From big trip to little trip

Well today, as I'm writing this, Guillermo and I were supposed to be on a plane headed to Calgary.  We have postponed the trip hopefully for a later date.  We are going to miss Fernando, Eva and especially little Leo very very much.  We look forward to seeing them in the not too distant future.

So instead, today we are going to take a little drive up to Wimberley.  We both love the hill country and the little town of Wimberley.  The weather is perfect right now - not too cool and not too hot.  Our thought was maybe spend the night up there around Wimberley, but we have had no luck in finding a place that had availability.  And we certainly don't want to spend our night up there in a chain hotel.  So, we'll just drive up there, have lunch and then come back home.

We have been wanting to go up to Wimberley ever since the devastating flood back in May.  To this day, I still cannot get the thought of that family that died in the flooding out of my mind.  Maybe it's because when we were flooding back in '98, I looked out the window of Rebeca's room, saw all the water around us and thought, "We could die today".  When one is in the middle of the event, there is no way to know how bad things are going to get until it is over.  I'm sure that family stood at their window, saw the river all around them, and thought the exact same thing I did.  Except in their case, they actually did die.

I'd like to think that if we had been in their situation, we would have gotten out of that house at the first sign of trouble.  I'd like to think that we would have known, if your house is on stilts, you HAVE to leave way ahead of time even though it looks like it's not that bad yet, because once the water is too high on those stilts, there IS no leaving.  Even if it's false alarms over and over again.

 But I just don't know.  We also stayed in our house as things started getting worse and worse.  Our house wasn't on a big river so probably no matter how deep the water got that day, it wasn't going to knock our house off of its foundation.  The flood was a horrible thing, but at LEAST we came out of it.  I remain forever thankful for that.

With pictures up

And here's how our hallway looks now, with all our pictures back in place.  We really, really like how light our hallway is now.

Our new light

We've been slowly but surely getting our new roof put on after the big hailstorm in the spring.  Last week, we had a solar tube installed in our hallway which had always been SO dark unless you turned on a light.  Now look at how nice our hallway is, without using any electricity!!!

We think it looks nice already, even without all the pictures put back on the wall.  When the roofers are all done with their pounding, we'll put the pictures back up then.  Sometimes it seems like the roofers are going to come crashing through our roof at any time!  When they're all done, I'll post a picture of the way our house looks with the new roof, and another picture of this hallway with all the pictures hung back up.

Such a big boy!

We can't believe how big this precious boy is getting!!

That smile...... such a sweetie pie.

Reading (or singing) 5 Little Ducks Went Out One Day

He seems to be amazed about the cows in this book!

Everyone was happy to be able to take a walk on this day, since the days before were quite smoky from all the fires not too far away.  But a front came through and blew out all the smoke so it looks like it was a perfect day to be out walking.

Home again

More pool time, we did this practically everyday.  It was hot sitting out there watching Scotty, but putting my feet in the pool cooled me off quite well and made it enjoyable to be out there.  Scotty always had a blast playing in the water and sometimes we would both kick our feet and splash!

Another day (Wednesday) I took Scotty to story time at the nearby library.  We got there early so decided to look at some books on the shelves.  He found the two books he's holding (both about trucks) and just wouldn't let them go so I ended up applying for a library card!

The rest of the day on Wednesday, and then on Thursday and Friday, those were the two books that he just LOVED to have read to him at home.

On Friday we took Scotty to the zoo, thinking the day would be a little cooler but it wasn't.  Fortunately there is plenty of shade all over the zoo so it wasn't bad at all except towards the end.  We skipped the elephants because of how sunny it is in that area.

Here he is watching to see if the Andean bear will get up and go in the water.

After the bear exhibit, we got to go in a kind of cave again!!!  Scotty has really been interested in caves since the cave at the Desert Museum.  So, he was super excited when we went into a cave-like place that was kind of dark.  In that exhibit were some huge aquariums with really big fish and some turtles.  He loved it in there.  Every time we tried to leave from inside there to go on, he would turn and run back inside.  The only way we could leave was for me to carry him out!!!

Here we are watching a bear play with a canvas ribbon.  

Then after the zoo, we took him to our favorite restaurant - Sweet Tomatoes.  At this restaurant he eats really well, so it was our third time to take him there.

 Practically every time we took Scotty to the grocery store, he got a balloon.  Here he is with the last balloon we got him.

Almost one year ago, Guillermo and I were getting ready to leave for a 4 month stay in Europe. Since then, we have not been in our own house longer than a month!  We have been in and out of Tucson all this year and had one nice stay in Calgary.  We have enjoyed getting to spend so much time with Scotty and spending over two weeks with Leo.  We hope to spend some more time with Leo soon!

So we left Tucson on Saturday the 22nd, heading home where we will probably stay put for a while.
For this drive home, we decided to take a different route instead of doing the usual I-10 drive.  From Tucson we drove to Benson and then from Benson through Tombstone and Bisbee.  What a great decision that was!  Bisbee was wonderful (we hadn't been there since 1979).  It reminded us of Europe with the cool weather, the mist falling, the little cafes everywhere and all the narrow streets. We tried to get a coffee in one of the cafes but the line was too long so we decided to just go on.  After Bisbee, we drove through some beautiful countryside with plenty of storms going on all around us and even some storms happening right over us!  It was perfect weather.

