Episode 46– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music
About the Episode:
Are you looking for fun free/affordable activities in Santa Fe, NM for littles & high desert living? Meghan and Bunny talk all kid (and everyone) friendly activities, restaurants, places and spaces in the northern New Mexico area. Whether you’re planning a trip to the Santa Fe area or you’ve been here forever, Meghan will let you in on some great tips in this episode!
Links:
Find Meghan on Instagram
Sign up for Meghan’s Newsletter
New Mexico Wildlife Center
Sky Railway Tickets
Folk Art Museum
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
Meghan Montelinano Gorman
Meghan’s background is in digital marketing and design, nonprofit management, diversity equity inclusion. She has her masters in Organizational Leadership. Meghan is a mother, wife, daughter of immigrants, and friend and I bring all of these identities and experiences to her work. She recently discovered a need in Santa Fe for parents and caregivers to have one place to go to find activities and events in the area. She has been filling that need very successfully with her Instagram page. Be sure to check it out for yourself!
Episode Transcript
Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico’s stories. Talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico for those of you who may have littles at home or who have, um, grandkids. Um, and this next guest is really special because she has figured out the perfect niche for families who are traveling in New Mexico. And, um, for those of you who don’t have kids, I still want you to listen because I’m sure that Megan has come up with some amazing ideas for travel that you maybe didn’t think about. So, um, our guest today is Megan Monte. Oh, I got it wrong. I immediately, Megan, will you introduce yourself? ?
Meghan : (01:25)
No problem. Thanks Bunny, my name is Megan MonteMontelibano Gorman. My pronouns are she her. And I am a mama here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I’m so happy to, to be spending some time with you today.
Bunny : (01:39)
Oh, we’re excited to have you. You know, we put out this call for small businesses in New Mexico that wanted to talk about what they did. And the coolest thing, what we found is that, you know, it’s, it’s not your, you know, it’s, it’s not your general you know, here’s, here’s what I’m selling, here’s what you should buy this. What we’re finding is that New Mexico’s small businesses are all about the place and the uniqueness and the incredible, um, enchantment (dare I say) a little bit, um, cliche-ish. That is New Mexico. So, Meghan, tell folks what it is that you do and, um, how you came to this. I’m very interested to hear it myself.
Meghan : (02:29)
Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, a, a little bit of background I guess is, is necessary. So, my husband and I moved to New Mexico not even a year ago. My husband’s a 12th generation Santa Fean. We’re raising a 13th generation Santa Fean. And when I moved, I was kind of in ki the depths of postpartum struggle, not knowing who I was as a mom, having that identity shift in my career, in my life. And I just, I’ve always been a community builder. And when we got here, I couldn’t really find kind of my, my people, right? So I run social media marketing as my quote, unquote day job. I figured, hey, I’m gonna start documenting some of the adventures I have with my baby and really make a concerted effort to collect it into one location, one spot that could be a resource for me, could be a resource for other caregivers and just kind of a one-stop shop. So we, I created it on Instagram. I didn’t have the plan or, you know, a master idea of what it has kind of become today. Cuz truly it was selfish, right? Like I, I created it for myself cuz I wanted to find that community. I knew it was here in Santa Fe. I saw it kind of as an onlooker in other pockets of, you know, the amazing art scene we have here, the food scene we have here. But they’re babies here in New Mexico too, right? And I just wanted to kind of create and carve that space for myself. I think as mothers we are so often conditioned to take up as little space as possible, right? To be like, we’re gonna survive, we’re gonna raise our kids, we’re gonna get by. But I wanted more for myself and for, for other caregivers in our communities. So, my Instagram kind of took off and like I said, it’s, it’s a pretty simple concept of documenting things to do, places to go with small children. I kind of curate it to developmental ages zero to five, um, cuz there was just so much, but not enough for little ones, if that makes sense. And every week, every Sunday I go through multiple sources. Facebook, Instagram, tumbleweeds Magazine is a great resource for littles in Northern New Mexico. We love Tom. We, um, Facebook posts that other people are just sharing. And I just collect it all into one location and it’s a daily schedule. So Monday through Sunday, if you have a little one come to my Instagram page, it’s at Meg Montelibano Gorman. And it tells you what you can be doing with your little ones. I really focus on free or at least affordable activities. I think accessibility is a main pillar of, of who I am. Being a daughter of immigrants, it was so creative how my mom found these magical experiences for my brother and I and all for free or you know, at least under $5, right? Because little ones have the attention span of a squirrel. So , right? I’m not trying to be out here spending a bunch of money on, on my little, uh, 19 month old.
