May Randomness

In the beginning of the month, Matt hiked down the Sandia Mountains with his friend, which took about 5 hours, so while he was off doing that, Ethan and I went back to the zoo for the day.

The view from the top where Matt hiked down

At the zoo!

Petting the sea lion

Saying hi to the gorilla

Mmm... ice cream!

Then later in the month, we finally put together Ethan's bike that was given to him on his first birthday. Ethan was ecstatic, to say the least. He couldn't even wait for Matt to put it together before he was trying to take it for a ride!

Riding the bike without the handles

Trying to be patient, but sooo excited

He just couldn't keep his hands off, lol

"Maybe I can ride the bike now?"

"Here Dad, how about I help with these screws to make the process go faster."

And he's off!

Then this past weekend while Matt was in Austin, Ethan and I went to the Museum of Natural History and Science in downtown Albuquerque. It was a little over Ethan's head at times, but it only cost $7 for me to get in and Ethan was free, so was worth the seven bucks for an hour or two of something different. Ethan did love all the model Earths. He kept pointing and shouting, "Ball! Ball!" Every time he saw a planet of some sort, lol. He also enjoyed the sandbox where you got to make different animal prints, so that was good. :)

"Roooar!"

Checking out the fish

Making animal prints in the sand

Spinning the Earth around, he seriously wanted to take the whole thing with him

They had lights that made a water effect on the ground, which he loved. He kept pointing to the ground saying, "Water! Water!"

Homemade Chicken Gyros

One of my favorite restaurants in DC is Cava, which serves amazingly delicious Greek food. It was near where I worked and walking distance from our condo, so not only was it a favorite for my coworkers and me to get lunch, it was also a favorite for Matt and me to grab dinner. I pretty much got the same thing every time I went, too, which was their gyro sandwich. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. Mmmm...

Being that it's now been almost 5 months since I left DC, I have really been hankering for a gyro. So since Ethan and I are on our own this weekend, I thought I'd go a little crazy and try to make chicken gyros from scratch. Chicken gyros are definitely not the same as gyro meat gyros, but there's no way I was going to attempt to make gyro meat on my own, lol.

So I followed this recipe (which I found on Pinterest, of course) and was pretty impressed with how it turned out. The Tzatziki sauce was way easier to make than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I also decided to add black olives and feta cheese to my gyro, which just made it that much more delicious. I can't say it was as good as Cava, but it did help with my craving, so all-in-all I'd say it was a success!

Tingley Beach

Since daycare was closed today and Matt didn't have to go into work we took a little family trip to Tingley Beach this morning. It's this cute little park behind the Albuquerque Zoo with three big ponds (or maybe really small lakes?) where people fish for rainbow trout and catfish. Then there are geese and ducks everywhere, along with benches and picnic tables. The weather was gorgeous this morning, so we just walked around enjoying time together before Matt leaves for Austin tonight. :)

Candice Visits!

While I'm totally delayed and it was exactly a month ago that Candice was leaving us from her awesome week long visit, I still think the trip deserves a blog post!

My big sister, Candice, came to Albuquerque to visit us during her spring break this year (yay!). It was sooo nice to have my sister here, not only to show her my new life, but to also get to just hang out and be sisters. :) We did a ton of stuff while she was here and have a TON of pictures to show for it, but I'll try to limit how many I post.

So on Wednesday, her first full day here, we just ran some errands to prep for a few crafts/activities that I had planned. The first was picking out fabric for canvas artwork for Ethan's room and the second was repotting my little basil plant. I'm pretty awful with plants and my sister has a veeeery green thumb, so I knew if I was going to attempt something plant-related, she was the one to help me. She also has an awesome eye for picking out coordinating fabrics (from all her experience with quilting and crafting herself), so, again, I knew she was the one for the job of picking out fabrics for Ethan's room.  And here's the end result!

Ethan's new artwork hanging in his room (monsters!)

My happy, healthy, repotted basil plant!

Then on Thursday we drove north up toward Santa Fe and hiked Tent Rocks. It was a gorgeous morning and the hike took us about 3 hours round trip (2 hours up with LOTS of picture taking and a little less than an hour down).

Friday morning we woke up bright and early and went on a hot air balloon ride for the first time ever! It was awesome! I was a little scared initially, but it was so serene and peaceful. It was just so cool to softly float above Albuquerque and see the busy city starting it's day down below. We were also really lucky to get an awesome pilot. He was the first person to fly a hot air balloon from the U.S. to Africa! Pretty crazy. After our hot air balloon ride, we drove up to Santa Fe to shop for some turquoise jewelry. Unfortunately, once again, Santa Fe disappointed me and left me wondering what all the hype is really about. Maybe one day someone will explain to me what the big deal is, maybe?

Saturday we started our Easter festivities a little early and went to the base egg hunt. Unfortunately, even though we got there 5 minutes early, the hunt had started 10 minutes early due to rain and we pretty much missed the entire thing! But they were handing out bags of eggs to kids who missed the hunt, so we took those eggs home and hid them for Ethan to have his own egg hunt. He LOVED it! Through the course of the weekend, we probably did a half a dozen egg hunts for him just because he had so much fun finding the eggs. :) We also dyed eggs on Saturday, which Ethan had fun with.

Then Sunday was the "real" egg hunt and Ethan got his first Easter basket. We also Skyped with family in the morning and for dinner we had a delicious Honey-Baked ham with rice, deviled eggs, green bean bacon bundles and cranberry sauce. All-in-all I'd say our first Easter away from home was a success!

 

Easter morning - SO excited to find more eggs

Checking out his Easter basket

Love my baby boy so much :)

Our delicious feast

Drawing outside with Ethan's sidewalk chalk from his Easter basket

Bubbles from Ethan's Easter basket

Monday was Candice's last full day, so we just did a little shopping and relaxed for the most part. Then bright and early Tuesday morning I drove Candice to the airport for her flight home to Maryland. I was sad to see her go, but I know I'll get to see her and the rest of my family again in just a few weeks when Ethan and I travel back to Maryland, so yay! :)