Lemonade..

..you know for when life gives you lemons or when your son picks a bunch at his Grandpa's house.

3 generations of Kuranis

There is nothing like having a lemon tree in your yard.  I planted one last year but it's not doing well.  Certainly not like my FIL's 30 year old lemon tree.  Anytime we go visit, we always come home with a bag of lemons.

The loot

Not only do the kids love picking lemons, they love the lemonade that comes afterwards.

My little helper

First thing to do is wash the lemons, obviously homemade lemonade is not pasteurized.  That means any bugs that are living on the outside of the lemon have a good opportunity to wind up in your lemonade if you aren't careful.

Ready for juicing

Since sugar doesn't dissolve well in cold liquid, the first thing I do is make a simple syrup to sweeten the lemonade.  I use one cup of water to one cup of sugar.

Sugar and water, ready for duty

I let the syrup cook down and thicken up a bit by boiling it for 5-8 minutes.

Watch out this is hot!

Once the syrup is done cooking, I set it aside to cool while I start juicing the lemons.

Keep on juicing

Nadim had to help me juice these lemons, they were so big that it was difficult to get all the juice out.  I didn't use them all, some I saved to make my delicious lemon cake, you can find that recipe here.

Bottoms up :)

Once you've juiced your lemons add enough of the simple syrup and/or water to suit your taste, enjoy!

The Dark Knight Rises..

..or doesn't as the case may be.

O.M.G.

So we decided to rent a movie tonight and Nadim chose The Dark Knight Rises.  I have to say that it is one of the absolute worst movies I have seen in a long time.

Worse than when my Mom had my sister and I see Lawrence of Arabia in the theater for the "experience".

Worse even then when I almost fainted during the staple gun scene in the movie The Wrestler.

But I digress, we were talking about the horrible-ness that is The Dark Night Rises.

4 hours of total and complete crap.  Ok, so it was technically 2.75 hours but it sure felt like one whole day of my life got sucked into a vortex never to return.

I don't get movies these days, have all the editors been laid off?

Do the movie budgets no longer include funds for editing?

Movies shouldn't be more than 90 minutes.

Unless its something really, really good like the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini series.  But Batman?

Please, please edit.

Besides the complete lack of editing this film was a kitchen sink.  Every single dumb ass thing they could think of got thrown in:

..nuclear bomb - check

..orphans - check

..budget cuts - check

..fake death - check

..stock market crash - check

..NY City getting destroyed - check

..Prison break - check

..Another prison break - check

..A miraculously healed broken back - check

..A cool motorcycle - check

..Gratuitous sex scene - check

..Giant street brawl - check

..Fake NFL team - check

..Multiple strange masked heroes/villains - check


I mean come on, really, this is the best you've got??

Hasn't Batman been around since the crack of dawn in comic book form and this is it?  This is worthy of a movie??

I won't ever get these wasted hours of my life back.

And you know what makes it even worse?  Nadim fell asleep!  Can you believe it?

I would have turned it off but I wanted to see what Bane's face looked like without his mask and the movie didn't even show it!

Next time, I'll be choosing the movie..

Can anyone say chick flick??

Sky City..

otherwise known as Acoma Pueblo.

Road to Sky City on top of the mesa

 
I'm a big fan of Trip Advisor when I'm planning any kind of trip (you can find my reviews under BlueSkyMom), so when I was looking around for things to see in New Mexico, I found Sky City.

Acoma Pueblo looking over the valley

Sky City has some great reviews and some horrible reviews.  The day before we went, someone posted a scathing review of the place because it was closed unexpectedly and the tribal police/security were very rude.

Outside the Sky City Cultural Center

Needless to say I was a bit nervous, I also knew that we would have to pay admission and a photography fee.  I explained to the kids that we were visiting someone's neighborhood, where real people lived.  These strangers were being kind enough to let us visit their homes and we all needed to be respectful.

Our tour group led by the only female guide.

You know, I was managing expectations :)  The first pleasant surprise was that the Pueblo was actually open!  I had mostly convinced myself that the Pueblo would be closed to tourists, but we got lucky.  We paid our fees and Nadim tied on his camera permit so we were all set.

Street within the Pueblo

The Pueblo is located on top of a mesa and our tickets included a shuttle bus ride to the top.  Sky City has been used as a set in movies, it was a production team that built the first dirt road up to the Pueblo and a second production crew built the paved road years later.

Ladder facing north

There were many traditional elements of the Pueblo intact, the ladders leading into the Acoma people's places of worship and small windows made using Mica found on the valley floor then dried over several years.

Window made from Mica

 But the Pueblo is a living place, not a museum.

Walking in the Pueblo

The day we visited was right after a community celebration and there were many, many people working on  their homes.  Trucks were parked all over the place and as our tour group walked by locals would come out of their homes and sell handmade items.

Water basin used historically for the Pueblo

We bought some Concho Cookies and an Apple Pie.  The cookies were awesome, too bad we ate them up before I could take a picture :)

The dome structure on the left is a bread oven

There was even some new construction going on, the workers kindly turned off their generator while our tour guide was speaking.

Traditional turquoise trim, these are the colors of New Mexico

On the mesa there is no running water or electricity.  Now about 10-13 families live there year round, tribal leaders included.  Most people live down in the valley north of the Pueblo, but they all maintain their Pueblo homes for use during festivals and feast days.

Catholic church

As with most of the Southwest, the Catholic church has a very heavy presence in the Pueblo.  We heard the locals' version of history, which differs greatly from the official version.  You know the whole "The Indians loved Father Whatshisname, and built him the church to glory God, etc, etc."  Well not so much, try "You either build this for me, or we'll kill you" - there's Christian kindness for you.

Heading down the mesa

Once the tour was over we had the option of riding the shuttle to the valley floor or going down the "safest" of the traditional staircases.  Guess what we chose??

