Birthday Fun

Since today was his birthday Josh got the luxery of sleeping in until a whopping 7:45. The instant I told Keegan that today was Daddy's birthday and that we needed to wish him Happy Birthday he took off running and burst into the room and yelled. "Daddy it's your birthday"

Once he got up I made him whole wheat pancakes, turkey sausage and eggs. Hope that kind of makes up for the not sleeping in. We had a bit of a lazy morning and then we decided to head to...

Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway

the worlds longest tramway. 2.7 miles of continuous cable going up a mountain. Here the boys are at the top. We had an elevation gain of 3800 ft.

Here is the view of the cables that go down the mountain. The ridge that you see is only about 1/2 the way.

A view of ABQ from the top

A more southernly view. (no, I don't know if that is actually a word, but today it is)

This is the back side of the tram, this is on the ski resort side. You can ride up the tram and ski the backside of the mountain instead of driving around to get to the resort.

Showing off his Smokey the Bear pin he got at the Ranger Station at the top

We took the "Nature Trail" since it was the shortest. It really just went down and around the back of the building but Keegs thought he was on a real hike. These were the stairs to get back to the observation deck.

Keegs just being Keegs

Then we came home where Keegan got a MUCH needed nap. Thank goodness. While he was napping I got started on dinner. Josh wanted steak for his b-day dinner so that is what he got, along with artichokes, sweet potato fries and his Grandma's yummy beans.

Now next on his list is killing some zombies and his birthday will be complete

31 years ago....

You were born

Happy Birthday Josh

I hope that you know how much we love you and what a great father you are.

I hope you have wonderful day!!

p.s. photos of our fun filled day to come later.

Then and Now

Keegan in Oceanside CA in 2006

Keegan in Oceanside CA, 2009
Time flies!!

Vacation to Oceanside

Yay!! We went on our first real family vacation. Josh ended up having a week off so we decided to go to Sea World. After a short debate on which one to go to. Cali won out, forcasted 30 degrees cooler than the on in San Antonio, not much to think about.

So we ended up in

We set out and made an over night stop in Phoenix where our awsome friend Tyler lives to drop off Koda.

Here was our first day at the beach, all ready to go. Who knows what he will think.

Testing the water.

Still checking it out.

Hey, this isn't so bad.

He loves it!!

Loves to play in the sand!!

It seems I have an obesession with feet, so bare with me.

All of us waiting for the waves to come.

He thought we were at "Muscle Beach"

Rare Family Pic

Sunset on the beach.

Oceanside Continued

Like I said, and Tyler so kindly pointed out. Small obsession with feet and foot prints.

These belong to Josh and Keegan. So cute

This my be one of my new favorites.

By far is FAVORITE thing to do. Run into and then away from the waves. He was so sad that our last day there was going to be spent at Sea World and not the beach. He actually cried that he didn't want to go to SW.

Here is a pic of the beach that we were at 3 years ago. FULL of rocks. Last time ( yes I know it was a long time ago) there were no rocks. And while the ones you see here are all smooth and round, just as you get into the water there are tons of pointy painfull ones.

Just running

The Oceanside Pier. Ruby's restaruant on the end. Keegan walked the ENTIRE way. (A task I never thought he would do, and stay dry at the same time) It took us over an hour but since we knew it would take a while for us, we left early.

A big blob of sea weed. I don't know why I was so intrigued, maybe because it kind of looks like my hair...I don't know

Here we are petting the HUGE horse at Sea World

Checking out the star fish.

He loves maps. He always wants to know where we are and for us to show him were we are going. So here is Keegs navagating his way through Sea World.

There is a little section that is devoted to Seasame Street. Here are the boys riding the Elmo's Flying Fish ride.

Meeting Elmo.

Not afraid of characters at all I guess.

Here are the boys in the polar bear cave. Keegan was very scared of it the first day. He thought that there were actually bears in there. But on our return trip he was much braver.

And then on our LONG, LONG, LONG drive home we saw this......AGAIN

Our Hike to....Well Nowhere

Well the other day we decided to go hiking. Josh had heard about a place from people at work and it sounded like a lot of fun. Waterfalls with pools to swim in, thermally heated pools to swim in as well. Sounds fun right. Since we are not from the area I made sure to look it up online and find out as much as I could. I found out where we had to drive to and what picnic ground to park in and that there were many trails so even if some proved to be too long for Keegan there were still options.

After looking online we decided on one that said it was .2 miles (yes 2 tenths of a mile) sounds perfect right, short hike and you get to a couple of places to swim. Well we get up the canyon and find the ranger station. It says that it is 2 miles not 2 tenths of a mile. Way too long for the little man, especially since he still demands on being carried to the car when we leave a grocery store. Knowing that I read about other places to hike to right at that same spot we still head up. We get to the map at the trail head and sure enough, the pools are way too far for K. So instead we decide to go to the waterfall that looks to be just about 1 mile in.

So we set out. Keegan with his hiking stick that he made with Grandma Sue

He was a real trooper, never asked to be carried just kept going.
After we had been hiking for a little while Keegan decided he needed lunch. So he and I stopped and ate. Josh ran ahead to see where the turnoff for the water fall was. We had to be close but Keegan was sure he would starve if we didn't stop. So here is the view from where we ate lunch.

His hiking stick is equiped with a feather and a bell to scare bears. He now thinks that bears are everywhere. Including our shower and closets. Don't worry though, he scares them away before they can do any damage.

After waiting for Josh for what seemed like forever, we were losing our shade so we moved about 50 feet up the trail to a much shadier spot. The whole while wondering what kind of boy scout leaves his group. Apparently our move made us hidden from Josh's view cause somehow he couldn't see us. So this was our view from our new "hidden" rock. After waiting for an hour we decided to go back down the trail and see if he was somehow down there.

Sure enough after playing in the water for a minute Josh came back up the trail to find us coming down. After a minute of minor disagreeing we discovered that he never found the turnoff anyway. So our hike to a waterfall turned into a hike to nowhere really. We all had a good time anyway, Keegan turned out to be quite the little hiker. Maybe we will try again and who knows maybe we will actually find that waterfall.

Oh and after coming home I got back on-line and found that many people have complained that the trails are poorly marked and that there are many trails that just end up looping you back around. Glad I found that out after we made one of those loops.