New Mexico State Fair

Last Saturday we ventured to the New Mexico State Fair, which conveniently for us, happened to be right in Albuquerque. We decided to go early in the morning, since we live our Saturday and Sundays in two shifts (before Ethan's nap and after Ethan's nap) and boy, am I glad we did! We got there around 10am and when we were leaving at 1pm that place was crazy! The fair itself was obviously more crowded, but the parking lot was seriously just insane and people were wrapped around waiting in their cars just to get through the gate.

Anyway, we had a fun time overall, but it was definitely expensive! We paid to get in, then Ethan and Matt rode one ride, Ethan played one game and Ethan and I ate lunch. Our grand total? $55! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since fairs are always expensive, but yeesh! We decided afterward we were glad we went once, but it wasn't something we ever needed to do again.

So what did we do at the fair? Well, they had the most interactive petting zoo I'd ever experienced. Petting zoos in my life have been a farm animal in a caged area and you walk up to the fence and if it's close enough you can scratch it's little nose. This petting zoo was crazy. They just let you walk right into an enclosed area with dozens of animals all together. They had chickens, ducks, pigs, a llama, an alpaca, goats, sheep, a calf, a donkey and even a kangaroo! All in the same area, where you were allowed to just roam around with them. Like I said, crazy. So of course, Ethan was terrified at the thought of walking around on his own, but I think he liked being in there as long as Matt was holding him, lol.

From the petting zoo we went to the Kids Science tent where Ethan discovered this ball contraption, which of course he loved, because, well, there were balls... lol. You basically put a ball in the tube and cover it up which created suction and pulled the ball through the whole tube tunnel dumping the ball back in the bin. I feel like Ethan could've spent all day at this place.

Next we headed to the rides and games. So, as I'm sure you can guess, Ethan didn't really want to ride any of the rides, but when we asked if he wanted to ride the carousel, he said "Okay." Lol. My little enthusiastic rider. But, of course, once it started going around he made Matt pick him up off the horse and started saying, "All done! All done!" Haha. By the end he was smiling, though, so I'd say it was a partial success. Then after the ride he wanted to play the duck game, where he got to pick ducks out of a tub and then (shockingly) won! And got to pick a prize. His choice? Why a ball, duh! At least he's predictable. :)

Our last stop at the fair was the McDonald's Kids Farm. They gave each kid a little basket and let them walk around through all these different stations like picking apples from a mini orchard and collecting wooden eggs from a hen house and getting vegetables from a little produce stand. They also got to ride little pedal-tractors and sit on wooden horses. And at the end they had all the kids sort out everything they collected into separate bins, which was perfect because it made a game out of giving everything back. It was really well done and perfect for Ethan's age, so he loved it.

So there you have it, there's our New Mexico State Fair experience. It's always good to get out of the house and do something different and fun as a family. I just love those days we get to spend together. :)

It's a boy!

Now that the cat is "officially" out of the bag, I thought I'd write a little post about the newest member of our family. :)

Thumbs up!

So as of Monday, I am 18 weeks along with a due date of February 16th. I've been really lucky with this pregnancy feeling great the whole time and barely even knowing I was pregnant, other than, well, knowing I was pregnant. :) Then yesterday we found out we're having another boy! Yay! I'm really excited for Ethan to have a little brother AND now we get to reuse all that adorable baby boy stuff we have sitting in storage. :) The tricky part is just coming up with another boy name, ha. We struggled SO much to decide on Ethan it'll be interesting to see how long it takes us to choose a second boy name.

As for Ethan, he doesn't really get "it," but when we ask him where the baby is he'll point to my belly. And when we say, "Give the baby a kiss," he kisses my belly, which is just adorable. The day we were going to have the ultrasound where we'd find out the sex I asked him a handful of times that morning if he wanted a baby sister or brother. He answered sister every time. Then when he came home from daycare that day and we said, "You're going to have a baby brother!" His response was simply, "No." Lol. I guess he's still adjusting to the idea.

Anyway, we're really excited (and okay, let's be honest, a little terrified at times at the thought of two kids, lol), but mainly, we're just excited. :) And if you have any name suggestions, send 'em my way! I'm open to anything, just don't be offended if I veto your ideas. I've been known to do that. A lot.

How I'm occupying my toddler these days

With Matt working nights, Ethan and I are left with evenings all to ourselves five days a week. So in an effort to not just watch 3 hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (which my child would do in a heartbeat), I've been trying to come up with more creative ways to spend our time. So here is a list of how I've been occupying Ethan (sans television) these days:

1.  We make a collage. A piece of construction paper, a little glue and a Pottery Barn Kids catalog and BAM! Entertainment for at least 45 minutes.

2.  We paint rocks. For a kid who loves to collect rocks, this was a no brainer, and hey, now I have pretty rocks decorating my window sill!

3.  We go to the grocery store. Normally, I'd shop during the day when Ethan was at daycare, but he actually does really well at the grocery store and it's something different that gets him out of the house. I even got a compliment the other day from the cashier about how well behaved he was! :) Proud Mama moment. Oh, and he loves to ride in the green racecar cart, of course.

4.  We go for an evening walk.  This one is just as much for me as it is for Ethan and fortunately, he loves it! He points out trees and airplanes and clouds and big bonus if the nighttime sprinklers are going and we just *have* to walk through them and *accidentally* get misted. ;)

5. We build with Duplos. What do we build, you might be asking? Well we build the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, of course. Seems as though it's impossible to completely avoid that beloved Mouse of Ethan's.

6. We play with Play-Doh. Ethan is a bit of a broken-record when it comes to Play-Doh, considering all he really wants is for you to make balls, and lots of them. But the kid loves it and (once again), we're not sitting in front of the television, so I'd say it's still a win.