Bunny : (05:46)
Well, and Meghan, I’m fascinated first of all that you created that resource for yourself. I mean, I mean that’s really where the best, um, that’s, that’s where the best ideas come from, you know, I mean, Uber was created because, you know, guys were standing on a street corner in Paris and they were like, wouldn’t it be cool if we could just call up somebody we knew who had a car and you were somebody new to town with a small, with a baby. I mean, I don’t know how old your, how old is your child now?
Meghan : (06:15)
Charlie is, uh, 19 months and when we moved he was 10. So really little. And you know, the things I kept seeing were for older kids, like going on adventure camps, which is gonna be so fun in like five to 10 years when he is at that age. But, uh, yeah, he was so tiny when we first moved here and you know, my family, we have a huge family. We have 16 first cousins rolling around New Mexico in, in Santa Fe. So and none of them had kids, at least not here. Most of them were in Albuquerque. And you know, I just knew I wanted to find something for my baby to do to enrich his life and to enrich my own life.
Bunny : (07:02)
It’s a great idea. When my kids were little, I was a single mom and I didn’t have enough money. I didn’t have any, I didn’t have enough money to pay attention, really. I was . I could hardly, I could hardly um, um, get through the week. And yet every weekend we found something free to do, you know, to go sit in a park and listen to music while they just ran in circles on the grass. Um, and, and so I get what you’re doing, but we didn’t have social media then. So it was sort of like I poured over the newspaper. But you are, are you saying that every single day you list things that somebody with a little, which is between, you know, somebody under five years old could, could do with their babies?
Meghan : (07:49)
Yeah, that’s, that’s my my thing, Bunny. I think I wanted to make it easier for parents and caregivers cuz we already have enough on our plates, right? Between working, figuring out pickup, figuring out grocery shopping. And I just wanted to take one thing off of, you know, a caregiver’s shoulder. And I recently, this is kind of exciting, I created a calendar, uh, so you can subscribe to the calendar. It lists things just like a Google Calendar view and it has the dates, the times, the information, um, a contact. Usually what I’ve found in my own research Bunny of, of finding things to do, it’ll just be like a random post on like a, a Facebook group say, or a random flyer I see at like cafecito at the community board. And there’s really no other information. Like who, what, when, where, why . Um, I was an event planner in a past life, so there’s a little bit of me that’s like, y’all come on. Like we gotta get people to these amazing things. So I will call those organizations, figure out, do that legwork for caregivers and then post that on the calendar. And it’s like you said, seven days a week, Monday through Sunday. I try to be conscientious of nap times, especially for littles. I don’t know why in Santa Fe everyone has an activity during 10:00 AM which is like primo nap time for for most kids, right? Sometimes we, like for me, we’ll stretch and kind of wiggle around the nap schedule. I do try to cater to, you know, working parents with activities in the later afternoon. Sometimes that’s not so accessible here in Santa Fe. Um, they have like really late activities, which is like 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM That’s kind of a no-go for a toddler, right? That’s bedtime, right? But that’s another, another area I think I’d like to stretch and reach out to and more of like the advocacy space of working with these organizations here in town of, hey like have you thought about moving your time and maybe your attendance will perk up a little bit.
