300 Days of Sunshine

The Santa Fe National Forest is open to hikers once again after being closed for over a month.  We had a dry and hot month of June with high risk of forest fires, but monsoon season is now upon us.  We now face hail storms and flooding, also causing problems for homes and local organizations, but the good news is that we're finally experiencing some much-needed moisture.  Over the weekend we took Ady, Kua, and our best friends' dog, Sam, to the Hyde Park Circle Trail, a 3-4 mile loop with about a 1,000 foot elevation gain.  The views were beautiful and the dogs enjoyed getting some exercise and fresh air.   This trail has special meaning to us because it was the first hike we did when we moved to Santa Fe, and it was also the trail where we got engaged.  We have taken several friends and family members on this hike when they visit us in Santa Fe, and while I hiked it while I was pregnant with Ady, this was her first time experiencing this hike s...

These are difficult times we live in, an era that challenges everything we used to believe about what America represents (or should represent), a period that, for many American citizens, questions our pride in our own identity, while also highlighting our largely-underserved privilege.  Many Americans feel a great deal of distress to the point of numbness and hopelessness about the state of the nation, fearful to turn on the news in the risk of discovering yet another disgrace, mistake, or infringement on our democracy. This Independence Day, I experience a myriad of emotions and thoughts.  I struggle with waving the American flag when so many families and individuals are being denied access to our country's borders.  I question my allegiance to this country under a leader whose values are so different from my own.  And I feel more than a little hypocritical displaying red, white and blue patriotically when today's America seems so far from what the founding fa...

       Happy summer!  It has been extremely hot this month in Santa Fe, with high temperatures in the 90s.  I'm so thankful that we installed air conditioning when we moved into our house.  We have had such minimal moisture this season and the fire danger is so high that the National Forest is closed to hikers, which is such a bummer for outdoorsy folks.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the trails will open up again later this summer.  While I wouldn't trade living in the southwest for anything, I sure miss the beaches and swimming pools in the midwest!  The annual Music on the Hill outdoor weekly music series started up again last week!  It's one of my favorite summer traditions in Santa Fe.  Every Wednesday night, families and groups of friends gather with their picnics and drinks on the grass on the St. John's College campus to enjoy free outdoor music.  The festival features a variety of genres an...

Spring Gardening I have been talking about gardening all spring, waiting until the weather was consistently warm enough for planting, obsessing over books about native plants, overwhelming myself with grand ambitions for transforming my yard, and procrastinating because of the terrifying question of "Where to Begin?"  Well we finally took the plunge and planted some new bushes in our front yard!  The hardest part was amending the soil to make it more conducive to planting, and now I hope we get a little moisture to keep everything alive!  I'm still such a beginner when it comes to gardening in desert, but wish me luck!  I also planted some flowers in pots along our front walkway and a rose bush near the back patio.  If everything goes well, I hope to add some bushes in the side yard next year and maybe a small herb garden. New front yard landscaping Pretty flowers My littlest helper Santa Fe "Run Around" Earlier this month our family of thre...

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  It is a gorgeous (and hot!) weekend in Santa Fe.  Even though we're still a few weeks away from the official start of summer, the local schools are already on break and it feels like summer is already here.  Ady slept in until 9:00 this morning!  I guess the warm weather is wearing on her, not to mention a very busy month of May.  When she finally dragged her butt out of bed (crib), I took her and Kua for a stroll on the Borrego Bear Wallows trail.  Hiking with a toddler requires some patience and planning ahead, but it is also really fun to notice all the interesting things from the perspective of a 1-year-old and point out all the beautiful flowers, the pinecones and sticks on the trail, and the sounds of birds singing and bees buzzing.  I love our  Osprey Child Carrier  backpack and I'm starting to get used to the extra weight, and it seems like a comfortable ride for the little one. Sunny day on the Bear...

Last weekend my sister and I met up in Santa Barbara for three wonderful days of sightseeing and wine tasting, chatting and catching up on our busy lives, and running another half marathon together!  Santa Barbara is a lovely and historical city nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains on the central coast of California.  With its Spanish influence and stucco architecture, there were some resemblances to Santa Fe, and the cities are close to the same size, but the climate could not be more different.  This charming seaside town is known as the American Riviera and everywhere you look there are beautiful flower gardens, patios for wine tasting, restaurants featuring fresh seafood and seasonal fruit, and cheerful birds enjoying the proximity to the sea.  The weather was a little chillier than expected, and definitely too cold to swim in the water, but that didn't stop us from sitting on the beach bundled in our towels, watching the birds and en...

Ross Party of 3 in Cancun! We just returned from our first international vacation as a family of three!  Ady has been on an airplane multiple times in her first 18 months of life, including to Hawaii last fall, but leaving the country was a big deal!  Thankfully everything went smoothly with the passports and documentation, immigration forms, and travel schedule.  We were blessed by on-time departures on both days of travel, and we had an extra seat for our squirmy toddler on three out of four of the flights, which was a huge sanity-saver for all involved!  Our resort, the Hyatt Ziva Cancun, was PERFECTION!  Our friends found out about this location a few months ago, and when they invited us to join them, we only had to think about it for about two seconds before deciding that we couldn't miss out.  All-inclusive was definitely the way to go when traveling with families.  There were fun things for everyone to do, lots of food options, and the ...