Kendall and Dave Visit

This past weekend we had more visitors - yay! This time Matt's Mom (Kendall) and her boyfriend (Dave) came from New York to spend five days with us, which was awesome. As much as we try to call, email, Skype, etc. to keep in touch with family, nothing beats a good old fashion visit. :) So they arrived late Wednesday night and stayed with us until Monday morning. It was a great visit with a good balance of site-seeing and downtime.

On Thursday, their first full day in Albuquerque, unfortunately, both Matt and I had to work, but they made the most of it and rode the Sandia Peak Tramway and then afterward wandered around Albuquerque on their own. When evening time came, we all had dinner together and then took Ethan out to the playground behind our house after dinner.

On Friday the four of us (minus Ethan who went to daycare) were able to go to brunch together at the Flying Star Cafe (one of our favorite restaurants in Albuquerque) and then Dave, Kendall and I went to the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens for the afternoon. I hadn't really been to the Botanic Gardens since January 2009 when Matt was stationed here and I visited him, so to see the gardens in the spring was really spectacular. The Butterfly Pavilion was also bustling with life, so it was neat to walk through there - and a butterfly even landed on me, which Kendall said is good luck, so cool!

Saturday morning Dave, Kendall and Matt all got up bright and early and headed out to hike Tent Rocks while Ethan and I hung out in the air conditioning. Matt also showed them the CV-22, which is always cool to see (although I may be a bit biased, lol). Then Saturday night we cooked in and just relaxed since everyone was pretty tired from the day of hiking.

Sunday was their last full day in town, so we decided to go out and buy Ethan his own baby pool. Last summer it took a lot of pool trips to get Ethan comfortable in the pool, so I wondered how this would work, but considering it was more like a tub in his backyard I thought he might adjust faster. Well, Ethan must've been on the same wavelength (this is like a bathtub in my backyard), because once he convinced us to strip him of his shirt, shorts AND diaper, he was all about hopping in that pool and splashing around, lol. Silly naked baby. Good thing it was his own private pool!

Eyeing up the pool... not sure what to make of it yet

Oh, this splashing thing is fun

Oh no, my shirt is wet, nooooo!

Okay, this isn't so bad, but these shorts are kind of bothering me

Yessss! I'm free of all clothing!

Splashing with Daddy

Ooooh yeah, this is the life!

After pool time, we went out to Sadie's for dinner. Matt and I had heard great things about Sadie's Mexican Restaurant from friends, but had yet to try it out. Well let me tell you, Sadie's did not disappoint! Not only was the service friendly and attentive, the margaritas were awesome and the meals were HUGE and amazingly delicious. Between the carne adovada and the beef brisket we couldn't decide which was better and were all happily stuffed at the end. Well, stuffed, but not too stuffed to not try the complimentary sopaipillas topped with honey after our meals. ;)

My ginormous beef brisket burrito with beans and potatoes and "Christmas" sauce on the side - yum!

Then, of course, after Sunday comes Monday when Dave and Kendall packed up and flew home to New York. We're always sad to see our visitors go, the house just seems so quiet when it's back to three. At least we have more visitors coming in just a few short weeks AND we'll get to see Kendall and Dave again in August when we make our whirlwind homecoming tour after Matt finishes his training. :)