Never Let It Be Said...

...(1) that it never snows in the desert. After a week's worth of warnings and mad rushes to the store, snow finally found its way to the Franklin Mountains and Chihuahua Desert. The kids have been praying for snow since last fall, so you can imagine their excitement. Bryan & Brady enjoyed their first experience with the white stuff, but Brady, recovering from bronchitis, played with his inside.



Brady wasn't too sure about the cold stuff, but eventually decided it tasted OK.



Bryan played with the dogs until they knocked him down. (They were a little excited about the snow, too.)



Syd & Bryce loved their answer to prayer!


...nor (2) that I can't be kind to things I don't like. Namely, cats. I'm not a cat-lover, cat-liker--barely a cat-tolerator. So you can imagine how close Barry came to death when he strolled through the door this morning with a friend of the feline persuasion. Of course we heard choruses of, "Can we keep him?" as the kids chased him(?) through the house. Barry, sensing his impending doom, quickly responded, "No. I think he belongs to someone." That satisfied the kids--well, that and offering the pathetic meowing animal some food and water. The only appropriate cat food I had was a can of tuna, so, trying to be a gracious hostess, I offered the stranger my lunch.


Syd & Bryce insisted on watching the cat eat. When the cat left, they were disappointed. I wasn't.

Oh, Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon Is A-Comin'....

OK, so we didn't go see a reproduction of The Music Man this weekend, but this song played in my mind all day Saturday. Wells Fargo sponsors the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally in Las Cruces every January. This year was the 15th annual rally; we've lived here almost 6 years and just found out about it 3 years ago. Jeanne (see a previous entry featuring her balloon, Cool Beans!!) invited us when Bryan was in the hospital. If we didn't know her, we wouldn't have known about MVBR. It's not advertised anywhere in El Paso!

Anyway, Saturday was fun. Bryan and Brady hadn't seen so many balloons before, and Barry and I sure enjoyed watching their faces light up as they watched the colorful shapes fill the sky. Bryan even had his first balloon ride--a tethered flight. When he's older, I'm sure Jeanne will have the honors of launching him for the first time.

If you want to see more pictures, log on to the Las Cruces Sun Times. Click on "Photo Galleries" in the left hand column. The photographer caught a great shot of Cool Beans!! launching--you can see all 6 Beans!



This is a HUGE Wells Fargo Wagon balloon. It never launched, but it was a sight to see anyway. Bryan kept calling it a bus.





Here are a few of the balloons dancing across the sky.





This was taken last weekend at Syd's birthday party at the post ceramics shop. Brady enjoyed his first experience with paint and a brush, but he found controlling the brush a bit difficult. (The white shirt was already stained, so, yes, his wearing it was OK.)