Albuquerque - Adventure 1

  Andrew has training at Kirkland AFB for four months.  He is moving squadrons and planes.  The U model gunship is dying and the J model is replacing it.  Andrew was selected to transfer over to the J model AND be an aircraft commander instead of remaining a co-pilot.  I am super proud.  Four months of his training is done at Kirkland AFB, NM.  Instead of being apart for those four months we elected to go as a family.  Every day I think about how grateful I am that we are not apart.  I can live just about anywhere as long as I get to be with my family.
  Andrew was able to secure a TLF for our family and we are SO grateful.  Albuquerque is highest in the country for auto theft and up there for other crimes, so, getting to live on base was a huge sigh of relief.  I have yet to leave base without Andrew and I don't see me doing that any time soon.  The horror stories of what happens in broad daylight in good parts of town have intimidated me enough to stay on base when Andrew is at work.  It'd be one thing if I were to go out by myself, but having four young girls in tow.  Yeah, I'll pass.
  The weather here is absolutely beautiful.  I LOVE fall weather and have missed it a ton while living in the south.  And the colors!  So pretty!  Golden yellow leaves everywhere.  A nice change from pine trees.  The mountains are also a nice change and I love looking out my windows at them.
  Because we don't go out during the week, each weekend we plan on going out to see and do fun things.  Last Saturday we went to the Botanical Gardens and Aquarium.  Before heading there we stopped to grab a bite to eat.

  Lunch was yummy.  We ate at the Golden Crown Bakery.  We ordered pizza and a sub sandwich.  Sandwich was good, pizza was delish.  And it came out super fast, too.  That is a huge bonus when you're trying to get your four kids to sit down and wait patiently for their lunch. After finishing up, we drove to the Aquarium.
  On our way, we passed a huge rattlesnake that had been ran over.  The thing had to have been 4-5 feet long.  I really hope we don't meet one of those guys while we are here.
  So, the Aquarium.  We all had a fun time looking at the bright colored fish.  Some were small, others huge.  Because Abby especially loves creatures from under the sea, she was running from one fish exhibit to the next, oo-ing and ahh-ing the whole time.  At home she would often request Sharks, a Netflix documentary, to be put on tv.  She had to have watched it 20 times.  Seeing sharks and funny shaped fish was her cup o' tea.

Looking at the sting rays

 One of the funny shaped fish.  It had quite an odd nose.  Almost like a dolphin.  It looked too big for its body. 

Abby was a little disgusted with the "sea spider".  I don't know its real name but it was huge and looked like something out of a nightmare.  

 Waiting for the sharks to swim around.

 Outside was a small exhibit for the otters.  They weren't exciting as they were sunning themselves on a platform.  Looked enjoyable to me.

  The gardens were serene, or at least they appeared that way.  There were plenty of kids running around playing in the open grassy area, but it just looked so peaceful and happy.  There was a train expo going on where collectors would set up their trains and let them go around on the train track.  Some even had steam coming out of their whistle.  The girls didn't want to stop watching.

  All around the gardens were animals shaped out of wired lights.  I'm guessing that they turn them on at night during the holidays??  I'm not sure if they are turning them on yet but it's something I need to look into because they did an amazing job.  

  There was also a butterfly enclosure with a dozen or so different kinds of butterflies.  They were pretty but the girls lost interest after 10 minutes of not being allowed to touch anything.  The bug exhibit was next.  At this point we were all done and ready to go home.  We walked through quickly, cringing at the big creepy crawlies.
  One fun adventure down, many more to go!

Christine's Wedding

  Not even two weeks after Andrew got home we packed up and headed to Utah for Christine and Robin's wedding.  As per tradition, we made matching shirts for a family night of bowling.  So on Thursday some of us tie-dyed shirts while others went and helped move Robin and Christine's stuff into their new place.  

The "us" that tie-dyed shirts were Maria, Chris, Bryson, and myself.  Some turned out really cool, all turned out good enough to wear.  

We went to BYU to bowl.  Ellie loved pushing her ball down the ramp.  After a couple of times bowling she insisted on carrying her own ball to the ramp.

Friday afternoon we went to visit Grandma Bonnie.  Andrew hadn't seen her in a couple years and she loves getting visitors.  It was good to see her.  On our way out the door Grandma offered to push Abby on her walker.  We were totally against it but she insisted and made it all the way to the tables.  

Saturday was the wedding.  Here's Grammy with the flower girls and Andrew trying to get the gum out of Abby's mouth.  So, pardon the arm.

The ceremony was beautiful.  The officiator went on a little much about bonsai trees, but who cares?  Christine and Robin couldn't look more happy!

After the ceremony was pictures... and then dinner. 

Christine and Robin did a surprise jive dance for their First Dance.  It was so much fun to watch.  They were amazing.

Kate and Abby had so much fun dancing.  They danced like they never have before.  It was such a great time.  Even Ellie joined in on the dancing.

The send off - and they lived happily ever after.

Andrew's Homecoming!!!

  The day finally came for Andrew's return.  The girls and I were counting down to April 10th just in case Andrew was delayed on his way home.  We didn't want to put the girls through that disappointment.  Thankfully we didn't have to and Andrew arrived home on April 6th.  We arrived a couple hours before Andrew was bused out to the building we were at.  They had to go through customs before coming out to us and depending on who is doing the job, it can take a while.  We lucked out and didn't have to wait as long as others have. 

All the girls were dressed up and looking super cute for their Daddy.

 Abby was delighted to hold the sign her and Kate had colored.

 We were all so happy to have Daddy back.  Ellie didn't want to let him go.

 Right after Andrew got all of his luggage, we went to the playground on base so the girls could play with their Daddy.  The girls wanted to show Andrew all that they could do.  Some of the things they learned while he was gone.  Other things, well, they just wanted their Daddy's attention.

 I was a little surprised that Ellie didn't cry when she saw Andrew for the first time.  I've heard stories of little kids being a little scared of their Dads when they get back because they haven't seen them in so long. It only lasts a little while but Ellie didn't act that way at all.  Even with Andrew's amazing 'stache.  

I attribute a lot of that to Andrew putting his family first.  He always tried to call before bedtime to say goodnight to the girls and during the day if he could.  He would send Marco Polos to the girls if he hadn't been able to talk to them on the phone in a couple of days and always had them on his mind.  I am so grateful for the technology we have that allows for us to stay in such close contact, even while Andrew is deployed to some God forsaken country. 

 Dog pile on Daddy

 The day after Andrew got home we went to a friend's birthday party.  It was a good excuse to get out of the house and go somewhere together.  The girls had a great time playing with their friends and showing off all that they could do to their Daddy.

 Andrew had to go into work on Monday and because his 'stache was technically out of regs he had to shave it off.  It made him sad.

 Story time 

 Tuesday we went up to Milton to pick strawberries.  This was our first time going as a family and it was great.  We were there for about 45 minutes and picked 21 pounds of strawberries.  

 Once we got home we cleaned all of the strawberries.  Some were used to make strawberry jam, the rest were put into the freezer for smoothies.

 Abby was a great little helper.

  The strawberry jam turned out yummy and life was back to how it should be.  No complaints here.