Still in Albuquerque

Where do I start? I'm on a slow dial up in the laundry room so I'll try to keep this short and sweet. I guess I should start where I left off. We left Denver City, TX and drove about 150 mi. thru some mountains in Southern New Mexico and ate supper overlooking some beautiful mountains and then drove a little more to the next cool pullover and called it a night. We went to sleep in the mountains with a nice light show twinkling below us from a nearby town, and woke up to even more spectacular views. I don't think there could have been a better time to drive thru NM, with all the rain it really made the desert come alive.

We got to Albuquerque and immediately hooked up with Peg and family, where Jonas, Jewel and I got some red streaks, or spikes in my case, put into our hair. We're starting with a bang! My parents drove in a couple hours later, and then we all attacked the ice cream at the ice cream social. Well, except Jake, he was still sick from Jewel's sweet birthday cake frosting. :( It was so good to see my folks!! The boys spent the night with them in their suite while Joey, me and Jewel stayed in the bus in the parking lot. This is getting way too long and boring already......

The conference was great, not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting Joey to stay in the Bus, Dad to stay in his room, and Mom and I hopping from funshop to funshop with Jewel, and meeting all the other fantastic moms. Reality was EVEN BETTER!! I was so impressed with my husband. He was extremely social, in fact I wouldn't have met half the people I did if it wasn't for him. His passion for unschooling and family really showed during our Families on the Road funshop. He opened up, relaxed and really enjoyed himself. He also helped to shatter some stereotypes. :) I guess since I know how great he is I forget that he can look like a real meat head, with his muscles, bald head and tattoos. We got a lot of good feedback from the funshop, and we learned quite a few things ourselves. The best thing to come out of it for me is the fact that Joey is now 100% with me on traveling thru Mexico this winter!! Our passion for unschooling was reinforced, along with a new direction towards even more peaceful parenting.

After the conference we met up with Kathy, Jamie and kids at a campground East of ABQ in the mountains, where we still are today. The day we were leaving out he got a call that he was needed in Hawaii ASAP so he flew out the next day. It really put a ding in my plans for joining Hopalog in Mexico, but I thhink it will all still fall into place. I actually have no desire to go back to Hawaii any time soon, I've got Mexico on the brain. The short term plan is for the kids and I to join Joey in Hawaii in a few weeks, but I'd rather save my pesos.

Some cute things that happened at the conference:

We're on the elevator and this little boy (Lucas) asks Joey to press one of the *buttons* on his hand. Joey presses one and gets a huge hug from the little guy! It was so shocking, it was funny.

Jewel walks into the jacuzzi and announces to the moms in there "I'm coming in, my Mom taught me to swim"
"OH, you can swim?"
"no"

Jake looking thru the schedule, spots something and tells Joey real seriously, "Dad, I see something here I think you should go to. It's at 3:30, see...It's called 'My crazy wife' I really think you should go."