Railrunner Road Trip

The kids have been asking to ride the railrunner since it started running.  Our friends the Williams, experienced riders, let us tag a long on a trip to the Santa Fe grower's market. 

 McCarthy kids wanted to sample anything and everything offered, but spent the most time at this honey booth.  They tasted three kinds of honey and picked their favorite.  These nice ladies also had a hive and diagrams of bees...right up Thomas' alley!

 Then we hit the nearby park for some good playground fun!! 

 Sweet Sisters.

 Georgia was a good helper with Ronan on the trip back, and Claire decided she needed her own seat.

We had such a good time riding the railrunner...thanks for showing us the ropes Williams!

Visiting with the Vanderburgs: July/August 2010

In case you haven't noticed,  this is "Catch Up on Blogging Weekend"!  We had such an exciting and action packed summer that there just hasn't been time to record it all! 

One of the biggest highlights for me was getting an extended visit from my childhood friend Taryn Shaw Vanderburg and her four beautiful kids.  She has twins too!  Below is a shot off all nine kids sharing a chick-fil-a lunch at my moms.  As little girls Taryn and I spent many a night at slumber parties and sleepovers fantasizing about weddings and husbands and careers and kids....I don't think that having nine kids between us and both of us having twins in the same years every entered our wildest dreams! 

Naked babies everywhere!  Kinsleigh and Avery are three months older than Claire and Ronan.

A special brother moment.  Taryn's boys, Grayson and Addison are (were at the time of this pic) three and four years old.

• We took a trip to Galloping Grace Youth Ranch in Rio Rancho.  The kids do some farm chores, participate in a "gratitude project" and then get the opportunity to ride horses!  The people who run this ranch are truly great and have amazing volunteers to help them!

\

Thanks for the visit Taryn.  I am so happy that even though you have lived on the east coast for over ten years we seem to have grown even closer than we were when we were kids.  Can't wait to see you again, and hopefully Daken sometime soon too!  Love you!

Loveable Leo...Happy Birthday Brian (Belated!)

We celebrated Brian's 32nd birthday on July 30th.  Sorry for the SUPER belated blogging, Babe! Hope you had fun with your family and friends and enjoyed your pink cake compliments of Lauren. I don't know many 32-year-olds with 5 kids...it has been and continues to be quite the ride don't you think?  The good news is, I just did the math, and we will still be in our 40's when the twinnies go off to college...totally young and hip and hot! Ha! We love you so much! Happy Birthday!!!

The presentation of birthday cards in the morning.

Lauren's cherry chip with strawberry frosting masterpiece.

Cake and ice cream served up by family and friends.

Kiddos (minus the twinnies) work as a team to creat a water channel in the sand box.

Chris (Thomas' godfather) and Joseph (our godson) joined us.  Chris and Brian have been friends since kindergarten!

We also had our joint celebration with Brian's mom and Jerry.  Bri and Jerry share the same birthday!

Sunday Fun Day!

Brian and I were able to kick off our Saturday date night with Mass (so wonderful to sit peacefully in Mass) leaving Sunday morning free for fun at ballon fiesta park.  As you can see, there were not too many balloons left to launch by the time we got to the field.  We are not die hard early risers.  We left the house around 7am, stopped for McDonalds breakfast to take in to the park, and arrived just in time to park and enter the fiesta for free.  Balloons, although not still on the field were in the sky all around us and we were able to see the "Bee Family" take off.  The kids were totally satisfied, as were we!

And then...we ran back to the house to get the backpacks and headed over to hike around the volcanoes on the west mesa.  The kids pretended that they were looking for the lost treasure of El Dorado.  We have to be careful letting Thomas "pretend" these things because he often becomes VERY determined to ACTUALLY do or find what ever it is.  I think for a while he really thought we could dig up some gold!

Thomas and Lauren were BFFs all day on Sunday...so refreshing.  But Monday morning hit and all the magic of the fresh-air-filled weekend had completely worn off!

Check out our HAIRY hiking companion!!!!

 Here is Lauren...typical McCarthy kid.  Walking with her family?  No, walking and talking with the strangers up ahead.  I finally had to pretend that we were waiting for Brian and Connor to catch up so that she would come back to us.  Even then, she was reluctant!

 Thomas made me promise to give him credit for the above photo.

Thomas' pants pockets were at least as full as Lauren's shirt.  When we were back at the car they each had to pick their three favorite rocks to carry home...it took a while.

Sweet little Ro zonked out in the end.