We finally arrive in El Paso!

We arrived safely late this afternoon at Ft. Bliss ~ not in time to see Emma get off her bus, but about an hour later. I wanted to tell you all about our day, but I'm having a terrible time with the internet here at the Lodge and it has taken 55 minutes just to upload these pictures. So I'm going to let my words be few ...

Our day started out sunny, but very breezy and cold. Mr. Jones wanted to be sure and check out the old train depot and trains in Tucamcari on the way out of town first thing this morning. Above is a picture of the depot ... We actually saw a lot of trains today ... which kept Mr. Jones adequately amused. We passed through little out-of-the-way places like Duran and Vaughn while traveling south on 54 in New Mexico.
Mr. Jones is very keen on knowing just about everything there is to be known about trains. There were train tracks running parallel to 54 just about all throughout our journey today. Other than that, we saw mile after mile of red mountains, dry wadi beds, tumbleweed, cactus, and lots and lots of rocks!

I think we saw about a half dozen different trains along the line today ... against the backdrop of amazingly beautiful scenery like this ...
"Before the moutains were created, before You made the earth and the world, you are God; without beginning or end." PSALM 90:2
After about eight hours on the road today, we arrived in El Paso. It was wonderful to finally see these beautiful children again!

We had so much fun playing together ... with a near disaster, however. You see, I was demonstrating to Christopher how to do a sommersault (try NOT to picture this) and ended up landing smack dab right on top of Matthew, who then hit his head on the floor (and has an angry-looking carpet burn on his little scalp) ... there were many tears and I was worried that I had seriously done damage to this sweet little boy! Thankfully, after much cuddling and checking all body parts, Matthew was okay.
Emma has lost her two front teeth! Christopher tells me that since he is only four, he hasn't lost any teeth yet.
We colored some pictures together for awhile and then got ready to go out to dinner. We ate at our favorite buffet!

The picture above was taken just before the terrible sommersault incident ... and see ~ Matthew recovered enough to where he had fun coloring some pictures too.

Jesse called while we were playing and I got to talk to him briefly. The connection wasn't the best, but he sounded good!

Six months is WAY too long to have been away from these sweet faces! I think I kissed them hundreds of time tonight ... and I haven't felt this content and happy for a very long time!
Since I am completely exhausted tonight, I'm going to bed! We have much planned for the next few days. We want to go up to White Sands and go sledding on the hills, take a miniature train ride, go to a marvelous play area (all in New Mexico) ~ as well as taking in the Zoo and other activities here in El Paso ...
I'll try to update tomorrow ...