one hour too long

last weekend we made the drive through the nothing-ness that is west texas to meet up with the cooks and darnells in santa fe. it was a quick weekend, but totally worth it to spend time with some of our favorite people!

almost a year later, and quinn still likes hanging out with leila 

snuggles!

on saturday, scott and alexis had to take some things to the governor so we got to tag along. i thought that we would just be taking a quick tour of the governor's mansion and maybe meet her quickly. we were taking pictures on the front porch and i hear the door open behind me....and out she walks! she was so friendly and welcoming and gave us a personal tour of the WHOLE house. including her closet, which is awesome by the way!

she held quinn's hand as she showed us her private patio behind the house

beautiful view of the mountains...i totally know why she loves to sneak out to this patio! the view is amazing!

yep, that's our son riding the buffalo statue at the governor's mansion. why? she thought it would be fun. and we do what she says! :)

this was possibly the most amazing part of it all. she just scooped caroline up from john's arms at one point and walked around the house holding her. the amazing part: caroline did not cry at all! she usually does NOT like strangers taking her from us like that, but she was perfectly happy. even though i was glad she didn't cry, i was really more worried that she would spit up all over her. how embarrassing. but she was a perfect angel, thankfully for all of us!

seriously, can i just repeat how cool of an experience that was and how gracious governor susana martinez was? she walked around the house with us like we were old friends and told us all kinds of stories about her experiences.  she took us to her closet and asked our opinion of purses and the decor in the mansion. i mean, really? she had never met us! we now know exactly why scott and alexis talk so highly of her and we would gladly vote for her should she ever run for president!

the rest of the time was spent relaxing, eating, and playing. bella and leila finally decided they want to be friends again.

sunday morning we started the long drive back home. on the way there and back, quinn and caroline both did great except for about the last hour. i don't blame them, though. i was pretty ready to get out of the car at that point, too!

dinner "picnic" so we could have a little stretch break

these last two pictures crack me up. it's such a great representation of their relationship. c was sitting in my lap after eating and they started just cracking up at each other. for several minutes all they did was look at each other and laugh!

in this one i picture her saying, "what's up, bro?". maybe it's because it's late and i'm tired, but that was really funny to me. :)

we finally made it home around 11pm that night and all crashed. it was a long weekend, but we wouldn't have missed it!