Stuecker Family: 2009

Katie's Birthday Extravaganza!

Our little one...small fry...rice baby...Katie Bug....is 5. When did that happen? The birthday began as all birthdays in Stuecker house begin - ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST! Then she had cupcakes at school. After school we went to the park with some friends. Then it was dinner, cake and ice cream at Gram's house. What a day.

Katie has been wanting her own scooter since last Christmas when Santa brought one for Sarah. A dream come true!

On Saturday we took Katie and a few friends to Hoot's Party Zone, then lunch at Red Robin, and then more ice cream at Cold Stone. They had a great time and Katie truly enjoyed the BIG 5.

All In the Family

My mom, sister and niece Sammy Jo came for the Balloon Fiesta this year. We also went to the zoo to visit the rest of the family:)

Sammy is the happiest child you will ever meet. Plus I wish I had her hair.

My OLDER sister....not that you can tell any more.

Sammy Jo had her first tortilla. Well, maybe she's had one before, but not the real deal from the Albuquerque Tortilla Factory.

Bestest Friends

Sarah and Lily

What does John do all day?

to find out go to www.robocasting.net

Nana & Papa

Durango with Nana & Papa. My dad and Connie made the trip out to Albuquerque in August. We took them to Durango to show off our beloved vacation spot.

Sandia Crest

We drove up the mountain to Sandia Crest to see my friend Patrice finish the La Luz trail run. Of course we missed her by 5 minutes, but we had a lovely morning at the Peak.

Since it was below 90 degrees at the top of the mountain, we had to bring the hot chocolate!

How Many Bikes In This Picture?

Sandia Peak Tramway

It's one of the biggest tourist attractions in Albuquerque - second only to the annual Balloon Fiesta in October. We took the Grandmas and the kids up the mountain for an afternoon adventure this past week while my mom was in town.

Is anyone else keeping track of how many pictures we have of John in this shirt? I hate this damn shirt!!!!! Actually, I picked it out for him, so it's not that I don't like the shirt, but enough already! By some miracle I had convinced John that it was time to let it go, but then I made the mistake of leaving the "Give Away" pile in an accessible spot. Then somehow it came to his attention that we have a picture of the two of us at the Peak years ago and he is in this very shirt. So Mr. Funny Guy dug it out of the pile and donned it just for this occasion. Granted, this brown sweatshirt has been around the block, but it's certainly not 10 years old!

The girls were so excited when they found some plants at the top covered in ladybugs! We let them use the camera to take a few pictures. I love to see what they think is photo-worthy....such a different perspective from their little eyes.

Smart Cookie!

John has taken to the crossword puzzle in the paper, and Katie loves to help. She got 3 words on Saturday - Elf, Cake, and I can't remember the last one.

Napa Valley

John and I were lucky enough to steal away for a few days to celebrate our 10 year anniversary while John's mom stayed with the girls. God bless that woman! John had a conference in San Francisco starting Monday and I joined him on Wednesday evening. I had the pleasure of attending the conference with him on Wednesday night. The planning committe had a great way to nurture business relationships between attendees.....open bar! We did not partake of the merriment as we had a gigantic run planned for the next morning. By the way, running at sea level was AWESOME!!! There's so much oxygen:)

Cuvaison was the first of four wineries we visited with Platypus Tours. It's a good idea to have a designated and knowledgable driver when you start tasting wine at 11am! There were 6 couples on the tour with us and we had a wonderful time with the group. As much as I love love love wine, one day of wine tasting was plenty.

One of the best sandwiches I have ever had came from Foccacia's - a shop a block or two from our hotel in San Francisco. Lamb, roasted red peppers and eggplant on fancy bread (actually NOT foccaccia) with fancy sauce.

John picked me up from the airport in this convertable - so fun! It was almost like biking except without the funny shoes and hard work.

Ahhh....water! We ran by an area with lanes set up for an open water swim. If only I'd known to bring my wetsuit.

Road Trip

My friend Megan took me home to Garden City, KS last weekend. I LOVED it! We ran along the dirt roads by her house and picked up a friendly dog along the way. Eventually he realized that we weren't chasing anything and you could almost hear him mutter "city folk" as he turned around.

We passed a wind farm in Texhoma. I was fascinated! The windmill pictures are Megan's. I took the same shots but I am not very skilled in perspective and - well - I don't even know the right words. Hers looked better. As we were headed West on i40 back into Albuquerque, we saw the GINORMOUS windfarm on the south side. How did we miss that on the way out? There are over 100 structures. It's a sight to see, but we couldn't very well stop along the interstate to take pictures. Take my word for it.

This is "Scary Dorothy" in Liberal, KS. You can imagine my excitement at the chance to see the actual farm from the movie! Come to find out it's just a replica (and a cheesy one at that) of the movie set. They chose Liberal in name only as Dorothy's home because it's a town in the middle of nowhere that is subject to tornados.