Wilder in Taos

 

This photo of Wilder was taken right after our friends Chris and Bree's wedding. We were on the rooftop of the La Dona Luz B&B, and the boy was enjoying trying new foods (caviar??), but mostly he ate about 30 olives that came back to haunt him later.

Anyway, Taos was beautiful, and Wilder really enjoyed the Kit Carson playground, where he went down all the big kid slides by himself. Brave, eh? And thanks to his Phoenix grandma and grandpa (Pop and Sharon) for the stylin' duds. Nothing like a little pearl-snap action!

Let me explain ...

We have not suddenly decided to dress Wilder in pink. There is an explanation, of course. Jerry and I spent part of the afternoon looking at houses and so our dear friend Judy watched our boy for a few hours. They watered her garden, and Wilder got soaking wet right before she was going to bring him back to us. So she put him in the only dry clothes she had close to his size: those of her grand-daughter Dylan, who's a couple years older than Wilder. She called to warn me ahead of time, so I -- being the kind of mom who relishes taking photos of her kids that can later be used against them -- waited outside with the camera. I couldn't pick just one of these; he looks too darn cute in all of them.

In this first one, he literally ran from Judy's car to where I was sitting on the sidewalk yelling "MOMMY!!!!" Geez kid ... melt my heart already!
 

What a face!
 

This one I included just because I had to show the shoes he was sporting.
 

Sorry Wilder. Mommy couldn't help herself. xoxo.

The Great Home Selling/Buying Debacle of 2007

And so it's begun. We're moving. We put it off as long as possible. But we got back from vacation and I finally called our Realtor and it's been "go! go! go!" ever since. Meetings, MLS listings to pour through, PODS to order, boxes to pick up, mountains of our stuff to go through, home drive-bys, home viewings ... and we haven't even started showing our own house yet. Today we started cleaning and packing with the intent of getting about 40-60 percent of our crap out of here so the home shows better. Hopefully we'll have that done (and moved into the curbside PODS) by next weekend. Then get a housecleaning service in here, get the place staged (courtesy of our wonderful Realtor Linda Biggerstaff and her home stager Anne Lasko ... yes, that is a plug) and get that sign put up out front.

Today we actually looked at our first house, and it was one we would buy. If we were going to live in it for 20 years, we wouldn't buy it. But considering we want to find a place we might be able to sell in the next five years (when that can't-pass-up job offer comes from our dream destination), it'd be a nice place to spend that time and has good resale value. Built in 2007, it's an open floor plan, four upstairs bedrooms and an absolutely gorgeous heated pool and spa out back. Good storage. Gated community (again, not really our thing, but folks around Dallas love it so we'd be able to sell it easily, we think). And the community has a couple walking/biking paths and a park for Wilder to play in.

We won't make an offer, because technically it's the first house we've looked at and that would be just, well, stupid. If it's meant to be, it'll still be on the market when we're ready to start making offers (good to get our house on the market first, you think??). ; )

Anyway, a couple pics of our state of living right now.
On one hand, these are scattered all over the house right now ...

on the other, my cabinets never looked like this while I actually really lived in this house.

Final Kauai dispatch (typed with sad face)

Well, we leave tomorrow. :( Bummer, we could stay another week, at least. When we come back, whenever that is, it will definitely be for longer. We're cooking our last dinner at the rental house, the sun has set, and we've got one more cool-breeze-filled, palm-trees-rustling night to lull us to sleep. On the plus side, that's only one more night to be woken up by roosters at 4 a.m. : ) See, everything has a silver lining!

Without further ado, here are a few more photos.

Dispatch from Kauai No. 2

Another few shots from the last couple days. Today is our last full day here ... kind of a bummer, but at the same time it's been awesome and packed with fun. Wilder has gone from being petrified by the ocean to running at the waves at full speed. He also has learned to get his naps in when he can -- driving from beach to beach, napping in the outdoor shower while Papa rinses the sand off him, etc. (I have a great shot of the latter but haven't downloaded it yet).

Today has been wonderful. We went snorkeling at Tunnels Beach, which it about 3/4 of a mile from our rental house. Saw soooo many wonderful colorful funky fish. Right now the boy is napping but later we're driving into the nearest town, Hanalei, for a little shopping, probably some shave ice (basically a giant sno cone in one of about a gojillion flavors). Then who knows ... we'll either come back to the house to relax and watch the sun go down at the nearby beach or meet up with friends to snorkel some more near their place.

Anyway, signing off. Much love, k.

Dispatch From Kauai

Aloha! Here are a few pics from our first three days on the Garden Isle. What an amazing beautiful relaxing place! If you click on the slideshow it'll take you direct to the slideshow and you can view the images a bit larger. We've been busy with wedding, settling in and going on our Na Pali Coast sailing tour since arriving, but as of today we have three days with a clear schedule. Beaches, here we come!!