Las Conchas Fire

We decided to voluntarily evacuate to our friends' house in Cedar Crest, near Albuquerque, late Sunday evening. The smoke was bad, and the fire was growing. We're planning to go home for a while tomorrow (Friday), but the smoke may make us leave again. We also had a crazy thing happen before the fire even started: My parents were visiting last week, and on Friday afternoon the drain to our washer/kitchen sink/dishwasher. This happens about once a year and we call Roto Rooter or the local plumber to come snake the drain. However, since it was a Friday evening, we decided to suffer through the weekend and get it taken care of on Monday in order to avoid a weekend charge. Then the fire started on Sunday, and we have spent the week in the East Mountains. With the evacuations and such, I'm not sure the plumbers are working. I called the one in White Rock this morning and left a message, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear back from them. So, even though we're going home tomorrow, we might not be able to stay long. If it's smoky and we can't do laundry or run the dishwasher, then we'll probably go up to Colorado to spend some time with Grammy and Grampy.

Some interesting facts:
* The Las Conchas fire grew from nothing to about 45,000 acres in less 24 hours.
* The Cerro Grande fire of 2000 burned about 45,000 acres total, over about 2 weeks.
* The Los Alamos fire chief (and everyone else involved) has continued to express amazement at how fast the fire is spreading because of the drought conditions.
* As of sometime today, the Las Conchas fire will exceed the current New Mexico record-holding fire (in the Gila National Forest in 2003) as the largest fire in the state. The Gila Forest fire burned about 94,000 acres. Today, in day 4 of the Las Conchas fire, at least 94,000 acres have been burned.
* The officials are reporting 3% containment.
* We're lucky to live close to the Los Alamos National Laboratory: a LOT of money and personnel are putting out the fire in order to keep the lab safe (the news items are the nuclear waste storage points).
* In the four days we've been watching the news, I think 20 fires have been reported in New Mexico. Six are still burning and are causing evacuations and havoc.
* All of the forests have been closed in anticipation of the July 4th weekend. We're staying with friends who live off the Sandia Crest Highway and have to show our IDs and explain we're staying with friends up the road before they'll let us go by. The governor doesn't have the power to ban the sale of fireworks, but she's doing everything else in her power to try to keep everyone safe and to prevent more fires from starting.
* I personally think anyone who uses fireworks this season deserves to burn up in the fire of their own making.

Yumminade

Alanna currently calls "lemonade" by its much tastier and sillier alias "yumminade", which adds to its overall appeal, in my opinion.


We are also watching very closely the Las Conchas wildfire, which began this afternoon while Rhys, Daddy and I were at the movie theater watching 3D Cars 2 (we all enjoyed it). When we went into the theater, there was nothing to be concerned about; when we came out, there was a HUGE column of smoke to the southwest in the Jemez mountains. Five hours later, the fire is approximately 12 miles from Los Alamos, and over 1,000 acres are burning. We've packed up some emergency evacuation supplies in case we need to leave sometime in the next day or two, and we're crossing our fingers. We'll see what happens.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

 While we were on vacation, Grandma and Grandpa (Aaron's parents) came to spend time with Rhys and Alanna. Everyone allegedly had a really great time! The kids were glad to see us when we got home, but I think they'd be willing to have us go on vacation again so they could have more uninterrupted grandparent time!

 Rhys dancing for the camera.

 Rhys shows his car housing complex.

 Grandma dubbed this face Alanna's "Oscarina" face. If you ask her to show you her Oscarina face, she knits her brows and tries to suppress a smile. It's funny and it helps to diffuse the real Oscarina.

Alanna showing off her jumping skills.

 Hanging out in the living room ottoman.

The cat in the box.

 The Alanna in the box.

 Rhys got to go to a cowboy birthday party while we were gone.

 A snakestache.

 Where's Alanna?

 There she is!

Now where have Alanna and Rhys gone?

Playing Piano With Daddy

I couldn't help but notice the similarities between these photos of our kids playing the piano with Daddy. Of course, there are differences: Rhys was not quite a year old and Alanna was days away from turning two, Daddy and Rhys were playing in what used to be the studio and is now Alanna's bedroom and Daddy and Alanna are playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house. But both kids spend time playing the piano with Daddy. And everyone loves it (including me)!

Happy Father's Day!

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl!

"Naked Baby" is one of Alanna's favorite modes of being right now. With a big, goofy smile on her face. Bouncing around the room on a blue burro. What a cutie patootie.

Our Honeymoon

Or, How After 10 Years of Marriage, We Finally Went on One...

Aaron and I traveled to the northwest a couple of weeks ago. We flew to Seattle, drove around and through Olympic National Park, along the Oregon coast a little ways, and then flew home from Portland. We ate excellent seafood, drank excellent wine, and had an excellent time.

 The hotel we stayed at in Seattle had a kitchen garden. 

The Space Needle

 Seattle's downtown as seen from the top of the Space Needle

 The ferry we took across the Sound

 The rhododendrons were in bloom

 A "rocktopus" holds on in Port Angeles

 Beach 4 in Olympic National Park

Driftwood along the beach

 A barnacled mussel shell

 Beauty on the beach

 Largest Red Cedar tree

 Hiking in the rain

 Life on top of life in the rainforest

Little Big Girl

Alanna has decided she's done with her high chair. To demonstrate her independence, she brought a little chair outside to eat dinner at the table. Let's just say it's a little short..

Annual Radish Announcement

And here they are – the first radishes of the season. The first harvest of 2011!

We also discovered Kale Chips. Yum! The Farmer's Market was full of delicious kale leaves, so we picked up a pound. After lightly rubbing them with a little olive oil some salt, they're baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until very lightly tinged golden at the edges and the leaves are crispy. Everyone loved them! 

And in the photo: the last of the frozen homegrown pumpkin from last year (which was made into bread and muffins), and tea made from this year's garden mint. I love our urban farming experience.

Uncle Chris Rocks!

Uncle Chris came to visit us the third weekend in May and we had a wonderful time! The kids absolutely adore him, as he is exactly what a good uncle should be: fun loving, silly, good at sound effects and chase games, and very willing to watch movies on the couch. We went hiking, hung out in Santa Fe, and ate birthday cake (Uncle Chris's b-day is May 3rd, and Alanna's is May 4th). 

A great time was had by all!

Of course, the only picture we managed to get was the one above: 

the cake is on the table, but there's no Uncle Chris in sight. 

And we consider ourselves documentarians...

Alanna and Daddy in Idaho

Alanna and Daddy were in Idaho just before Alanna's birthday. They had so much fun!

Playing princess with cousin Kylah

Playing piano with Daddy

Enjoying an early Birthday

Being Miss Cutie Pants

YUMMY!

     In the interest of family documentation, I suppose I should mention here we had a really rough couple of weeks right after this. Each kid spent a night in the hospital for pretty serious dehydration after they each picked up the nastiest GI bug known to small children. It was undoubtedly the sickest Rhys has ever been, and had we not just dealt with Rhys being sick and taken Alanna in much earlier in the sickness, it could have been really horrible for her, too. Needless to say, we were extremely stressed out and exhausted after these two weeks. 

Strawberries II

 And here is what the strawberries turned into a couple of days later:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

and

Dehydrated Strawberry Chips