Hail Las Cruces!

We arrived safe and sound in El Paso, TX after a fantastic plane ride full of Sunday paper goodness, no delays and no problems. We rented a car in El Paso, stopped for some fine Mexican food, oohed and aahed over the Southwest Terrain (where are the trees? where is the grass? wow! mountains!). My aunt had a bout of post-plane-ride-sickness and threw up a few times on the drive to Las Cruces but other than that it was a georgeous easy drive.

We arrived Thursday night in time to watch the sun set over our Motel Six and the city of Las Cruces. It was fantastic, my attempted photography really doesn't do it justice.

This morning we went for a run on top of a man-made dam but saw no water anywhere, except we presume in the two colorful water-towers we passed. It is so dry our sweat evaporated instantly, and so sunny that even when it's not that hot and relatively dry it feels like it's too much. We managed a good run though. When we got back we got to meet our new seeing-eye-dog cousin Poncho (a beautiful chocolate lab my aunt just started using in June, so he's still learning and walked her into a few people and a few walls).

I also got to meet my new brother Corey, who is cute as a button and happy as a clam. In this picture (far left) he's cradled happily in the crook of my dad's arm. In case you're wondering, yes, he's adopted.

We also wandered around a little and saw some other good stuff - everything here is something you wouldn't see in the midwest, so therefore is fascinating. The flowers grow funny, the shrubbery looks weird, the sky is big, the sun is bright, the ground is sandy and the houses are stucco and yellow or orange.

Probably the highlight of everyone's trip is my 3 1/2 year old cousin Bea, who has managed to pick up a British accent since her mom is British (her dad is my father's brother, he and his wife met in Hong Kong and now live in the London suburb of Chesham). So she says "Mum" "Dud" and "moine" but also throws in a few words like "cheeky" and her mom threw us off with "cozzy" (short for swimming costume, eg bathing suit). The rest of the cousins mock her constantly, which we had to put a stop to since she's only 3 1/2 and didn't understand everyone's fascination. Apparently her British accent isn't the standard London accent (like her mom's) but is more of a Chesham accent, which may be considered like a hick accent to the Londoners, much to her parent's astonishment and perplexion. She must have picked that up from the neighbor kids. Maybe she'll return with an American accent, who knows?

Better sign off and get back to rockin' out!