Mesilla, NM

We are still in Las Cruces, extending our stay by a day to get the brakes replaced on our tow vehicle...ouch! Yesterday we visited the historic community of Mesilla which is just a few miles south of here and where Stahmann's Pecans are grown.

"Mesilla ("Little Tableland") is the best-known and most visited historical community in Southern New Mexico. Since its' beginning, around 1848, Mesilla has had a major influence on the economic, cultural, historical, and political life of the Mesilla Valley. From the Gadsden Purchase, to the Civil War, to the Butterfield Stage Coach Trail, to the trial of Billy the Kid, to being a lively social center in the 1880s--Mesilla has been a prominent part of the rich history of the Southwest. At the time Mesilla was founded, the population of the town was concentrated around the Plaza for defense against Apache Raiders who were a constant threat to the settlement. Many of the adobe buildings built during that era remain today. " Source - http://www.oldmesilla.org/

I really loved the old adobe buildings and shared a photo yesterday of one of several ceilings we saw that were made of branches laid across beams. Here are a few photos I took of buildings around the Plaza, beginning with my favorite. This doorway, along the line of connected adobe buildings shown in the photo below, led to a private courtyard:

These are businesses along one side of the square that surrounds the Plaza.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I absolutely LOVE the colors, architectural shapes, and materials of southwestern design which probably makes our neighbors thankful for the Architectural Committee regs of our HOA...giggle!
 
We ate a late lunch at the highly recommended La Posta. The interior Meanders through halls and under archways that are brightly decorated in all these fantastically colorful tiles and paint and other materials. The food was authentic Mexican and each dish was a perfect composition of flavors.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It is with great trepidation that I post this next picture. I NEVER pull my hair back but my forehead got so sunburned at Dylan's game last Saturday that I can't stand to have my hair constantly touching it. However, it is the only photo I have of the food and the table; this restaurant is FABULOUS!!!

 
And for those who have purchased pecans from Stahmann's, here are some of the trees on their 4,000+ acre farm along the Rio Grande River where they grow 8 to 10 MILLION pounds of pecans a year. Miles of their pecan trees line Hwy 28 south of Mesilla. You can see the tiny leaves just beginning to unfurl, soon there will be thick canopies of green. But, you know how I love the sculptural beauty of bare trees.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Lovin' Life ~~ Discovering Historic Towns

Bev

Jackson's Varied Interests

Excitedly heading into Junior High next year, Jackson is at a crossroads of growth and interests. For the first time in several years, he is not playing any team sport right now. He does engage in sports conditioning at a local gym though to stay in shape in case he decides to try out for flag football at school next year.

Don't think this guy is just sitting around bored though; he is an avid college and professional sports fan, an ace video game player, a voracious reader, spends lots of time playing sports and hanging out with his siblings and friends and is one of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet (insert a blushing Jackson saying "aaawww Grandma" here). Here are a few shots of him enjoying the first swim of the season in their pool last weekend.

He is balanced on a boogie board in this shot.

The water was too cold for Grandma this time but the kids and their dad had a great time!

Sunday evening, Jackson entertained us with a couple of selections on his saxophone. This is the first time we had heard him play so it was very thrilling for Grandpa and me! Grandpa asked him if this was his official school band uniform...haha

Not to be outdone, his brother and sister each played a solo on their recorders and then a duet. What a great time!

Lovin' Life ~~ And Live Musical Performances

Bev

Beautiful Bracelets by Shelby

Before we left home I had purchased a bracelet kit because the price was drastically reduced and I hoped Shelby and I could have fun making bracelets together. Here, Shelby is sporting the very first bracelet. I was amazed at how quickly, after only watching me tie two knots, she picked it up and went ahead to make several bracelets.

The first two involved both Grandpa and I struggling to get the wooden beads threaded onto the cords. No American Girl fan little girl could even begin to get those cords through the inadequately tiny holes in the beads that were provided in the kit. It was infuriating to me that a company would sell such cheap kits for children under its name. Thanks to supplies sold at Michael's and Hobby Lobby though, we acquired more colors of cord and a huge tub of beads in all colors, sizes, and shapes.

Shelby's next project was a bracelet for her teacher in their school spirit colors. Here's how to create a beautiful bracelet.

Adding a bead.

Securing the anchor cords after adding a bead.

Continuing to knot the cords.

Adding the rose bead at the center of the bracelet.

Shelby with the finished bracelet for her teacher.

Here is a closeup of the beautiful bracelet, which her teacher LOVED of course!

All together we made seven bracelets: two for Shelby, one for her mom, the one for her teacher, one for her mom's friend at work, and two for me! Here are mine...

Teal is my favorite color, purple is Sandee's, orange is Greg's, and I picked a light teal heart to represent Rich at the center.

