A Long and Winding Road...

This is my Dad. He turned 62 on the 24th. I did not remember to call him. I am a very forgetful daughter, but I still love my Dad very much.
Miss Boo was dressed for church and looked so grown up. It was one of her rare "smile" moments and so I quickly made her pose 20 times to catch this one of her. She is so magical when the planets are aligned.
Do you see why I love to stare at her? By the way, these are my sunglasses she borrowed because the light was bothering her. I found them in the park so if you lost a pair, let me know...or not..they look good on me and I like them.
Twenty or so years ago, (You all know how old I am but I don't think I should have to repeat it often just to make certain points.) my best dancing, hanging out Buds were Dave and Kirsten. Occasionally we allowed someone else to join, but it never ended well. We all remember Crazy Mel. We always let Dave sit between us because he smelled good. Thank you Polo! Dave was very tolerant of us...and still is come to find out.
We spent the time at Chuck E. Cheese's, by far the Dude's favorite place in the universe. If you look on that TV screen you will see him. Surprising where he shows up sometimes. When we got there, he high fived me and took off. Was fun to see him move around so freely and exploring.
Time in Phoenix wouldn't have been the same without a baseball game to see the Diamondbacks. They didn't win, but I got to spend time with my sisters and didn't really watch the game anyways, so did they really lose?!
We had several trips to Ikea. It was if we had found our "Magic" place. They sold everything! Even chocolate cake that was most delicioso. I had 1 -1/2 pieces. YES! It was that good and the Dude didn't like it. His loss!
Then, we were off to the birthplace of My Beloved Mr. Finn. Bisbee is one of those unique places that would produce one such as him. I don't believe there is much more that I could elaborate on at this moment.
The copper mines have left deep furrows in this landscape. Beautiful yet haunting.
It's funny that cactus is synonymous with Arizona, but I didn't grow up with it in the White Mountains. It is one of those beauties that cannot be denied.
We are finally in New Mexico. We got a slow start with early intentions. We stayed an extra day to rest up, but I don't feel anymore rested, if anything I am regretting the things we will not see because of that decision. Tombstone was a blur in our window as we passed it by on our way to other sights that we had agreed on. We were able to make it to Aqua Prieta, but to our dismay there wasn't a trinket in sight for us. We settled on flutes for the children with the usual disappointment that comes from color disphobia. (I made that word up, I think.)

We are having our adventure of two weeks from home. A first for us and it is going surprisingly well depite everyone's tiredness. I am grateful for the safety we have been blessed with on this trip. Not so grateful for the speeding ticket procured by Mr. Finn in the last leg of our trip tonight.

At least we had this room waiting for us in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The kids were in heaven.