Sandia Crest

Today is my due date. It has been a terrific day and I remain hopeful that this little girl is simply punctual...and last minute. Rus decided that a drive up the mountain was in order to induce labor. He was unsuccessful, obviously, or I wouldn't be sharing these great pics with you. The biggest contraction I had came when he said, "I have some flavored rubber to masticate if you need any," and I laughed so hard I had a contraction. Who new he had such a rich vocabulary, or that he would go through such lengths to hide the fact that he had gum from our children.
The destination for our drive was Sandia Crest. One of the perks of 8am church is that we got home in time to pack a lunch and drive to the top of the mountain for a picnic. The kids were super excited and enjoyed the views, throwing their crusts off the mountain ("it's still falling, I know it!"...five minutes later), and climbing on the stone building that perches right on the edge of the mountain. It was about a 2/3 mile hike from the crest where we parked to the stone building and Beau entertained himself by running ahead of everyone and "hiding" from us. Here is a picture of him hiding with me.

You totally can't see me, right? And this is my favorite one of him hiding...so sneaky.

My mom, aka Cutesy is here visiting (her methods of inducing labor are slightly different from Rus'...they involve lots of shopping...). Here are the girls:
I LOVE this picture of her and Beau and beautiful Albuquerque in the background.

Rus enjoyed taking pictures, as usual, and when I got home I told him I really liked this one...and then he said, "You know, that stump is the perfect outdoor toilet."

True, true, true. Maybe won't hang that one in the living room now, but...
And just a few more of the kids climbing the stone house, and my favorite - the one with them and Albuquerque in the background.





So far today I've been told that to induce labor I need to eat some habanero chiles, eggplant, and pizza, have my ankles rubbed, and drive up a mountain...Any other family-blog-worthy suggestions? (Not that I'm having any habaneros or eggplant or pizza...) Any of you have a baby on your due date? (I've got six hours left...)