Steps going down, down, down

Yep, the staircase of death..

The scariest part of the staircase

..ok, so we didn't actually die, but I sure wouldn't want to have to use the staircase to carry up containers of water on my head like the women did in the past.

Almost down

 I was so relieved when we got to the normal part of the stairs and then out onto the road.

The road back to the Cultural Center and lunch

The walk back to the Cultural center was beautiful and very hot.  We were ready for some lunch at the Yaaka Cafe and Nadim and I shared the most delicious Indian Taco.

Sky City was a great stop on the road to Taos and well worth the time investment.  Now we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us...

Tally ho :)

Bold Girlz

So there's a new birthday party place in town and it is called Bold Girlz.

Stage

Daughter got invited to a birthday party and had the best time - ever.

Super cute goody bags

Mason jars filled with gumballs

I mean what is not to love..

Dressing room

fancy hair with glitter..

Getting dolled up

make up..

finishing the updo

a runway..

Strutting her stuff

a live mike..

Rocking it out

Heaven :)

Road trip to..

.. New Mexico!

So we love New Mexico, this was our 3rd trip.  We've been to Pojoaque/Santa Fe a few summers ago and to Albuquerque over Thanksgiving.

This time we stayed in Taos, from southern California that's a 12 hour road trip.

Ready for action

I meant to set the alarm at 3am so we would be ready for the road at 4am, but somehow I set it an hour later than I needed.  Oh well, Nadim was happy with one extra hour of sleep.

Sunrise over the summit of Cajon Pass

We woke the kids up and started the drive.  We took the I-15 to I-40 all the way to New Mexico and I already had a motel booked in Gallup, NM for the night.

Hesperia/Victorville Area

I had an ulterior motive for pushing all the way to Gallup on the first leg of the drive, I had plans to see Acoma Pueblo and Cultural Center the following day.  It did not disappoint but more on that later, we still have about a 9 hour drive ahead of us.

Mojave Desert goes on forever

It's a long, long boring haul between Barstow and Kingman, AZ.  If you stare at the Mojave Desert picture for about 4 hours you get the idea.

Rest area break

The I-40 is a major trucking route and has only 2 lanes each way.  Needless to say slow cars and semi trucks passing other semi trucks slowed us down.  Talk about your rolling road blocks.

Colorado River

When we finally hit the CA/AZ border we were all excited!  A different state!

Train running along the I-40

In addition to the I-40 being a major trucking route, train tracks run along there as well.  This is all along the old Route 66.  Many people travel through here checking out the Rte 66 sites, but we haven't gotten our kicks on Rte 66 or stood on the corner in Winslow, AZ.

Gaining altitude

We didn't stop in Kingman, AZ - but started heading up into Flagstaff, AZ.  We once ate at the Cracker Barrel in Kingman and sat across from a couple that were open carrying handguns.  Nothing like worrying about getting shot while enjoying pancakes.

Heading into Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff is a nice town, its located at 6900 feet so it is much cooler than many other cities in AZ.  It is a college town and as Nadim describes it - "normal".  They have the Lowell Observatory there, I wanted to take a tour but the timing didn't work out.  Next time.

Vacant building

Once we hit Eastern Arizona and New Mexico interesting buildings and signs sprinkled the landscape.  Not to be missed is the Twin Arrow stop and the town of Two Guns.  Of course there isn't actually anything to do or buy at these stops, just empty buildings and memories of what used to be.

Power plant

What is depressing are these giant plants.  I think they are generating electricity but what a blight on the landscape.

Another plant

We were finally getting close to Gallup, NM, our home for the night.  Good thing I made those reservations earlier, by the time we checked in the hotel was full of cowboys from Texas in town for a rodeo.

Goodnight ya'll :)

Ghost and Guns..

as viewed from an 8 year old perspective.

I don't know if you remember, a while back - possibly over spring break - we went to Calico Ghost Town and shooting.  You can check out those blog entries here and here.

Well, guess what came home from school this week?  Son 2's personal narrative about his experience that day.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a great Mom and this is one of those times.  I gave my child a life experience and he was able to remember it and write a great essay about it.

Planning sheet

Let me go on record here that Son 2's teacher is probably one of the best I've ever seen and that includes my own time as a teacher.  The quality of work she gets out of her students is amazing.

page 1

 
I don't remember writing anything this good in second grade.

page 2

Since no one wants to try and read the scanned in pages of Son 2's personal narrative,  I've copied it below for your reading pleasure.

page 3

Ghost Town

Boom!  Did you hear that?  We are going to Calico and we get to go shooting too.

First my family and I drove to a shooting site.  It took a really, really long time to get there.  Once we got there we set up our targets.  They were a creepy, bloody pig, missing an eye.  I hit the pig on his eye, nose, one of his scars and the ear.  While my sister was shooting my brother and I dug a deep hole and built a rock wall in front of it to block the wind while we were working.  We worked really hard on the hole so I took a nap in the car.

After we went shooting we drove to a ghost town called Calico.  We saw the sign on the mountain.  It was big.  At Calico we went into a crooked house called the Shick Shack (he means Shake Shack).  It made my feet hurt.  In the rooms and outside everything was weird.  Things were built wrong.  Water went up ramps and balls rolled upward too.  I think I know the trick to that.  And when you sat in a chair you couldn't get up.  I know the trick to that too.  Finally, after the Shick Shack we panned for gold.  It was tricky.  But I got gold.  I got very disappointed when my brother told me it was fake gold.  Calico and shooting was fun.

Grading rubric

For those of you not familiar with how schools grade primary grades anymore, here is a sample of a rubric.

Times have sure changed, but one thing hasn't - the joy of feeling like you did a good job as a parent.

Happy Tuesday :)