THE guy, Michael, working in 'our' greenhouse when we woke up!
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Hello!

I'm still here.

I have A LOT of catching up to do. And I will. Soon. I promise!

But in the meantime, I wanted to let you know I've uploaded a few new photos onto flickr tonight. Including a couple from our fabulous stay in the earthships up in Taos. We're all still buzzing from such an influx in ideas, and astounded by how warm and comfortable and absolutely beautiful it all was.

And we're all still buzzing from the fact that we got to meet Michael, 'the guy'. If you have not watched "Garbage Warriors" yet, you absolutely must, and then you will know why we were so excited to wake up to find him working on the front greenhouse!!!!! Definitely the highlight of our trip to Taos!

Now we're settled into Sante Fe for a week, and really looking forward to exploring this beautiful city. If anyone has any specific recommendations, please do share....and I'll make a point of coming back here in the evenings to do a little catching up!!!!!

xoxoxo

Valley of Fire

Valley of Fire
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

While we were in Vegas, we made a day trip to Valley of Fire. Which was really amazing, though by this point Kea informed us very quietly, um, I've actually seen enough rocks for now.!!!!! Poor girl - luckily she can easily be consoled with a bit of rock climbing and cave exploring!

I've decided that noon day sun in the desert is brutal to photograph with. It's just so harsh. I'm trying to convince my entire family to wake up for sunrise, nap over noon, and head out again for sunset. Because it is by far the best light for photography. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, by the time we all get ready to go it is inevitably smack dab in the middle of the day!

I've also decided that driving by car is much more civilized than dragging poor Bartha here there and everywhere. We almost had a heart attack when we filled the gas tank (without any stress of being able to find a station with propane) and it only came to $22. Perhaps we should rent more often - heck even the money saved in gas alone would make it worth it!

I'm very behind in uploading to flickr and in blogging. To the point that I'm almost overwhelmed and don't know where to start. So I'll dig my head back into the sand, and deal with it in Tucson!!!!!! Until then, here's a few images from a week or so ago!!!!! xo

petroglyphs

petroglyphs
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Ryland, always finding a sandbox wherever we go!

Ryland, always finding a sandbox wherever we go!
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

rock climbing trio

rock climbing trio
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

This segment of the trip is turning into rock-month - there's just so many fascinating rocks wherever we go! And it is impossible to keep the kids off them - including Ryland who is determined to keep up with his siblings! Poor Jamie has had to scale more rock faces in the past week or so, to help one kid or another down (whether he wanted it or not!!!!)

Leaving Las Vegas...

So, Bartha is all fixed up with a shiny new transmission and running well.......and we're so happy to be back in our home. It's amazing, we thought we'd be dying to stay in hotels along the way, but in the end it turns out that noone is used to the beds so don't sleep well, and we always forget stuff we want in the Barth, and it sucks to not be able to cook our own foods. So in the end, we're loving living in Bartha and try to avoid hotels! However, a stay in Treasure Island was fun, and really rounded out our experience of Vegas (contrasted with the parking lot they call an rv park on the back side of Circus Circus!)

I knew that Vegas would be over the top for us, and it probably didn't help that we spent a good week in the middle of nowhere in the desert before arriving - talk about contrasts!!!!!!! Tiegan is in heaven, and is constantly being pulled away from the bright slot machines by security guards - somehow it doesn't shock me that she's our child who would be drawn to this world! Kea reads all the signs and wonders WHY we won't take her to see the pussycats. And Ryland is just trying to take it all in - SO MANY bright lights, loud music, water fountains, shows and drunk tourists! We get up at 7 to get breakfast, and you'd think it was 11 at night, the same people are propped up at the slot machines and beer is plentiful. I went to see my friend Shannan's show (Zumanity), and she was saying that she gets a slap on the wrist if she goes over on her skit - if everyone went over, and the show was let out 15 minutes late, evidently the casino loses $30,000 in revenue. Wow, huh?! Anyways, a surreal place for sure.......

And now we're off to Arizona for a week.......Steph leaves Vancouver on March 17th, so please get any notes to her before then! And if they arrive later, we'll just pick them up in May!

Just popping in really quickly to say we're alive and well, just with limited internet access! We're in Vegas, and poor Bartha is having some transmission work done (we decided to prudishly bring her in for a tune-up given that we'd been driving for a while, and as we suspected it was kind of like opening up Pandora's box......but hopefully this means we won't get stranded on the highway in the middle of nowhere instead of stranded in Vegas!!!!) We've rented a car and are enjoying the sights - tonight we head to Death Valley for a night, which we're pretty stoked about, and then the plan is to head to the Grand Canyon on Sat. We have just over a week to enjoy Arizona (any MUST SEE'S???!!!) and then we're all extremely excited to be driving to New Mexico where we'll be spending two weeks with Steph and her family! YAY!!!!! And on that note, I wanted to give you all her mailing address, as she's graciously offered to bring along letters, postcards, photos from anyone who can get it to her house in time. The kids would LOVE to get some real mail, so please feel free to send along a small note!!!!!!



Okay, more soon, on our return from Death Valley!!!!!