  

This is my "Grandma" bracelet. Using their favorite colors, blue is for Jackson, pink is for Shelby, and green is for Dylan with a light purple butterfly in the center for their mom.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Beautiful Bracelets

Bev

On The Road Again, Again

Yesterday was a tough one. We said our goodbyes to the grands as they left for school and to Sandee and Shawn as they left for work before quickly finishing the tasks necessary to get us on the road. No matter how much time we spend with them or how soon we plan to see each other again, this part is so hard.

So, I'll begin my "on the road" posts with photos for the kids of a few fun things we've seen since we left them yesterday.

At a rest area in Arizona we parked next to this ESPN NASCAR truck...way cool, huh guys?

Does anyone recognize anything familiar on this Continental Divide sign in New Mexico? Grandpa noticed this one.

A spray-painted Volkswagen van on the street in Las Cruces, NM.

Ceilings made of branches in some very old, historic, adobe buildings in Mesilla, NM.

These fabulous metal-sculpture palm trees in Las Cruces, NM.

And this...the YARN car from Texas that was parked a few cars from us in Mesilla. Except for the rocker panels, which were covered in small dark-colored river rocks, the entire car was decorated in yarn. Really. Yarn. All of that design you see on this car is real yarn. Like one would use to knit sweaters. This is not something we would probably see in Chicago, or any other part of the country that has inclement weather. I loved it!

Lovin' Life ~~ Finding Fun Even on Tough Days

Bev

Dylan's Blog & Casa Blanca

I'm going to share just a couple more things this evening while the kids are watching the Kids' Choice Awards.

While here this time, we have attended hockey practice, games, and the season-ending tournament and also baseball practice, opening ceremony, and games. Dylan is participating in both sports this year. For the past couple of years all three of our grands played Little League but this year, when we are here and could help with coverage, Dylan is the only one who wanted to play.

Dylan has published a couple of vacation posts on his blog at d-dawgblawg and will be posting a couple more about hockey and baseball so he asked me to let you all know. He doesn't publish very often so we know that most of you don't check his all of the time. He loves getting comments so please leave one!

Last evening, we all had dinner at Rich's favorite restaurant, Casa Blanca. While we waited for our food, Shawn entertained us by balancing a salt shaker on an angle. Tending bar while he was in college obviously provided some lasting skills!!!

If you are ever in Chandler, AZ and want great Mexican food this is the place.

And on the way home, Grandpa and I pulled off a great April Fool's Day prank!!! A special day from beginning to end!!!

Lovin' Life ~~ And Fun Family Evenings

Bev

Canyon Lake, Arizona

Canyon Lake is about fourteen miles northeast of Apache Junction on Hwy 88. While the kids were at school yesterday, Rich and I drove up there. The scenery is magnificent along this drive but today's post is primarily about cactus.

I wish we could stay in Arizona for another week or two because the desert is teetering on the cusp of its annual explosion of color. We did see a few blooming cacti.

I must share this, my favorite shot of a wildflower...

And this is Canyon Lake as we first approached it. This lake is huge but we didn't drive any further because we wanted to make sure we got home before the kids came home from school. We leave on Monday so every hour is even more precious now.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Flowering Cactus

Bev

Escape Artist Extraordinaire

If you've been stopping by for a while, you may recall that Santa brought our grands a puppy this Christmas. They named him Dexter and absolutely adore him; they also couldn't wait for Dora and Bella (us too, maybe) to meet him, since they also adore our girls. We have laughed at his playful antics and oohed at his joyful abandon...puppies and babies are so much alike. They come in these precious, helpless, awesome little packages to inspire a love like no other!

Since we've been here though, I often refer to him as Houdini; it seems there is no enclosure from which he cannot escape!

Not wanting to leave him in his little kennel all day, they had purchased a 30" high wire play pen. It wasn't long before they would come home to find him curled up [insert any accessible place in the house]. Even though he couldn't climb on or jump off of anything higher than a very few inches when they were home, he managed to climb out of his pen when they were gone!

Last week Sandee decided to thwart him by placing the pen snugly around this table in her kitchen. In theory, the table would provide a 'roof' for his pen so that he could not climb out. I can't imagine why I didn't get a photo of that, but...

This table holds the kids' art and project supplies. It is very special to Sandee because my parents went to housekeeping with this (as they say where I grew up) when they got married in 1947; she is thrilled to have it in her home. Anyway, every time, we came back home to find that Dexter/Houdini had pushed the pen enough to create an escape hatch at the top.

She was not giving up...yet. Sandee created the ultimate enclosure next to the game table in the family room by using binder clips to secure a sleeping bag over the entire pen. Yesterday morning, before Rich and I left to run some errands, we placed him in the pen and clipped the sides together from top to bottom, confident that Sandee had built the perfect solution.

Alas, when we returned home, this is what we found...

...and Dexter had disappeared. We both called him and searched for him, inside and outside. I was getting seriously concerned that he had injured himself during his escape. Finally, Rich found him...sound asleep in his favorite corner of the kids' bathroom.

It's going to take some serious ingenuity to keep this boy locked up!

Lovin' Life ~~ And the Antics of Our Three Dogs

Bev