NM Pics: The Best of the Rest

 

Grandad and Grandma Pace and Seven of the eleven Pace/Lodge Grandkids: Grady, Cassidy, Merek, Abby, Kennedy, and Madelynn (not pictured- McKenzie and Shelby in Alaska, Luke upstairs in his bed, and Benjamin inside his momma!)

 

Katie and Tiffany enjoying the nice evening on the back porch  

Happy kids and their Popsicles

Our Sweet Chubby Lukers!
 
Swimming! Love these pictures from Jason's new underwater camera!




 

Pretty cool huh? 

 

  Last of all here are some pictures of our trip to The Natural History Museum. It reminded me a lot of middle school, but the kids seemed to enjoy it!

  We all enjoyed sweet cousin time and lots of New Mexican food and Dion's Pizza! It was a great trip!

Tres Piedras

While in Albuquerque, we headed up to Tres Piedras to visit Jon's mom. The weather was lovely, and I enjoyed a bunch of wildflower photo ops! Oh, and I took some pics of the kids too. 

 

A hummingbird picture! They were everywhere, and they really made me wish that I had a macro lens!

  

The kids loved playing in the wagon.

I love this picture. The expressions on everyones' faces are just so funny!

 

The garden tour...

 

The old chicken coup... which Luke thought was so very fun.

Luke, who was super proud of himself for learning how to use the spoon!

You can see that TP is super laid back... jammies all day long, lots of time spent outside, and lots of family time. We all enjoyed it!

Tiffany's Baby Shower

We just got home from a week in New Mexico. I have lots of pictures to share, and first off is the main attraction: Tiffany's Baby Shower. Mike, Tiffany, and Baby Benjamin!

Tiffany, Cassidy, and Abby. Abby was very excited to attend the shower. She got to wear a pretty dress and eat lots of mini cupcakes... a little girl's dream come true!

Sweet beautiful Tiffany

  

They are going to be such great parents!

 






The Pace and Lodge Ladies (minus Meghan)

On our next trip to ABQ, I will be holding that baby boy! I can't wait to see Mike and Tiffany become parents. We are all so excited!

Sea World and the Comal River

We spent the weekend in San Marcos with Mike and Tiffany.  Sadly, it was so hot that I just didn't take many pictures.  Jon and Mike went tubing down the Comal River, and we spent a day at Sea World (which turned out to be a crazy idea with the Texas heat and the Texas sized crowds). Otherwise, we mostly spent our time eating out and swimming at the hotel.  We had a great time! Here are the few pictures that I did take:

Luke makes this silly scrunched up nose face every time I pull out the camera.  It is so funny to watch him!

And sadly I have no pictures of Tiffany and me! I will have to try harder next time!

I haven't posted anything for a while, one because Kelly usually beats me to it, and two she takes better pictures than me.  She has been crowned both CFO of our family (old news) and more recently has assumed the role outright of chief Public Relations director, so she does most of the blogging. I am also limited to my posting in real time, as during my travels for work it is generally frowned upon to show Kelly what a cool time I might be having while she is stuck at the house with the children by herself.  Even though I promise it is work! Since right about now she has returned the favor (for the first time ever) I thought it would be a good time for me to put a post together.
A few weeks ago, as most of you are aware, I was able to take one of my athletes to the Olympic Trials in hopes of prolonging her season.  Our chances of going much past the second round were limited but it was our first experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity for an athlete (hopefully not me).

Christina ran well but our hope is that we get a little farther next time because we both know she has the ability. Top 25 in the country is nothing to sneeze at either.

I was trying to play it cool, as though picking up my Olympic trails credential was routine, but truthfully seeing my name next to anything official with Olympic rings on it anywhere was awesome.  I waited to jump up and down when I got back to my room. 

Hayward field has to be the best place in the country to watch a track meet if the rain stops, we were lucky during the second half of the trials and had pretty good weather, although it did rain almost every day.

Eugene, Oregon is a strange place.  Apparently at the Red Lion in Eugene, you can be "Hell on Wheels" and still be employee of the month.  He had a full size skull on his dashboard, and wore a full length black trench coat daily.

I got a chuckle out of the water for the soul costing you $2.  Not sure that soul and dollar sign should ever occupy the same page.  

We did have one day that no one was competing so we piled into on of the vans and took the hour+ drive to the coast.  Even more rain but we got to see the coast and stick our toes in the pacific.  We even took the elevator down to the sea lion cave. 

 

As far as experiences go this was amazing, I hope to get back to the trials at some point, but I have to figure out how to bring the family.  It was a long time to be gone, after being gone the week before.   Let me know if you want to meet us there!