha, invited us to her pool one afternoon so we stopped at Trader Joe's to get snacks on the way.  I don't think I've ever seen a cuter shopper!

 Grace, insisting that she wouldn't get in the pool, didn't bring her suit, but ended up sitting in the baby floaty in her clothes with a grocery bag on her arm.  White trash swimming all the way.  Can you say "Cousin Eddie?"

 And, then, we had an early birthday party for Grandma the night before Janie left to go home (and we left for Salt Lake.)  She had quite a summer - 50th wedding anniversary, and 75th birthday.

 Happy Birthday Grandma!

Farewell, cousin Janie.  We had a great time with you.

Chapman Family Reunion - 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Well, I mentioned family pictures in the last post.  We did, in fact, hire a friend of mine who is a professional photographer to take our pictures.  (50th wedding anniversary, every single family member gathered, and all.)  They turned out SO gorgeous.  If you are local and need some great photos, ask Effie Clayton!  I debated about posting the photos here, but I don't want to ruin it before I actually get my behind to the post office to mail the discs out to family first.  (Yes, family, I will be doing that next week.)  Maybe after I mail them out, I'll post them.

(we did enjoy the company of this road runner eating a lizard while we were having our pictures taken)

(and no matter where grandpa goes, there is always a pile of grand-kids on top.)

So, AFTER we got all dressed up and took pictures, we headed over to Joe's Pasta House in Rio Rancho for:

Barbara and Earl's 50th Wedding Anniversary!

June 15, 1962

(If you like that wedding dress, it's in the Salt Lake landfill - Grandma threw it away last year?!!!)

I sound like a string of commercials here, but I have to recommend Joe's Pasta House too.  It's this great little family-owned Italian restaurant about 2 minutes from Barbara and Earl's new house.  Joe was the BEST to work with.  He personally e-mailed and called me several times to arrange all the details.  They gave us the perfect combination of a great, but simple menu, servers, a private room (completely separate from the restaurant,) and just enough staff interaction that we didn't have to do any work, but could still do our own thing in an intimate setting.  They had a 50" mounted TV which was perfect for family slideshows and videos and allowed us to bring in our own cake (but served it for us.)

David should really write about this.  Come ON babe.  I'm just an outsider.  But, it was pretty cool to see each of the siblings say something nice or bring up a memory of the family.  Jane had asked everyone to write something about what they learned from being raised in their family and those were given to Barbara and Earl as gifts.  

Barbara and Earl also stood and each talked about the other.  That was pretty cool.  Even though Barbara loves to talk, she rarely gets sentimental and Earl is a man of very few words.  So, it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the grandkids to see their grandparents get a little mushy and talk at length about their marriage and learn a bit about what makes them all tick.   Highly educational!  I tried to video it, but the lights were so low, the video is totally horrible and the audio isn't the best either with Harriet trying to talk to me in the background.

David and I made a slideshow out of all of Barbara's pictures and set it to 5 of the top songs from 1962.  We also looked up a few facts from the year:

1962

Sample of News and Happenings:

January:  Amber colored turn signals for cars approved – changing them from the same color as headlights

February:  8 of 9 planets align for first time in 400 years; John Glenn orbits the Earth

March:  Beatles TV debut (in UK)

April:  MIT sends TV signal by satellite for first time from MA to CA

May:  Christmas Island nuclear testing

June:   Barbara and Earl get hitched!!