So there you have it, folks. That is how Ethan and I have been spending our evenings. If you happen to have any other suggestions for ways to spend our time, I'd love to hear them! :)

A letter to my husband

Three years ago today I got to marry you, my best friend. My handsome, amazing, loving, caring, supportive best friend. My person in this world. My love. My rock. My everything. I don't know where I'd be in this world without you.

I know things have changed since those first few dates eight and a half years ago. Maybe we're a little less exciting, maybe we stay in a little more, maybe we party a little less, but I love every thing about our life and would never want to go back to the way it was. The way it was back then was wonderful, but what we have now is even more wonderful. Three years of marriage, two houses we've turned into homes and one amazing little guy we cherish every single day. It's been an amazing ride so far and I can't wait to see where this ride (and the Air Force, of course) takes us next because I know wherever it is, you'll be there, strong, standing right by my side, holding my hand.

Thank you for being exactly who you are. You have all of my love always and forever.

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: The Meteor Crater

On our last day in Arizona we woke up in our hotel room, packed up the car and got on the road. It was another long day of driving ahead of us and we wanted to get home well before dinnertime. We did have one last stop on our itinerary, though, which was the meteor crater in Northern Arizona. Once Matt saw it was right along our route he was pretty much insistent we stop. And while a meteor crater isn't really my thing, I'm all about supporting Matt's love of space and learning some new stuff myself along the way.

So basically some 50,000 years ago, this meteor measuring 150 feet wide crashed into the Earth leaving behind a crater almost one mile wide and 550 feet deep. Pretty impressive. It's also the best preserved meteorite impact site on Earth, which is cool. They offer tours around the crater, but as usual, with our two-year-old tagging along, we decided to just breeze through the museum, then check out the crater ourselves and end with a quick stop at the gift shop.

 Walking up the stairs to get to the highest viewing point and the view out from the crater

Checking out the crater

A chunk of the meteor

Overall, the meteor crater was cool to see and I'm glad we went. It was another one of those natural wonders, though, that if you didn't stop and really think about what you were looking at the amazing-ness of it would be lost. I mean, a fiery ball fell from the sky and crashed into the Earth leaving behind a crater that could fit some 20 football fields. Crazy.

From there we hit up the gift shop where Ethan picked out a rock souvenir, Matt bought his own geode to crack open and I, of course, got a smooched penny. Everyone was happy. :) And then it was back to I-40 for us! Another 5 or so hours on the road and our 950+ mile roadtrip was complete. To say we were happy to be out of the car at that point would definitely be an understatement, but all that driving was totally worth it for the amazing sites we got to see. Sites unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and sites that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: Sedona

On Sunday we ventured about 45 minutes south of Flagstaff to Sedona, Arizona. Now let me just start by saying, wow. I know I mentioned this in my Grand Canyon post, but seriously, I had no idea how beautiful Arizona is. It is gorgeous! The pictures I took don't even come close to doing it justice. If you want to see a better example of it's beauty, just google "Sedona, AZ" and go to the images. Everything is this deep red color accented by full, green mountains. It was awesome.

What was cool about driving from Flagstaff to Sedona was that we went from an elevation of about 7,000 feet in Flagstaff to 4,500 feet in Sedona all in a matter of 45 minutes. How did we drop that elevation you might ask? Well down a curvy, windy road on the side of a mountain, of course! Okay, so I say this was "cool" because 1. Matt loved it and 2. The views were amazing. It was actually a little less cool, though, because I'm a big weenie when it comes to curvy, windy roads on the side of mountains (let's all think back to our honeymoon in Maui now). Fortunately, this road actually had two lanes and a guard rail, but other than that it was really similar to that fateful road in Maui.

Anyway, on our way to Sedona we stopped at Slide Rock State Park, which is this awesome park with a natural red-sandstone water slide you can actually ride down. Unfortunately, though, due to a recent forest fire the slide portion of the park was closed. :( So all we got to do was look at the creek. Pretty to look at? Sure. As much fun as sliding down the creek? Heck no. So we went, we took pictures and we headed on our merry little way.

That's the creek down in the right hand corner

After our uneventful trip to Slide Rock, we drove to a little downtown area of Sedona and got out to walk around. It was a cute area with restaurants and shops and amazing views, of course.

From there we kept driving through Sedona and appreciating the amazing red rock mesas that surrounded us everywhere we looked. I can only imagine what the hiking in Sedona is like, but with a two year old in tow, we stuck to the road and scenic pull off areas.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Next we hit up the Oak Creek Brewery for a delicious lunch and from there headed back north to our hotel. And while Ethan and I snoozed in the car (I try really hard to stay awake when Matt has to be awake to drive, but sometimes I just can't fight the tired bug!), Matt stopped on his way back up that curvy, windy road on the side of the mountain and took some more pictures.

See the road?

Then after a little downtime in the hotel room we took Ethan out to a huge playground we found to let the little guy burn some energy and run around and just generally be a kid. He loved it and totally deserved it after all the car time we put him through earlier that day.

From there we visited the Lowell Observatory, which is actually where they discovered Pluto - cool! And we got to look at the sun through a telescope - also cool!

Checking out the sun

And finally, after the observatory, we went to Beaver Street Brewery, where Matt could have a quick sampler and then we ordered carry-out and very happily headed back to the hotel room to crash. Have I mentioned that traveling with a two year old is exhausting? Haha. :) I'll be sure to finish the "Our Arizona Mini Vacation" series soon with the last post for the Meteor Crater and finally making it home after 950+ miles in the car in four days. :)