You Can't See Me

On the way home from dropping off Eve at pre-school Abigail and I saw this rabbit sitting right against the fence. He let me get really close to take his picture.



The dogs who live in that yard noticed me and came over to tell me to go away. The rabbit decided he needed to hide from the dogs. He flattened his body against the ground and was very still. The dogs never saw him. When I backed away from the fence the dogs wandered away.

Another new toy

I bought this because walking Eve to school was getting difficult. It's a mile up a slight incline that I have to do in 20 minutes. Our other double stroller is just too heavy and unwieldy with 60 pounds of kid in it. I'm also hoping to get a bike to use with it too. It's been fun for all of us to have a new stroller. The kids have pockets next to them to hide treasures in so it helps to keep them occupied.

Picnic Dinner

We decided to drag Gordon out of the house for a picnic dinner. He was trying to finish two articles today which adds up to lots and lots of studying. So here we are having fun at the park.




Don't you love her bangs?


Lily is really good at Monkey bars, it's her favorite thing to do on the playground right now.






I forgot to hand-off the camera, something I need to remember to do. I was there too!

Come to the Albuquerque Zoo!

You'll likely see these monkeys since we have a membership now!



Here's some of the cool animals we saw









And some more shots of my monkeys:

Trying Out Night Shooting

After putting the kids to bed I was sitting on the couch reading my new photography book and got to a chapter about low light and night shooting. After reading just a little bit, I looked out the window and decided to try my hand at it with the little light I had left. Luckily for me the temple is only a mile away so getting there didn't take long at all. These are the best I ended up with.

Flowers and Butterflies

Playing with my new camera I couldn't help but take pictures of everything around me. Here are some of the flowers and butterflies I saw in southern New Mexico.

A Quick Stop

On our way down, and way home we stopped at an overlook to see the whole valley. Here you can see the mountain and white sands together. They made for a wonderful adventure.

Sunspot Astronomy Center

Before going home we made one more stop (this area is full of stuff to see, we didn't see it all!) Just up the hill from our campsite was the National Solar Observatory. All of these telescopes are used to observe the sun. Not the stars like I originally thought. They built it here in 1947 starting with a grain silo they ordered from a Sears catalog!



They say this site was chosen for the dry air, being away from pollution and lots of sunshine.

This is the biggest telescope they have here. the Richard B. Dunn Solar telescope. It measures 136 ft. above and 228 below ground.

Outside


Inside




One of the reasons for coming (besides seeing the cool telescopes) was we heard there was a great view from up here.

Maybe it's better on cloudless days?

The girls liked playing and running around the the grounds here. It was a nice play for a relaxing walk before our long drive home.


Gordon took the camera from me to prove I was here too.



This is a telescope that has been to Antarctica!


Here's Gordon resting


Lily picking wild flowers some more.

Eva

I took this picture of my niece Eva playing in the tree. And while reviewing the pictures at home was taken aback by it. Look at how beautiful she is becoming! I usually think of her as a cute little girl. She is four. But she is growing into a beauty. Her eyes are what catch me the most, I think. She has gorgeous eyes. I'm glad she gave me such a smile. It's so wonderful to live close enough to play with my nieces. (Oh and their parents too.) ;)

White Sands

In the afternoon we made it to White Sands. This time with good weather. It was so fun that we are planning on going again. It was well worth the trip.

Old Train Bridges

These are in Lincoln National Forest and are old falling apart bridges. It was a short hike to see them up close. It was amazing to think how much work it was to build this. Each piece of wood was so thick and heavy!






Do you see me?




I don't know why so many trees were bowing.