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! :)

Happy 21 Months to Ethan!

I can't believe it's already the end of May! Where has the time gone?? Matt's original end date for training was actually this week, but with all the delays he's had, it looks like it'll be closer to the end of July or beginning of August. We don't mind staying in Albuquerque a few months longer, but we're definitely both looking forward to being part of a squadron and getting to settle (as much as a military family can settle). We've been looking at houses in Clovis, but we still can't decide if we want to rent, buy or live on base. There are benefits to each option, so we're just making sure we fully investigate all three before we make a decision. The housing market in Clovis is just so wacky right now. We can buy a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house for about a $900 mortgage OR rent a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house for a $1500 rent! Seems like a no brainer, we're just not sure we really want to own a house in Clovis, New Mexico, lol.

Other than getting ready for our move to Clovis, we've just been keeping busy with day-to-day stuff. I've had a lot more work this month, which has been great. I'm averaging about 3 hours a day, which is less than what I originally expected, but I'm not complaining! I'll take what work I can get and be happy to have it! Then Matt is always busy with training. Whether he's in the simulator flying or in class or studying he always has a lot on his plate. Lucky for him, though, he's actually going to Austin, Texas this weekend for a friend's bachelor party. It'll be a quick trip, but I know he's looking forward to seeing his friends and getting a break from training.

As for Ethan, he is just growing and getting bigger and learning more everyday. He's getting really good at his animal sounds (my favorite is when you ask him what a dog says and he sticks his tongue out and pants, not sure who taught him that one, but it's funny).  He also knows all his body parts and likes pointing them out (head, eyes, mouth, nose, finger, toes, belly, arms, legs, etc.). Then just the other day we were walking out the door to leave and I said, "Ready?" and he responded "Seeeet, GOOOO!" It was the cutest thing! And he's definitely a boy based on the amount of scrapes, bumps and bruises he gets. He plays hard and doesn't seem to mind getting a little banged up along the way. Other than that he loves his movies and definitely has some favorites. He just saw Puss in Boots for the first time last week and now he's always asking to watch "Boots." Then there's Toy Story. He loooves Buzz and Woody and asks for them by name, too. He's also getting much better with his manners. He's finally saying "thank you" although it sounds like "tha" when he says it, but we know what he means. And he knows to say "please" when he wants something. Now I'm trying to work on "no, thank you" as opposed to just "nooo!" when he doesn't want something. It's a slow process, but manners are really important to Matt and me, so it's worth it.

Here's some pictures from the last few weeks:

My boys playing

Matt was doing push-ups so Ethan went over and joined him

At the playground

At the grocery store

Sitting on his bike, resting his head, watching tv, lol

Eating his first White Castle burger (Matt was so proud)

Picking out a book to read & make your own pizza night