Weekend Update

We had a fun weekend. On Friday, I was forced to clean my house so that we could have a little party. There is nothing like public humiliation to get the house clean, you know what I am saying? A year ago, Rinar went on a rafting trip with about 14 other guys in the area, including his brother Lyf. They rafted down the Kern River in California. It was quite the trip and those guys still talk about it. Hence, they had to have a party to debut the movie that David W. made of their experience. Since we have the largest television, by far, we hosted the party. I barbecued steak and chicken and made some salad and everyone else brought over some goodies to share. It was a lot of fun and the movie was really awesome to watch.


Then yesterday we went and watched Rinar's cousin Kamuela play in a Hawaiian festival at the California Hotel. He lives in Hawaii and is a professional musician. He is an amazing guitar player. You have to see it to believe it. I remember watching Kamuela play when he was a sophmore in high school and it was astounding. He has only gotten better. So, it was a real treat to watch him as a professional, killin' the guitar. We were so proud of him.



After church today, Melanie brought her brood over and we had dinner together. We ate outside and it was lots of fun to just hang out. We have to try to hang out as much as possible before she moves. Carpe diem, you know? After dinner, Rinar went and got Kamuela and his wife Roxy, so that they can use our car for tonight and tomorrow. They hung out with us for a little while and after much arm twisting (yeah right!), we had Kamuela play a few songs for us. The kids loved it and I loved the fact that he tuned my guitar up. It was hopelessly out-of-tune and very dusty. Can you tell I play quite a bit? haha!

This is Melanie with our groovy friend Brooke.

It was a fun weekend.

And on another note, Eli now has two molars: his bottom right and top left.

A Hole-In-One Day

We seem to be in a holding pattern for "starting slow" every morning. But yes, once again, it was a slow start. It didn't really matter because Rinar went to work really early in the morning. We are talking 5am. He has been really busy. Hence, no car.

We weren't going anywhere.

When he did get back, he packed up his stuff and we took him to the airport. That's right. Rinar is out of town, even though we are out of town. He is in Denver meeting with really important people. No, I am not in Denver too. I am still here in Albuquerque.

I decided to take the kids to the children's museum called Explora! This is the third one we have been to this year: Boston and Santa Ana, CA were the other two. I have to say that this one is really good. I think it is probably as good as the other two. It is probably a close tie for first with Boston. While we were there, we met an old friend from Atlanta: Katie and two of her three girls. It was fun to see her and I swear she hasn't changed a bit. She doesn't look a day older than the last time I saw her 6 years ago. And she still looks like a teenager. It's her youthful complexion, what can I say?



We had a lot of fun and she is going to bring all of her girls over here tomorrow to go swimming. The weather has warmed up a bit and we have not utilized the pool as much as we should have. Plus, it is much more fun to go swimming when there are other kids to play with while you are there.

After an afternoon siesta, I decided to try and go see the Glowdeo at the Balloon Fiesta. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic and no balloons in the air. We are really going to make a full commitment to do this thing tomorrow and Saturday but I was hoping we would be able to see something froma parking lot. We did take a lovely tour of the Target and I got some adorable shoes for Eli and some cookies. Eli loves cookies.

On the way home, there was a Putt-Putt Golf thing and so we made a pit stop to play a round. The kids had a lot of fun and Zach actually hit a hole-in-one on the 8th green. It was quite amazing. I got a hole-in-one on the 9th. Raef was close several times. I have to say that Zach is very competitive. I am just so stymied trying to figure out where he gets it from. {chuckle, chuckle}
And for the record, Eli now has 4 teeth: 3 on the bottom and one on the top. He is very close to crawling. He will get on his knees and start rocking back and forth. I expect the new gait to come any day now. And when he gets hungry he will say either Mama or baba. Or he just alternates between the two. This is not a coincidence because he has done it several times. But I am not counting as his first word yet. However, I am feeling very confident that he first word will NOT be Dada.

Sorry, Honey.