Vacation Day 2: Taos New Mexico, Rio Grande Gorge.

Day 2:

Garrett, my Dad and I started out the day with a hike along the river.






























































































Next the whole group caravan headed to Taos New Mexico where we headed out to see the Rio Grande Gorge.


View headed down the mountain towards Taos, NM.


































View of the Rio Grande Gorge. You can't really tell how long this bridge is- but its long!

















Astrid and I at the Rio Grande Gorge.















































Whenever a Semi truck would go over the bridge the whole bridge would shake.

















Hailey hates bridges. This is her "proof I stood on the bridge" photo. (Photo by Morgan)
























Flowers growing by the Gorge. (Photo by Morgan)
























Flowers growing around in Taos, NM (Flower photos by Morgan)
























Next we toured a "Earthship" house.
























The earth ships are sustainable houses located off the grid. This was a 600 sq foot house and cost around $400,000. Utilities cost an average of $100 a year.

















This cistern holds 3,000 gallons of water.
























Bathroom area with low flow toilet that uses "grey" water. The water from the kitchen sinks routes to the toilet and to water the indoor plants. Toilet water goes to a septic tank.
























Utility closet. Houses the pumps that handle the water and the boxes for the DC current appliances. There is a system of skylights that open to allow heat to escape to help with the cooling. The angle of the glas panes is such that in the winter the light penetrates deep into the house to help warm the home and in the summer the light does not penetrate far.
























Indoor garden. This garden planter shares a room with the bedroom. There is an identical planter that shares a room with the living room. Both the living room and bedroom are u-shaped.
























Across the wall from the living room, next to the garden planter, is a tiny kitchen area. You can't see it here, but there is a small DC current super insulated refrigerator. Not a lot of workspace! ;-) The Earthship we toured is a 15 year old floor plan and not as spacious or homelike as the newer floor plans. Now if only they could find a way to make old tires, bottles, coke cans and mud to be structurally sound in the face of a natural disaster....or at least make them scorpion/critter proof!

Vacation: Red River New Mexico!

Garrett and I just got back from our week long vacation! Early morning Saturday I picked Garrett up from his week long Computer Graphics conference in New Orleans and that same afternoon we drove out to Abilene to start our vacation. The next morning our caravan left bright and early for Red River New Mexico. It was a 12 hour drive but we had fun stopping along the way and my sisters took turns riding with us. The company made the drive seem a lot shorter. Plus Garrett was excited to drive his new car and see what kind of gas mileage the Hybrid gets. :-)

When we arrived in Red River it was a beautiful 65 degrees outside. It was amazing to leave our 100 plus degree Texas weather behind! The next four days we had fun hiking, geocaching, jeeping, sightseeing, etc. We ate out during the day and took turns cooking at night. Hailey's parents have a vacation home in Red River which we all stayed at. It was great having everyone under one roof! (Thanks Chamness Family!)

What can I say about such a beautiful and fun vacation? I think I'm going to have to do it pictorially. Here it goes:

Day 1 (first full day in Red River):
















This is a photo taken from the neighborhood where we were staying. Isn't it beautiful?
















Here we are at one of the many shops that we looked at in town. I'm definitely looking pregnant here.
















Beautiful handmade jewelry done by local Native Americans. This was one of our favorite shops.
















View of the river from one of our daily hikes.















Look at how clear that river water is!
















Another river view (photo courtesy of Morgan)

















































We found a little chapel in the mountains. It was built by a man for his wife on their 50th wedding anniversary. Neither Morgan or I really got a complete picture of the chapel- not sure why! (These three photos by Morgan)
















(from left to right) Hailey, Adam, Astrid, Garrett.

















My parents



































My shutterbug Sister, Morgan.




















My handsome Husband.





















Dad laughing at something one of the boys said.


















Adam teaching Astrid how to play a spirited game of stick Frisbee.







































Garrett and I wrapped up the first day with an evening walk along the river trail. It was neat to see the wildlife! (No bear sightings)

Catching up... Weekend of July 18th

Well, its been a busy month for the Morings! I hate to leave a big weekend out just because I was too busy to write, so here it goes.... July 18th...

We had a great weekend! It was super busy and packed with lots of visiting and fun activities- we really made use of our time and had a fulfilling weekend!

We drove down to Somerset to visit with my in-laws. My Sister in law Robin was in town with her 4 kids and my Sister in law Kalyn was in town and in the process of packing up and saying goodbye before she moved the rest of her household goods up to North Carolina.

Saturday we drove out to visit with Garrett's Grandparents, had lunch, visited with an Aunt and Uncle and then drove back to Somerset where we visited with his cousin Jessica, husband Ryan, and met their new baby, Mason. Mason is adorable and we had fun catching up with Ryan and Jessica. Seeing them taking care of Mason so effortlessly made Garrett and I feel a lot more comfortable with our own baby on the way! Holding him and feeding him his bottle was great practice!
That night my Mother-in-law cooked us a yummy home cooked meal and we shared it with Garrett's Grandmother, and some extended family. We wrapped up the evening with a game of dominoes.

Next day we went to Church with the family and then out to lunch and then back for some impromptu family photos in the backyard.




It was a great, fun packed weekend! Its not often that everyone is in the same place at once- it was great!

Getting caught up

Well, I have been an awful blogger this past month! I have been busier than normal at work and between overtime, out of town trips, morning sickness, and buying a car I haven't spent much time on the computer. I promise to catch up though! Look for more blogs soon! :-)

Garrett's post: My first check-up

Today I accompanied Liesl to one of her regular check-ups at the OB's office. They wanted to see if they could hear the baby's heart beat, but after much tummy prodding and a lot of static sounds, they decided it might be a bit early to hear the heartbeat just yet.

So our OB decided to grab the ultra-sound machine to check up on the kiddo. Now, I have to say that our last round of ultra-sound imagery was cool because Liesl could see the little heartbeat flicker on the monitor. But this time, we could actually make out all the baby's major features! I was quite impressed, especially since I had never seen one these ultra-sound scans in person. When it's happening in real-time on the screen, you can easily make out the baby's shape while they move and jump around. I was amazed!

Anyway, I know it may seem like old news to some of you, but this was a pretty cool experience for me. :) I never knew they would be so limber at this early stage! That kid would jump up then float back down in reaction to the poking and prodding, I assume. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's a few stills from today's visit, which don't do it justice, but it's all we got. Can't they give us a movie file from the scan?? That would be nice.







This last image includes only the arm, hand, and fingers. Apparently the ultra-sound machine takes a thin slice projection area of the uterus so we couldn't see everything at the same time. Still, it was pretty amazing seeing such intricate features already in development.

Now it's just 8 weeks to go before we take a shot at finding out the gender!