Lemurs, tigers and bears... oh my!

We went to the Hillcrest Park Zoo for the first time this past weekend. Having just come from Albuquerque, which has an awesome zoo, we tried to keep our expectations in check realizing this zoo wasn't going to be as awesome, but we were actually pleasantly surprised. They didn't have polar bears, elephants or lions, but they did have a tiger, a pair of brown bears and some very active monkeys. It took us somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours to wander through the whole thing, which was perfect for Ethan. By the end he was done, but he had fun while we were there. It was also pretty cheap costing only $7 for all three of us. So yay for finding something new and different to do in Clovis and yay for it actually being fun to do!

Our little butterfly, lol :)

Donkeys - heehaw!

We were seriously worried about this guy at first, but then we saw his ears moving, so we figured he was okay...

Lemurs!

38 weeks and 5 days with the monkeys

Crazy monkeys

Sooner the tiger

A bald eagle! America!

Our not-so-date date night

Since we don't know a lot of people around here yet, we've actually asked our babysitter to be our on-call person to watch Ethan when Baby Boy #2 decides to make his grand entrance. She is an awesome person and Ethan loves every time she watches him, so it was an easy decision for us. Now, in an effort to make Ethan even more comfortable with her, we had her come over and watch him Saturday night. She got here a little earlier than normal with the goal being for them to spend time together to include dinner and bedtime.

So around 530pm or so, Matt and I left the house for dinner with plans to see a movie afterward. We didn't really know where we were going for dinner. At first we stopped at the Cotton Patch Cafe (an American chain restaurant), because, why not? Well, I'll tell you why not. They don't serve alcohol at the Cotton Patch Cafe. When asked if they did (because from the hostess stand you could see the drink area where there was no liquor and no beer taps) we were told it was a "family restaurant." Lol. Evidently beer and family environments don't mix. Noted.

From there, we gave up and headed to Chili's because, well, we know what to expect when we go to Chili's. It might not be anything amazing, but it's somewhat reliable. And they serve alcohol. After Chili's we headed to the movie theater where we planned to see American Sniper. Well, of course, the movie was sold out (the 645pm show) and there was absolutely nothing else we wanted to watch. The options were to either see the 945pm show or see nothing. So we saw nothing, because let's be real, we can not stay awake long enough to see a movie that starts at 945pm.

That's when things went downhill fast. We literally just started driving around aimlessly. It was too early to go home (Ethan wasn't even in bed yet), but we had nothing to do. We'd even already been bowling with Ethan earlier that day, so hitting up the bowling alley again just seemed pitiful. There are movies on base, which we debated, but by the time we thought of it we would've arrived 15 minutes late (and no, they don't show 15 minutes worth of previews on base, I know this, because I called and asked, just in case). So where did we end up? The local self-serve frozen yogurt shop, Yo Tea Go. Which was, fine. From there, we hit up the closest Redbox for a movie to take home with us. Which, of course, didn't have the movie we wanted, so we had to go to the next closest Redbox.

Are you bored yet just hearing about our date night? Lol. It was bad. I mean, we had a babysitter, we had hours to do whatever we wanted without a child, probably for the last time in awhile. And what did we do? We went to Chili's, got frozen yogurt, picked up a Redbox movie and went back home. It was one of the first times we really missed living in a city with - ya know - stuff to do. Lol.

Just a few more years, right? ;)

Tim and Jess Visit

I know I'm a little behind in posting this, but for the long Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, we were lucky enough to have Matt's brother, Tim, and his girlfriend Jess come visit us. It's always awesome to have family in town, even if we really haven't figured out a lot of "fun" things to do with our guests. Visiting us here is more of a relaxing, chill sort of thing, which I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing. :) So while I wish I had a list of exciting adventures we went on while Tim and Jess were here, the real highlights of their whole trip were bowling, dinner out and going to the playground with Ethan, haha.

Bowling!

Dinner at the only brewery in town, Roosevelt Brewing Company

At the playground

My happy not-so-baby baby boy <3

Digging with Uncle Tim

Matt, Ethan and Tim :)

I don't know why, but I love this picture of him running - so happy and free :)

Like I said, though, no matter what we do, it really is always wonderful to have friends and family visit us. So we're definitely looking forward to all the upcoming guests that are going to start rolling in right after Baby #2's arrival. :)

Home is where your heart is

One year ago today Ethan and I packed up our lives on the East Coast and moved to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. Hard to believe it's been a whole year. I've missed so much about Maryland and DC, but I have loved all the new experiences and adventures, and the independence that come with moving away from home. And while February 26, 2006 is the day I started on this crazy military journey and September 10, 2011 is the day I became a military spouse, I think January 8, 2014 will always be important to me because it was the day the military took me away from home.