When we got to Douglas, Arizona, it was a little too early for lunch, but we decided to buy a few snacks just in case the next few towns didn't have any good places to eat.  Good thing, because even though the map showed little towns along the road from Douglas to the New Mexico border, we didn't see any place to get any food.  Then, once in New Mexico, each and every town we passed was ghostly vacant.  We never saw one human being in any of the towns and not one business open.  If you take Highway 9 from Arizona to El Paso, you better not be hungry, better not have a desire to use a bathroom, better have a full tank of gas and a good reliable car because there is NOTHING along that road (nor anything remotely nearby) until you get to Columbus.  We maybe passed two cars on that whole length of road.

The scenery wasn't all that great either but on the plus side, there was no traffic to deal with and on this day, we had thunderstorms in every direction to look at.  Fortunately, we didn't have to drive through any severe weather - all the big storms were in the distance.

In this next picture, we are just about to leave Highway 9 in New Mexico, getting close to El Paso.

We stopped at Rudy's Barbecue in El Paso (after unsuccessfully trying to find Chopes restaurant on Highway 28 in New Mexico - we just didn't go far enough).  We ate some good barbecue at Rudy's and filled the car with gas and decided not to spend the night in El Paso but to head on to Van Horn.  That was another good decision - we got to Van Horn just as the light was fading and a terrific thunderstorm was playing out around Van Horn.  We hoped that we could at least unpack the car at the hotel without any rain and we did.  The storm never did get to Van Horn.

We got home on Sunday around 3pm.  

Weather has changed

Not sure, but it seems that maybe the high has moved away from Texas.  It is now very very hot here in Tucson with hardly a cloud in the sky.  And we've noticed that over in Texas, they have been getting a little rain again!

We went back to the Children's Museum on Thursday and Scotty was more than thrilled to see the Fire Truck again.

The best thing about the Police Motorcycle is the siren sound it makes.

Playing in one of his favorite rooms at the museum

And in the Grocery section of the museum, he loves filling up his basket with fruits and vegetables.

Playing in the sprinkler early in the morning.  The high in the afternoon was forecast to be 109.

This Weather!!!

Being in Tucson at this time of year, really brings to light how weather affects two different states.  It's getting to be a little late for it, but even so the monsoon season here in Tucson is still going strong.  It's obvious now that when San Antonio is suffering from 100+ degree days with no rain, then Tucson is probably enjoying cooler rainy weather.  With the high currently parked over Texas, moisture is funneled away from that state and it goes right over Arizona.  The high has been stationary over Texas for quite some time so here's hoping it starts moving off in another direction so it can also get a little cooler and rainier there in San Antonio.
Today here in Tucson we woke up to thunderstorms and we ended up the evening with another thunderstorm, this last one a really vicious one.  There was very heavy rain, lightning and thunder and lots and lots of HAIL!!!  The ground looked white outside!  What excitement.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days....

Scotty enjoying egg rolls and dumplings from Ha Long Bay Vietnamese Restaurant

He couldn't get enough of the Black Bellied Tree Ducks in one of the aviaries at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  We went there on Monday because it seemed the weather was going to be nice and even though it was a little hot, we enjoyed the museum under a cloud cover most of the time.  The big excitement, along with those Tree Ducks was a Black Racer snake we saw inside the aviary.  We were walking along the trail and saw it right there on the side of the trail.  We watched it slither off, amazed that there'd be a snake in there.  We talked to one of the docents we saw further down the trail and told him about the snake.  He said that snake found its way in and now they need to get it out.  We told him the last place we saw it, which was in a little stream by the Tree Ducks.  

We were there, watching the Tree Ducks, when the "snake catcher"came.  Scotty stood there spellbound as he watched the guy use his stick to pick up the snake, carry the snake and place it into a big box.  I so wish I had gotten a picture of that scene, but I also wanted to watch the guy catch the snake!!!!

Scotty loved walking through the dark cave in the museum, loved seeing a mountain lion up close through glass, loved seeing the Big Horn Sheep (which is also the place where he fell and cut his lip), and he really really loved seeing the Garden Eels in the aquarium!

He loves using markers and crayons

Scotty's 19 month old picture

Getting ready to throw some rocks in a rain puddle!

Family Time in San Antonio

Dinner at Violas on Sunday evening

And lunch at Cracker Barrel on Monday afternoon.

Staying occupied with soaps and candles while we paid for our meals.

Checking out the goat in Uroma's back yard.

Having fun in Tucson

Various scenes from our last few days in Tucson this summer.

Painting with Abuelito

Visiting the Children's Museum

Riding the Police Motorcycle

In the driver's seat of the Fire Truck

Enthralled with the train that went around the ceiling in the train room

At home playing with water toys

Abuelito and Scotty admiring the plants that they planted from seed.