a short weekend trip

We took the train Saturday to Santa Fe. The train was crowded. Jackson and Rylee played with Brendon and Lauren. The kids were remarkably good, and when we stopped at the end of the day at Tomasitas a man visiting from D.C. commented on how behaved the kids were at the table in the lounge area. Jack and Lauren got a furry "worm" at the toy store for $2. It has a thin, invisible filament that they use to make it appear that it is alive. Jack has been having fun with that ever since. Ry got a scary battling pirate figure. It was his birthday money, and he even treated for Lauren's and Jack's worms.

The plaza was crowded with tourists and we had trouble getting a table for lunch with our party, which also included Cyndi, of course, Elley and Dorie. The girls did a little shopping and we did our obligatory toy store run. We took the 6:30 evening train back, and the kids were only a bit more rambunctious. Sadly, they are going to stop the weekend trains in August.

The boys want to see the Cars sequel and Cyndi has been keeping them busy, as she also tries to get her work up and running. Lots of pool trips lately. They are being good, and it's nice to see them ask permission for things. Computer use is one example, because Jack understands that I'm very concerned about that. He's still working on animation programs and he just designed his own mouse cursor. The other day, he told me that he plans to teach for a year before he starts his career. He thinks it will be good for him, a cap in his education. Rylee thinks that they should skip a year of school. One year on, one year off.

There are fires all over New Mexico right now. The Sandias are closed, the bosque is closed except for the bike trail. We are still getting smoke sometimes from the big fire in Arizona. There's a small fire down in Belen. There was a big one at Carlsbad Caverns. One north of Santa Fe, and now a huge, scary one that started near Jemez Falls and is approaching Bandelier, Los Alamos and the Dixon's apple orchard near Cochiti. We need the monsoon rain season to begin now. But it looks still to be at least a week away.