New Mexico and great-grand parents!

We got back from our travels almost two weeks ago and have finally caught up enough to think about the blog. We made the mistake of having some vaccinations for Axel the day before we left so he was understandably irritated with us when we woke him up at 4:30 in the morning for a 6:00 am departure from Santa Barbara. His good nature won out however, and our flights to Albuquerque (via Salt Lake) were pretty uneventful as was the drive south the Alamogordo. We capped off our long travel day introducing Axel to his great grandparents, EJ and Connie Meents!
Axel made himself right at home and wasted no time snuggling up with Connie and EJ. It was lovely to spend some time with them and have the little guy get to know some more of his family. During our stay we took a trip to White Sands National Monument, and Axel had some of his first solid food in a high chair that has been used by 4 generations of Meents's (two asides: you're guess is as good as mine on that punctuation, and that was the first, and last time he has had solid food so far, more on that later).



We were sad to leave, but had a conference in Albuquerque to attend (the Ecological Society of America) so we headed back north and thought about stopping here:


but decided to carry on a bit further for some green chili burgers instead. The conference was good, but downtown Albuquerque wasn't exactly baby-friendly so we were happy to head north to a cooler climate and a mountain valley that felt like home. Coming soon: Jason and Susan's wedding in the Teton Valley!