New project

So, Guillermo has torn up our deck a little to get it in better shape.  You have to make a mess first before you can get a finished beautiful product.  The deck needed attention and at first Guillermo was just going to pull up a few boards and replace them, but ended up pulling up most of them which made him notice that the boards underneath were not in that good a shape and weren't even painted.  And as he was pulling out nails to remove boards, he found nails that were deteriorating!  Whoever put that deck up cut corners.

How the deck looks from our back door.

First the yard was a mess because of building the shed.  Now it's a mess because of repairing the deck.  But we have a nice shed out back now, and one of these days, there'll be a nice deck.

John Fardal came over today and helped Guillermo put an electrical outlet in the shed.

He was a little man

Well, little Scotty had to endure 4 immunizations today.  Rebeca said that he got the first two shots and did fine, but on his third shot he got mad and it went downhill from there.

On the drive home, he fell asleep.  When he woke up later, he didn't cry and Rebeca said he didn't cry the rest of the day.  What a big boy he is!

And the doctor said he can start a little solid food!  So Friday he might get to taste a little rice cereal!

Short but sweet

Nice Breakfast with Fernando and Eva at the hotel, then pack up and take a shuttle to the airport.  We got there with plenty of time so we were able to sit and enjoy drinks from Starbucks before we all said goodbye and they started the trek through security.  With one final wave after they were all done with security, they were gone.  Now we are just left with beautiful memories and the promise of the next time we see them.

Today's picture of Baby Boy from Rebeca.  We Face-Timed with Rebeca and him after we got home from Houston, which we always thoroughly enjoy.  Poor baby, he gets 5 immunization shots tomorrow.

Houston and Fernando and Eva

Soooo, Guillermo and I got up at 5:30 this morning so that we could leave by 6 so that we could be in Houston in plenty of time to meet Fernando and Eva at the airport.  But first we stopped by Mom's house so that we could drop off some things of hers that we had.  That only took about 15 minutes and then we were on our way!
We got to Houston earlier than we thought we would so we used up a little time driving out to the restaurant we were considering eating at that evening.  Then we went to our hotel but since it was too early to check in, we just got the shuttle to take us to the airport so we could just wait over there.

They didn't take as long to come out as they did last year so that was good!  Last year we waited about 2 hours, wondering if we were at the right place or if something had gone wrong or whatever.  This time we waited about an hour.

We were so happy to see Eva and Fernando!  First thing we did was get the shuttle back to the hotel, check in and then get in the car to go to Lupe's Tortillas for lunch.  It was nice sitting out there on the patio, being with them and enjoying a nice meal!  Pure happiness!

Then we went back to our hotel room and watched the Spurs game.  It was an exciting game and we thought the Spurs were going to win but they lost in the last second.  VERY disappointing.

Then shortly after that, we headed out for dinner.  We drove to Chimichurris South American Grill which is in Kingwood.  What a nice drive through the Kingwood neighborhood!  The restaurant is located on a lake so it was in a really nice location.  We found a place to park and then walked around the lake a little bit before it was time for us to eat.

So, we walked from here up to the restaurant and enjoyed a very nice meal that evening.  The weather was really pleasant so we asked for a table outside on the patio.  Good food, good company - priceless memories.  The total amount of time we actually get to spend with them is about 11 hours total.  But it's those 11 hours that make the drive to Houston and back so very worth it.

Here we go....

So, Rebeca sent us this picture of Scotty, saying he had rolled himself off the jungle mat and ended up here.  Things are going to get interesting pretty fast now!

He loves staring at the various things on the floor of the mat.  There's a cute zebra and monkey and other animals.

Back yard views

 Guillermo loves having a shed in the back.  No more having to walk ALL THE WAY around the side of the house to the front of the house to go into the garage to get a tool or whatever.  (Or going inside, through the house, to get to the garage.)  Now all his stuff is convenient to the outside.  No pictures of the inside of the shed right now, since it's, well, a little messy.  But he'll get it organized in there in no time.

Trying to get back into a routine

But first some pictures of us with Scotty!
We sure do miss him.

Scotty loved lying like this, except usually with his legs stretched all the way out.  Then he'd watch the world from an almost upside down position.  Guillermo called it the "sack of potatoes hold" and sometimes he said Scotty was like "un costal de frijoles", which means a gunny sack of beans.

