Grandma's Brag Post

Of course the main reason for the trip is professional development and the travel through the Colorado Plateau and the Rockies have certainly provided that. As well I have three Geography/GIS conferences that I will be attending over the next two weeks. I hope to increase my skills with Arcview 9 among other things.

However family still comes first. I have had to miss Christopher's birthday and I was out of town on the day he was born but then I missed Liam's first birthday too. I left Charles with a big map of North America and I have managed to send a post card from most places. We have only had the Skype working once. But I have sorted out how to use the US postal service. I have found buying stamps in bulk at small town post offices the best. They are easy to find - on the main road with helpful friendly staff. Having said that the post office in Santa Fe was helpful (and Liam made a social contact Alex who is coming to play on Thursday. )

It was great to meet Laim and Madeline at Desert View. It seems that Liam and Madeline were excited and the grandparents were definitely restless as the expected arrival time drew near. It has been great spending so much time with both Liam and Madeline. Liam travelled in our car so we had lots of interesting conversations. He is currently really interested in differences with NZ and this has concentrated on the US flag. Liam has his own song about the stars and strips. He really enjoyed the junior ranger programme which has lead to lots of conversation about wildlife and geology. He looked out for different sorts of rock.

Madeline is delightful. Liam assured me that he thinks Madeline "understands the accents here". While Madeline does not choose to use a lot of words she clearly understands and has a really mischievious streak, and knows how to annoy her brother. Of course I think all the four children are great and that their parents are all doing a great job of parenting. (I did head this grandma's brag page) Liam enjoys his school (La Casita) and Christine is president of the board. Liam plans to take me to meet his teacher tomorrow.

Since arriving in Santa Fe I have been to the Children's Museum and Liam wants me to take him again so we are hoping to fit that in also tomorrow. Today we went on Liam's planned outing with me (we took Grand-dad) -the Santa Fe Sourthern Railway trip from Santa Fe to Lamy. We visited the Legal Tender saloon but our lunch was on the platform of the station - and then eaten under the shade in a picnic area.

So it will be hard to leave on Thursday but has been good to see where they are. It is hard wanting to be in two places at once and while electronic communication is great it is not the same as rocking your grand-daughter to sleep in the swing seat, watching Christopher gain confidence walking (he is probably running now) or having conversations about A- team matters with Liam and Charles.