Bunny : (10:01)
So tell me, well first of all, I want people to know that there, if you go to the website, if you, if you come, if you find our podcast on the I love New Mexico blog.com website. There are links to everything that Megan is talking about. We’re very excited to provide that resource to you. But also, um, what are you finding? Like what is the, I mean the first thing that comes to mind for me is that all New Mexico museums are free to New Mexico residents on Sundays. So that’s a huge plus. Um, tell me the coolest things, first of all, that you love and then something that your little is loving as well. I wanna know specifically if somebody is in town this week, like what’s the coolest thing they could do with the little one?
Meghan : (10:52)
That’s, I think, and that’s something too, we we’re seeing a lot more with tourism. Picking up Bunny is out of towners will message me on Instagram and say like, Hey, like what do I do? Or they’ll follow me in anticipation of their trip. And I just wanna say that’s an open invitation to anyone to message me. If you’re like, Hey, I have a kid from this age. Like, we’re here during this week. What’s going on? Um, so please let me know something that I love so, so much. This is the best concert in New Mexico, like the whole state every Wednesdays and Fridays at, uh, the Santa Fe Public Library, uh, at 10:00 AM So on Wednesdays it’s the main library downtown, which is great for folks who are visiting cuz it’s, you know, central to the plaza. You’re probably staying down there at a hotel. And they also have the same concert on Fridays at the Lafarge Library. They call it bilingual books and babies. And it’s a local artist, Jordan Wax, who is tremendously talented. It is so much fun. I have, I may have more fun than my little one does , but, uh, it’s just original songs, you know, kind of the classics too. Itsy bitsy Wheels on the bus, but there’s also some like local, uh, original songs about Santa Fe and New Mexico and, you know, animals. And it’s bilingual, which is kind of an extra sprinkle on top of being so wonderful and free above all else. Right? That’s, that’s a incredible resource that the library provides us. So that’s my favorite thing I do pretty much every week if I can get to it. And Wednesday is at 10:00 AM They also have a Saturday, uh, bilingual books and babies with a, a different performer, Ms. Michelle, who is just as wonderful and talented as Jordan. Um, and that’s 10:00 AM at the South Side Library.
Bunny : (12:46)
And it’s obviously free
Meghan : (12:48)
It’s so much fun. I look forward to it like every week.
Bunny : (12:52)
The other thing is, um, you know, I grew up and my kids grew up loving the library. I mean, it’s one of the places still where I walk in the door. I love the smell. I love, yeah, it feels really safe and you’re surrounded by the things you like the best, which are books. But you’re doing that at a really early age,
Meghan : (13:13)
I think. And that’s all, that’s my mom, right? My mom did that with myself and my brother. And we knew from the get go that was a place of, you know, solace and resources. And the Santa Fe Library does so much public programming. Um, this is my shout out to them. And they have something almost every day for littles as well.
Bunny : (13:35)
That’s so cool. So what about, um, outdoor activities? What, where do you find the best?
Meghan : (13:43)
So my son, his name is Charlie. Uh, his favorite outdoor activity right now, it’s a little bit outside of Santa Fe. It’s in Espanola, but just, you know, 30 minute, 20 minute drive. And the, the, the New Mexico Wildlife Center is out there. It’s free for, I think it’s under three years old. It’s free, and then like five or $4 for a caretaker. And they have I think like 45 plus ambassador animals. My son’s really into birds right now, . So he’s, he just learned how to sign bird. Uh, he does a s l and we took him there and like, just the magic in his eyes when he saw just this massive eagle, he, it was just the best. And we, we go there pretty often now, , uh, it’s a quick little drive out to Espanola, it’s outdoors. So during the wind season, not so much fun , but in the summer right now, it’s perfect and you can get up close to the animals. There’s, you know, reptiles, there’s a fox, there’s a bobcat. They all have names. We learn about the animals. They’re all native plants, indigenous plants to our state. And that’s something that we’ve really been going to almost once a week too. ,
Bunny : (15:07)
What a great idea. I, I’m, I’m, I know about the Wildlife center and I’ve never been there and I’ve never taken my grandsons there. So what a great idea. And the way I understand it, because I know somebody who’s a couple of people who serve on the board, is that a lot of those animals are rescues that they’ve rehabilitated. Right,
Meghan : (15:27)
Exactly. Yeah. And, and they do a really good job of kind of telling each animal story. Um, as you visit throughout the wildlife walk, the family wildlife walk, they’re all rehabilitated animals. They are a hospital too, like a functioning wildlife hospital. And they do intakes, I think seven days a week. I’d have to fact check that. But those that they can’t return to the wild, that’s when they’ll keep, um, and there’s some incredible, you know, resources and work that they’re doing out there. So again, it’s kind of, uh, it feels good to contribute to that organization. But also my son is just like, birds galore, so , he has a lot of fun there.