But what is home?

We never really know where the Air Force might send us next or when they may choose to send us. Heck, we don't even know what nights Matt will be home for dinner next week. But what I do know is this, home is where your heart is, and what the Air Force has taught me is that my heart doesn't have to be in only one place. Because while my heart is absolutely here with Matt and Ethan and this new little baby boy who is going to come out to meet us in the upcoming weeks, my heart is also in Maryland where I spent the first 25 years of my life and DC where I married the man of my dreams and brought our first precious baby boy home. And both Maryland and DC will always have pieces of my heart. Maybe as we move across the world on this crazy adventure little pieces of my heart will be spread even more. Who knows? All I know is, for now, my heart is here, in New Mexico.

Our first snowfall of 2015

It snowed a little earlier in the week, but it was barely enough to cover the grass. Then yesterday it started snowing around 4pm and didn't stop until the wee hours of the morning. The end result was at least 7 inches of beautiful white snow covering everything. :)

The snow falling at 8pm last night

The view out our front window around 11pm last night

Our backyard at 9am this morning

7 inches!

Playing in the snow! 

Everything is still going fine... 

And then he realized his hands were wet, and he was cold, and it went downhill fast...

Daddy to the rescue!

Then Matt showed him how to pull icicles off the roof and throw them in the snow and he was in heaven. Seriously. 

 

33 weeks and 5 days... but who's counting? ;)

From the backyard and throwing icicles, we headed to the front yard where evidently the snow kept blowing in Ethan's eyes, so he asked for his sunglasses. Smart kid. :) 

Because a lawn mower in 7 inches of snow totally makes sense. ;)

Goodbye 2014, hello 2015!

We've had a busy couple of weeks starting with Thanksgiving and our birthdays and rolling right through into the New Year. But isn't that always the way? I always look forward to the holidays, but I am always happy to see them go and normalcy return afterward, too. That being said, I figured I'd do a little summary of our holidays and all the craziness that ensued. :)

So for starters my parents visited us here in Clovis for Christmas. For my Mom it was a second trip, but for my Dad it was his first time to the wonderful town of Clovis. They planned the trip months ago, so it was something I had been looking forward to for awhile. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to my parents, they brought a stomach bug along with them for the trip. For my mother it kicked in right when she landed in Lubbock, Texas. Then it hit me on Christmas Eve and my father on Christmas day. My poor parents literally never left our house because throughout their whole stay someone was always sick. :( We made the best of it, though, and still had a really nice Christmas together, just with a few germs in tow. And luckily, my boys never caught the sickness (whew!).

The fort Ethan and Matt made on Christmas Eve

Pop and Ethan with his new Hess truck

The beautiful centerpiece Pam and Kerry sent us, along with the hot milk cake I made (that no one ate because it actually didn't cook all the way through - stupid altitude...)

"Nothing says Christmas Eve like High Life in a Hooter's mug."

 Christmas morning, opening Buzz Lightyear :)

"Big Buzz Lightyear flies!"

Playing with his new Christmas toys

After my parents left bright and early on the 27th, we got out of the house and went bowling, which Ethan absolutely loved. We hadn't taken him since moving here and were super impressed with how well he did. Not only did he carry his own ball, set it down at the foul line and push it down the lane, he also patiently sat and waited for his turn every time. It was awesome.

Patiently waiting his turn and clapping for Matt; Jumping up and down when his ball hit the pins :)

Then on the 30th, we were lucky enough that some of our best friends made the trip to Clovis on their way home to Montana from Texas! We hadn't seen them in over a year and a half so it was absolutely wonderful to have them here with us for two nights. :)

After all the fun and excitement of having an extra five people and one dog in our house ended, everything slowed down and got really quiet around here. I've taken down most of the Christmas decorations (all except the tree that just needs to be packed up and put in the garage). And we even got about 7 inches of snow last night, which always gives the world that peaceful, clean, fresh look (until it gets ugly and slushy in about a day, lol). So yay to a busy end to 2014, and here's to a wonderful start to 2015. Crazy to think in just another 6 weeks or so we'll be our own little family of four, instead of three. I guess things never really do slow down, do they? :)