The Girls in El Paso

 Last week Zanna and I were in El Paso to visit my brother and sister-in-law and meet my new niece. Our mission was simple: to welcome baby Avery into the family, stand as god-parent at her baptism as she's brought into Christ's family and eat. Mission accomplished. 

 First off, I had such a blast traveling with my girl. She was so agreeable even when waiting hours in an airport for delayed flights.  She was a good listener, she was busy taking care of her baby doll most of the time and she spent hours reading the books she brought with her. As a matter of fact,  I complained more than she did and I required more trips to the bathroom. Go figure. Who was taking care of who? 

 Rou Rou goes everywhere - a faithful friend since Zanna was 14months.  This doll's been stitched back together more times than a Hollywood star. She's dearly loved. Which was good practice for the real thing ....

 The cousins hit it off right away! Avery would gaze up at her face as if to say, "Hey, you're different! You're more my size." It was adorable. 

 But back to the traveling .... this is the cute view I got to watch. 

I'm going to have to break this post up because there's so much.  Consider this the first instalment. It will deal mostly with 2 of the 3 missions. 

 Welcome to the family,baby girl! Here are the girls from left to right - Oma, Tilly, Hosanna and me (who I like to think of as "the fairy god-mother) holding Avery. It was cut-throat I tell you! Mom and I would race to hold her after a feeding and if you stumbled or were distracted - well that was just to bad. You snooze, you loose! 

That's right. Showing how it's done. Baby in one arm, a glass of wine in the other. Who says you can't do it all? 

In between all this baby loving going on, we had to eat. And eat we did! 

Reid made a few meals in-between his role as husband and father. He treated us to a sandwich made famous by his previous business "the Drifter". I also got to sink my teeth into his smoked pork ribs done slowly and carefully on the Big Green Egg. It was just as yummy as I imagined!!!

We had steak at Cattlemen's Ranch where they raise their own cattle. It was good. 'nuff said. 

We had a beer at Rosa's Cantina. 

You know the song? 

On my wish list was a drink 20 years since my last : a cherry limeade from Sonic. Just as good as I remembered it!

Being so close to the Mexican border, we had to go for some authentic Mexican fare. Check and Check. 

We also went to eat at a restaurant owned by Reid and Brenda's friend where I had crawfish mac and cheese. Super yummy. 

While not necessarily the mission, we did explore a bit of the area since we were there. Reid took us to nearby New Mexico where we visited White Sands National Park.

This was a unique natural wonder - white sand as fine as talcum powder formed from gypsum. Sand dunes rise high and are fun to sled down. It was quite the experience. 

Watching my mother attempt to struggle up the sand dune was beyond funny! I was so relieved I had just used the washroom at the visitors centre because I would have for sure peed my pants from laughing so hard at the sight of her. Then there's my dad who wore cowboy boots and you can't very well climb up sand in them, can you? His back was apparently bothering him so he found less of an incline to make his way up to us all. It was super fun sledding down sand and it was beautiful weather while we were out. 

I think that's where I'll leave off for now. Lots more coming! As you can see, we had a great time on our little getaway!!