Bunny : (16:09)
And, I want people to know that if you find a wild animal in New Mexico and you, um, and certainly you probably need to leave it alone, but an animal that’s injured, that is, we’ll post a resource. We’ve got a, we’ll have a link to that as well because, um, I know that, um, they have people on staff who know what to do with a wild animal, especially one that’s injured. So we’ll post a link to that. And, and what about, um, places to eat or I don’t know if you, do you do that as well?
Meghan : (16:44)
We do. We kind of have. So, I’m about to launch a website too, , so another, I, I just want this information to be as accessible as possible. Right, right. And not everyone’s on social media. I, I understand that. I think as a, a marketing professional, I live in that world, so it’s just kind of where I’m at. But I also understand caregivers may not have an Instagram, may not have a Facebook. So I’ve taken all of our posts, things to do, places to eat and turn it into a website. I’m gonna eventually launch it . Um, I just can’t afford the hosting right now, but I will eventually. Uh, but one of our, our kind of three pillars is Kiddo Eats. So places to eat in town that are kid friendly, um, park reviews, that’s another thing that we do. And then our weekly schedule, those are kind of my three areas I’m, I’m trying to focus on. And with Kiddo Eats, it’s, you know, restaurant Week in Santa Fe was a couple months ago now. And that was kind of the impetus for me starting, oh, there should be like, some type of guide or, um, just like quick reference of where you can bring your kids. Things I look for when we’re reviewing restaurants, high chairs, you’d be surprised how many places don’t have high chairs.
Bunny : (18:02)
Wow.
Meghan : (18:03)
Which Makes it kind of tricky to have the, a peaceful meal with your child or your toddler. Um, that’s kind of my one thing that I, I really look for. Um, second is kind of like space. Like is there enough space if your kiddo has the wiggles, like can they run around staff service? Are they kid friendly? Some places, you know, I’m not gonna bring my baby to Geronimo. I don’t even think he’s allowed to Geronimo’s. Wow. But there are places here, especially in Santa Fe for people visiting too. Um, there’s some really wonderful, uh, restaurants that love kids that welcome kids to that experience. And for me, kind of my philosophical mindset of that is just because you had a baby or a toddler doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice, you know, that part of your life, right? Like, I love my husband and I, we love eating out, we love sharing meals together, exploring new food. I’m Filipino, he’s, you know, Hispanic. We have a lot of like, flavors going on between us. And going out to eat with a toddler seemed, you know, insurmountable for some folks, right? You’re like, how could I even logistically manage that? But, um, I think with the guide that I’ve created too, it just kind of reinforces like, Hey, sometimes your kid’s gonna have a meltdown, and that’s okay. Pack up your food, go outside, settle down, come back in, whatever, whatever works for you. But I just kind of wanna build that community in, in the, the restaurant space and kind of identify those restaurants that are, are chill with, with that kind of situation.