So, the day after we left Tucson, Easter Sunday, we drove from Van Horn to Marfa instead of taking Interstate 10 home like we usually do.  It was a really nice diversion and we would like to take that same route home again the next time we go.  Since it was Easter Sunday most everything was closed in all the towns we passed throug.  There wasn't much open in Marfa so we just drove on to Alpine.  We stopped in Alpine to pick up some snacks at a gas station.  Alpine looked very familiar since we used to go to Alpine frequently on our trips to Big Bend.  Then we passed through Marathon and Sanderson both of which looked deserted because of the holiday.  We had wonderful weather on this drive - cloudy and sometimes a little drizzly.  In Del Rio we stopped to get lunch and gas and then drove on home.

And so now it's Monday and it's hard to get back into our routine.  We miss being with Rebeca, Jason and Scotty.

We are back home

Wow, those last days at Rebeca's house were busy and updating this blog just wasn't on my mind.
 Let's see, starting with Wednesday, April 16th.
Was it today that we drove to Aida's house to pick up the spoons?

April 17th
I know we went to Safeway again today.  Guillermo and I are real pros now at putting Scotty in his carseat (I think, though, there was only ONE time when he didn't get mad about that), putting the car seat in the car, taking it back out and putting it in the stroller frame, shopping quickly and then doing it all in reverse.  Today was our last full day of taking care of Scotty.

Look how well he's holding his head up now while lying on his tummy!  What a big boy!

There's so many different things to see from this angle!

Chewing on things is his absolute favorite thing to do!

Friday, April 18th
Rebeca got home early today and after having lunch and feeding Scotty, we took him to the park and walked around the whole park - Scotty asleep the whole time.  After the park, we drove out to the end of Broadway so that we could show Rebeca the huge barrel cactus that we took pictures of back in August and were absolutely SHOCKED to see that the cactus was GONE!!!!  At first we thought we were in the wrong spot, but slowly realized we weren't and then saw the remains of the cactus on the ground.  It was so sad to see that.  I'm glad we went to see it in August and took some pictures.

This is the picture we took back in August.

Where before he would protest loudly if placed on his tummy, now little Scotty seems to prefer to be on his tummy.

In the evening, Jason's advisor Dave and his wife Mary Lou came over for dinner.  We served vegetarian spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, fruit, lemon bites, fruit pie, red and white wine and water.  We all had a very nice evening.

Saturday, April 19th
Guillermo and I said our sad goodbyes to Rebeca, Jason and Scotty.  It really was sad.
We drove to Benson, where we met Roy and had breakfast with him.  Then we were going to try to duplicate the drive Fernando and I took many years ago to the Chiricahua Mountains, but I wasn't too sure about the route.  When we see him on Saturday, the 26th, I'm going to see if he remembers how we went.
So, we stayed on 10 with thunderstorms all around us, just nothing where we were driving the whole way! Close to Las Cruces, we stopped to have lunch at Chopes where, as usual, the food was good but the place a little sketchy.  Unknown to us, probably about the time we were having lunch there at Chopes, there must have been an AWFUL storm going through El Paso because by the time we left Chopes and arrived in El Paso, we could see the remnants.  The hail was so thick it was lining the road and in some places of El Paso, it looked like it had snowed, there was that much hail.  Then we exited the freeway to get gas and got stuck in a traffic jam on the access road.  It wasn't until we got to the intersection did we understand the problem.  Apparently it had rained so hard that good-sized rocks and gravel had slid off from the landscaping and were all over the road.  So passing through there, we had to dodge the bigger rocks and drive carefully through all the mud and gravel.  But after that, we had smooth sailing.
We had wanted to go as far as Marfa, but with the slow going in El Paso, just getting to Van Horn was enough for the day.  No internet at the hotel (they claimed the storms had knocked it out) so thank goodness for my phone!

Napping at the park

Awww, Baby Boy had a rough day today.
The day started out decent enough.  We dressed him in his new Easter outfit so that we could take some pictures.  We got in a few pictures before the day went kind of downhill.  It was almost as if he didn't like being in his Easter outfit all that much.

Then he got tired of all the picture taking so we took him outside but it was a little too cool and windy so we brought him back inside - which he apparently didn't like.  He wasn't a happy little baby after that.  We put a jacket on him so that we could take him outside, but it didn't help.  He was still fussy.

So, a little later that morning, we put Scotty in his car seat, put him in the car, and went out for a little bit.  First we stopped by a post office (Scotty had fallen asleep in the car by the time we got there), then we went to Safeway (Guillermo stayed in the car with Scotty while he slept) and then we drove to the park.  We got the stroller set up to wheel Scotty around the park.  Scotty actually stayed asleep the whole time.

We walked around the whole park and even did a little driving around later, and he never woke up.  He must have been sooooo tired.

Yep, today seemed a little difficult for Scotty.