Phew...

Now you're caught up.  Very vaguely.  Although I have many more beach pictures that will be trickling in as time allows.  I should give you a little update on the girlies.

Eleanor is sassy.  As usual.  But she's starting preschool this year.  And I have to admit I'm a little worried that she will be a sasspants to her teachers.  My hope is that it will be much better when I'm not around.  Right...?  She is asking a google questions per day, which you surely know if you've seen her lately.  She wants to know why some watermelon does not have seeds.  She wants to know how the water gets into the toilet.  She wants to know why people choose one necklace over another.  She wants to know why mommy and daddy have different rules (*yikes*).  She calls things glorious often--that's her new word, replacing fancy.  She loves to run--and she gets faster by the day.  She is a total girly-girl.  You know, when she's not cradling worms.  The very annoying flavor of the week is baby talk.  But the saddest thing is that her baby phrases are slowly disappearing.  Momma, became Mommy, became Mo-om.  Ok, became yes, became yeah.  I can't know have officially transitioned to don't.  Mossies are now monsters.  I love watching her grow up, but three going on thirteen makes me yearn for her snuggly baby self.

Jo is busy.  She runs, jumps, and talks really really loud.  And a lot.  I knew her vocabulary was good when she was nine months old.  But now, at 19...oh my.  Nouns are under control--she knows everything.  But the adjectives now are the really doozy.  Heavy, hard, steep, wet, clean, dry, fun, silly, crazy, scary, fast, good, bad, sick, naked, big, small.  She's an amazing, chubby little genius.  With a big mouth, literally and figuratively.  And, also big is her giant head of flaxen curls.  Her reserve is slipping away, and she's becoming a confident rapscallion.  As opposed to Eleanor, she is not even remotely interested in fancy.  In fact, it's been determined that she looks and feels awkward in fancy.  (Strangely anomalous is her love for Belle.  Any time she does don some fance, she cries out "Belle!  Fancy dress! Dancing!" with a sheerly ecstatic expression.  When she does it, she does it big.  What can I say.

Since then...

...my kids have been caught at the beach for an amazing long weekend with the Baylys, wearing silly hats at Pop Pop Charlie's, staying up way too late, and generally being represented by an inordinate number of butterflies this season.

Then...

we went down natural rock slides at Oak Creek.  Please take a look at Mary's pictures from the week before (sans kids--jealous!), because they capture it 1,000 times better than I even tried to.  Then, we had dinner in Sedona.  Then, RHONDA AND JOE GOT MARRIED.  We love you, Nese Family.  But, despite how much we love you, this picture of Jo is the only one I got.  I guess I was too busy absorbing the gorgeous wedding goings-ons.

Then we stumbled upon...

...Seligman, AZ.  This is a little town on historic Route 66, which has basically thrived on its obsolescence since the construction of Route 40.  As we drove through the town, Bill and I said simultaneously, "This looks like Radiator Springs."  (In case you aren't hip to one of Eleanor's passions, this is the town from the Pixar movie, "Cars.")  So, I used my so-called "tech phone" to google it.  And, lo and behold, Cars is actually loosely based on Seligman.  And, since the movie, the town has been a not-so-hot spot for tourists looking to get their kicks.

Then we started through Arizona...

...and got all caught up painting this desert red.  And making out with petrified wood...and stuff. 

Oh, and then I remembered...

...(because my mom told me) that this cathedral was the one depicted in "Death Comes for the Archbishop" by the glorious Willa Cather.

While we were there...

...we went to Los Alamos to hear my 90 year old grandfather talk about his involvement as a physicist in the Manhattan Project.  We also ate infinity fish tacos.  And visited the Georgia O'Keefe gallery.  And we also packed up the crew plus terrific cousin Fiona and went to Bandelier, where Eleanor climbed in 10,000 year old (!!!) cave dwellings.  Here are Eleanor and Fiona stretching for the climb.

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a family by the name of Bayly.  They went on a vacation and they never came back forgot to post pictures.  So, alas, here we go.  This is Bill with the groggy mcgrogstroms the morning we left for Santa Fe.  Followed by Eleanor pulling Aunt Marie's little red childhood suitcase through the airport.  Followed by the amazing place we stayed in supreme Santa Fe.