Bunny : (19:45)
Well, the places that come to mind immediately, and some of them are, um, um, some of them are fine dining, some are not. But, you know, I take my grandsons to pantry dose all the time. Oh yeah. Because they, you know, they not only, um, have kid friendly, have a great children’s menu, but you know, they will bring them vegetables, they’ll bring them snacking stuff. They also do this at Atrisco, by the way. You know, they’ll bring ’em some, some vegetables to snack on ahead of time. And at Pantry, do they have a park outside? So if your kid needs, if your child needs to take a break and walk out amongst this, these funky sculptures, which is just another cool thing that they have. But I also know that in terms of fine dining, which I, I’m kind of forced to do on, on occasion because of my business, my, uh, my other business, my real estate business, I see families all the time at Santa Cafe for lunch, where they can sit outside on the patio. Um, I’ve seen kids at Market Steer, um, the owners love it when people bring their children. It’s, they kind of do special, you know, let us get them a Shirley Temple, something. They, they do some special things. And, and those are fine dining restaurants. I’m curious to know, um, what you’ve found.
Meghan : (21:05)
Yeah, I mean, we love Santa Cafe. My husband worked there all through high school, so that’s near and dear to our heart. Um, the patio’s. Great. Another one that you didn’t mention, kind of in the fine dining space, Midtown Bistro, um, in Midtown, we love Edmond. We love Chef on Hell. Uh, we usually sit outside when we, we eat at Midtown. Um, they’re super sweet and, and we know, um, Edmund pretty well. But the, the best thing for toddlers there is there’s a rock garden in the outside patio. So if your toddler is into rocks, which I have found, most toddlers are . It’s
Bunny : (21:44)
Which ones aren’t .
Meghan : (21:45)
Right, right. And they just kind of sit around. Charlie will sit on the ground and play with rocks and stack them. There is a cat who lives in the rock garden. It’s like a sculpture shop next door with these really beautiful rock fountains. He’ll just look at the cat, play with the rocks. My husband and I enjoy our calamari and our, you know, our sandwich. And we have a wonderful, a wonderful lunch. So I think now that it’s summertime and now that it’s outdoors, there’s a lot more option for fine dining in, in that kind of, uh, level of, of restaurants. Um, but Midtown Santa Cafe, I’m trying to think of other ones that we’ve been to. Not so much fine dining, but Cowgirl Cafe in downtown, they have a play structure and great kids’ menu. I often eat off the kids’ menu too.
Bunny : (22:38)
Cause Well, and then they have the baked potato ice cream, which every kid in the world, my kids ate it, and now my grandsons are eating it. And just, so if you’re a listener who doesn’t knows, well try to find a picture. But it is at, it’s an ice cream dish that looks exactly like a baked potato. Kids love it. I do too.
Meghan : (22:58)
Yeah. Kids ages zero to a hundred, I would say. Right, right. And it’s, I think you share bunny like your kids and your grandkids eat it. I think that’s the fun part too, of being here in Santa Fe, all the tradition of experiencing things that my husband did as a child. Now with our own kiddo, you know, he, my husband’s little league picture is up at Cowgirl Cafe .
Bunny : (23:21)
Oh my gosh.
Meghan : (23:22)
It’s so fun. It’s so cool. It’s, it’s really cool. And we get to, you know, go in the play structure and then we’ll have a baked potato ice cream, even though my baby is lactose intolerant.
Bunny : (23:32)
I think we have to talk about that. They have a play structure at the cowgirl. And, um, I mean, and we’re talking what really a play structure, and it’s enclosed. You can sit at your table, watch your kid play, um, watch your child climb the, you know, it’s, and
Meghan : (23:52)
It’s shaded too. It’s like covered. It’s a covered play area. So it’s especially, you know, we are high altitude during the summer months. It’s a perfect place to, you know, mama has a margarita and the babies get to go hang out.
Bunny : (24:06)
,
Meghan : (24:06)
In the structure.
Bunny : (24:10)
I love that. I love that. And have you, um, you know, as far as, so, so we’ve talked a lot about activities that don’t cost anything, but there are some cool activities that if you’re traveling and you wanna splurge, um, I’m a big fan as, as most of my followers know of Sky Railway.