July:  House passes bill requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of gender

August:  Nelson Mandela arrested; Marilyn Monroe dies

September:  JFK sends 3000 troops to integrate University of Mississippi

October:  Cuban Missle Crisis

November:  Great Britain and France decide to build Concorde

December:  first operational navigational satellite launched

How Much Things Cost: Median Family Income:  $6000 Minimum Wage:  $1.25 New House:  $15,000 Gallon of Gas:  25 cents New Car:  $2,500 Pack of Gum or Candy Bar:  5 cents Stamp:  4 cents Color TV set:  $400 Newspaper:  10 cents Refrigerator:  $500 Doctor’s Visit:  $5 Movie Ticket:  50 cents Popcorn at the Movie:  20 cents

Top 10 songs of 1962: Stranger on the Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles Mashed Potato Time by Dee Dee Sharp *Roses are Red by Bobby Vinton The Stripper by David Rose Shelley Fabares by Johnny Angel *The Locomotion by Little Eva Let Me In by the Sensations *The Twist by Chubby Checker *(Surfin’ Safari by the Beach Boys was #100 on the Billboard list) *songs used in slideshow

I felt like I had already done some solid homework about life in1962 having become a fan of watching Mad Men lately.  What a crazy year!  No matter how you pack it - 50 years of marriage is quite something.

I think the sweetest part of the night was that Barbara and Earl both made hand-made gifts for each of the grandchildren.  Barbara made adorable Christmas ornaments and Earl made these awesome number games in his wood shop.  My kids could not believe they got their own to take home.  They both LOVE all of Grandma's ornaments we have on our tree and can't get enough of the number game! 

Much love to these 2 amazing people.  I'm so glad they got married and had that LAST child.  I kind of like that LAST one a lot.  The others are pretty cool too.

Chapman Family Reunion - Sandia Peak Tram

We got home late from the river trip.  Pretty darn late, especially for Harriet.  I think this is the only spot where we didn't think things all the way through.  We had scheduled to do the tram first thing the next morning.  I think I, at least, would have liked to sleep in a bit and do something later in the day.  But, we were pretty concerned with sneaking in a morning activity (oh AND an afternoon activity that quite frankly got canceled too) before we had to be all dressed up and ready for family pictures and fancy dinner.

I digress.  We went on the tram!  Truly, I was excited about this.  We have lived here 2.5 years and have not done the tram yet.  We see that awesome mountain every single day from our window and can sometimes catch the light glinting off the cables too.  It was just begging to be done.  The Sandia Peak Tram is the longest single cable tram in the world.  (I guess there are longer trams, but the tram actually switches to a new cable system in the middle - so we have the longest single string with a bucket of people hanging from it in the mountains... NM isn't all dirty strip malls and brown dirt decorated with gravel ya know.)

Oh, and David had also planned to try to hike down.  Knowing him, I wasn't surprised by this plan at all, on the contrary, I expect these things after 15 years of marriage.  But, when Wendy (who is ALWAYS up for random strenuous physical outdoor activity) said, you wanted to hike down THIS?!
I knew no one would be hiking down.  Thank and you.  I had never planned to hike down myself, but I hate sitting there waiting for someone who should be coming "soon," but isn't, and I have to worry about their safety, and more importantly, I have to worry about everyone showing up for pictures on time in something other than sweat-drenched hiking clothes.   My priorities are cool like that.

Now, having said how much I wanted to do the tram, I also should include how incredibly scared to death I am of heights in my old age.  I was kind of nauseous the whole time.  But it was gorgeous at the top of the mountain in the trees with wild grasses and flowers growing everywhere.  The only unfortunate part was that a giant wild fire near Ruidoso completely ruined our view (not to mention people's lives in Ruidoso.)  From Sandia Peak you should be able to see clearly for hundreds of miles.  We couldn't even see the volcanoes near our house about 20 miles away.  (correction, David says 12-15 miles away. See, this is why HE should be blogging about this!)

 "view from the top"... of the mountain, or marriage?  50 years for these two.

15 years this summer for us.  We're like in the foothill category.

 what view?  I'm trying to read my texts.  

 what view?  I'm trying to read my book.

 I guess I can't blame them, the view really wasn't great with all the smoke.

Alec and Clare... I really do have a soft spot for these two.  They were my first nephew and niece experience.

 Poor Hattie, she fell and ripped the skin off her knee trying to keep up with big sis and big cousins.

possible Christmas card... except 2 have sunglasses and 2 don't.  hmm...

oh, and then we had a big picnic at Elena Gallegos.  What a pretty area!