Christmas Float on Steroids

A small group of us, as part of the Silver Lake Elementary School Dad's Club, worked hard on construction of a float for the Grapevine, TX Parade of Lights Christmas Parade. On a tight budget, with some donated and low-cost supplies with re-use of materials from last year, we were able to construct one killer float for the parade. Float features include letter blocks with lights that synchronized with the music, mechanized toy soldier arms, mechanized rocking horse, a candy cane forest, and a 12 foot tall jack-in-the-box. Creativity and safety were kept in mind because we not only tried to create a great exhibit, but we also had to safely transport 70+ kids on this float. With a series of cables, a generator, drill, car starter gear, car flywheel, creative welding and wiring, and lots and lots of lights and labor, we were able to piece together a nice low budget float.

To our surprise, the float turned out great and we won first place in the float competition which comes with a $1000 prize from the chamber of commerce. The prize was great to receive because it covered all costs of float production (sub-$600) with some funds left over for future Dad's Club projects and events.

Below is a video of the mechanics at work during our test run in the assembly warehouse.

Thanksgiving Vacation 2011

We had the pleasure of serenity, solitude, and escape from the stresses of daily life over Thanksgiving. As a family, we drove up to Dixon, NM and spent the week at a vacation rental home while enjoying the sites of northern NM. We visited Taos for a much needed playground/park stop to expel some energy then completed the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway loop, making a trip out to the Rio Grande Gorge bridge. This was a true test of Tracy's fear of high bridges.

We made a trip up into Santa Fe on Claire's birthday to have a blast at the Santa Fe Children's Museum. It was so much fun watching the girls interacting with the exhibits. Afterwards we headed out to eat at the Santa Fe Baking Company and Cafe, a trendy little cafe not too far from the sporting coliseum style NM state capital building.

We spent some time out hiking, including a challenging hike in Bandelier National Monument, visiting the Tsankawi cavate and pueblo site which contains many cavate sites as well as remains of a 275 room village pueblo. This loop hike has exposed cliff walls, stick built ladders, and heights that kept Tracy and I on our toes. The girls did amazingly well with the physical challenges and overcame some of their fears. You'll see us standing in what look like trenches in the rock. These are paths worn out in the rock over hundreds of years of human travel across the "tuff" rock, formed from settled volcanic ash. This lower density rock is present throughout the area and made for an ideal material to carve out cave shelters that were occupied by Native Americans long before Colombus made his trip across the ocean blue. The preserved history was amazing to experience, from being able to enter the caves to reading about the food sources and later trade routes to looking at the Ancient Pueblo petroglyphs.

To vary our ecological and historical experience, we also took a trip out to the Rio Grande Gorge Rift Valley Trail, hiking out to a great lookout point down into the gorge. It was a fun experience with great views of the Sangre de Christo mountain range as well as intimate interaction and discussions about the high desert flora.

We were joined mid-week by Dan, Lisa, Hannah, and Noah who arrived in time for a leisure evening and then a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. You can view Dan and Lisa's pictures of the trip here if you have their site password. Thanksgiving day was filled with food, games, good conversation, and great companionship shared by our two families. It was a wonderful to see everyone get along so well and truly enjoy themselves.

As a large group, both families headed out on Friday to the main Bandelier National Monument developed site and hiked the Main Loop and Upper Falls trails. The morning started out gray and raining, but we planned our visit perfectly. We arrived in the park just as the rain had ceased but before flocks of people arrived from the nearby urban areas. We were able to take our time and examine the sites, read about the history of the area, and have a great relaxing day outdoors. For having such little legs, Claire and Evie did so well considering the miles traveled but didn't last more than five minutes in the car until they passed out on the trip back to the rental home.

The trip had a grande finale of spectacular service and food at Graham's Grille in Taos. We arrived without reservations for a group of eight people to a full restaurant. The host, whom we later found was the spouse of the owner, arranged a couple of tables to seat the eight of us inside the open format kitchen. The main chef, Lesley B. Fay, personally tended to our needs in collaboration with the server staff. It was an experience that was truly unforgettable and was a wonderful way of capping off the week. The service was amazing and the food was enjoyed by all. It was great watching the artful flow of the food preparation process, the dance of services provided, and the pleasure of an amazingly personalized experience.

This was a great trip that will be remembered and revisited in our dreams for quite some time. Hopefully we can make all future family vacations this perfect.

Have a great Christmas everyone!