Meghan : (24:32)
Oh yeah.
Bunny : (24:33)
Kids love to ride the train.
Meghan : (24:35)
It is so much fun. Charlie and I, we, we did a, a partnership with Sky Railway, uh, during the holiday season for the, um, the Christmas train. It is magical. I had so much fun. Charlie had so much fun. Um, sky Railway, they have, you know, multiple types of trips. There’s like the Stargazer trip or the music trip, or the murder mystery. Obviously not for little ones for, for that one, but I think they’ve done such a good job of kind of breathing new life into that, uh, into the train. We live right by the, the train tracks too, actually. So my, we see them pass by and it’s so fun. Um, the food is so good too. It’s, it’s just a really good time. I think that’s a good option for a little bit of a splurge. Um, not so much. I think that’s the other nice thing about visiting Santa Fe, right? Nothing is so expensive for little Right.
Bunny : (25:33)
Like Meow Wolf, it’s not, it’s not, um, it’s not prohibitively expensive.
Meghan : (25:39)
Right, right. Yow Wolf is, I always forget about it because we go there so often.
Bunny : (25:46)
Well, it’s, I would say it’s a little sensory overload for a, for somebody under two perhaps. But there, if you can do it, if you can make yourself, this is hard, but if you can, if you can sort of limit it to, you know, get out of the house, but get into some of those rooms that, um, are perhaps a little less, um, dark.
Meghan : (26:08)
Yeah. So babies
Bunny : (26:09)
Seem to love all that color.
Meghan : (26:12)
It, it is. And there’s a lot of black and white contrast, which is good for kind of infants for that kind of visual development, right? Mm-hmm. , Meow Wolf does do sensory sensitive days. Um, I think it’s like every Tuesday you kind have to line up your trip if you’re from out of town. But that is something that they offer. And then they also have their new Rainbow Rainbow Room. And I haven’t checked it out yet, but it’s kind of a free part of Meow Wolf. There’s, it sounds like a makerspace. I don’t know. Charlie and I need to go check it it out pretty soon, but I just saw that pop up on, on my radar. So that’s something that we’re gonna investigate further. ,
Bunny : (26:51)
Let me tell you another place, and I’m sure you know about this, but, um, one of the places that, um, um, my grandson, Milo seems to love to hang out and it’s nice for the parents. Is Santa Fe Brewing at the headquarters?
Meghan : (27:04)
Oh, yeah. It’s, so we were just there last Tuesday. I was there for a networking event and it was great because I brought my whole family with me. So I got to go, you know, do my work stuff. But then they have this huge, uh, lawn. They’re re-seding it right now, but in normal times, it’s a great place for kiddos to kind of explore and play and roll around. They have those giant chess sets that you can play with giant Jenga. Um, the best tacos, I will say second favorite tacos in town. Fusion tacos. Is there ? Right. I don’t wanna like start a fight here, here, Bunny, and say, no,
Bunny : (27:44)
Let’s, let’s don’t do that. But, but I agree they do have great tacos,
Meghan : (27:48)
Um, because
Bunny : (27:49)
That’s not my favorite, but my second favorite. Yes. Yeah.
Meghan : (27:52)
Yeah. We can, we can talk offline about what are our favorite tacos are. I don’t want anyone to come for me about , like Taco choices. But, uh, the Santa Fe Brewing HQ is so fun. They have music too, sometimes concerts, a lot of events are hosted there. If you follow their page on Instagram or Facebook, they post about that all the time. Um, another place we like to go to is the Children’s Museum, right? It’s like, oh,
Bunny : (28:18)
Of course one
Meghan : (28:18)
Of the most obvious, but oftentimes I don’t see a lot of folks reference it. So the Children’s Museum, they’re closed, I believe, Sunday and Mondays, gotta fact check that . But, um, they’re open. They have programming almost every day as well for little ones. They have, we Wednesdays on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM and it’s a story time and a craft. Uh, they have, Thursdays are yours. So after 4:00 PM on Thursdays, admission is free. That’s when we usually go to the museum. Um, Fridays, they have fine art. Fridays, Saturdays they have science Saturdays. So they have, you know, standing programs. But also the museum is just so fun to just show up too. They have the indoor playground, the outdoor playground, so many, you know,
Bunny : (29:08)
An amazing garden.
Meghan : (29:10)
Oh my God, the garden’s phenomenal. We, the Children’s Museum has been a great place for, for us to also make new friends Right. To because, you know, people with kids are gonna be there.
Bunny : (29:22)
So I just checked their website. They’re actually closed on Monday and Tuesday. Okay. So if you’re here on the weekend, it’s a great place to take your littles on a Sunday. And I, and I wanna say one more place. We’re, we’re running outta time here, so we’re gonna, everybody’s gotta check out the links, but, um, the Folk Art Museum is an amazing place to take kids since, since my kids were little, it was one of their, it’s probably their favorite museum ever, because those dioramas in the, um, oh my gosh. Like the Gerard Room mm-hmm. are phenomenal. It’s a million little villages for your kids to take a look at. Um, it’s, that’s so cool.
Meghan : (30:05)
We, I love that you mentioned that Bunny. My husband and I got married at the Folk Art Museum.
Bunny : (30:11)
Oh. So cool.
Meghan : (30:11)
I’ll send you pictures. We had llamas and mariachi, and it was a really good time, , but wow. We love taking, um, our son to the Folk Art Museum. They have this summer on Museum Hill, they’re doing a whole program. Art explored with Wheelwright Museum, folk Art Museum, um, I forgot. The Botanic Gardens is also participating. It’s like rotating museums, but it’s arts and crafts. They focus on one specific art form. It’s for all ages, all kiddos. And Sundays at the Folk Art Museum, they have their crafts cart that we love to go to. Charlie will just, you know, he’s a little, little at this point, but he’s working on gluing and kind of his small motor skills, fine motor skills, and the museum’s great. And we love having a picnic up there. That’s what we usually do.
Bunny : (31:05)
Well, and the botanic gardens are, that’s just another place. Um, so I, uh, we’ve, we’ve touched on a lot of stuff, . Um, and so what I, what I wanna be sure that you have a chance to throw in anything at the end that you want, but I, what I want people to hear is that there is this idea that Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico is really sort of a place where retirees go to hang out or, um, you know, people come and, and you know, they either ski or they hike, but I’m telling you, it’s a great place to bring a family or to have a family to live with a family, right?
Meghan : (31:45)
Definitely. I think, you know, I’m from LA originally, so I, I grew up with almost everything at my fingertips, right. For good and for bad. Right? But I’m so grateful for the privilege of being able to raise my son here in this state where I feel safe. And we may not have, you know, all the things that a big city, Denver, la, et cetera, may have, but we have one option of everything that’s really good, that’s really high quality. So I, I wanna stress that to caregivers and, you know, parents, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles, Tia, Ninos, et cetera. There’s so much here to do. And there’s, like you said, it’s not just retirees. There’s, there’s young families. We’re making, you know, a really wonderful upbringing for our child here. Um, and I just, I feel so at peace raising my baby here, right? Like, I feel so lucky that I don’t have to worry. There’s still those regular worries, but what a gift it is to, to have a, a New Mexico baby just rolling around Arroyo.
Bunny : (32:51)
Folks, please check out Megan’s space and subscribe to the calendar and, and, um, let’s get back together so we can talk more about this as your baby gets older.
Meghan : (33:01)
Of course. I love that. Well, thank you, bunny. It was so great. Thank you all. Thank you for all you do for, for our community here.
Bunny : (33:08)
Oh, I’m having more fun than anybody. Thank you so much for being here.