Life in Albuquerque

As most of you know, Alex got an internship for the summer at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM. We were so excited to receive this good news and it has been a great experience so far. We've been living in Albuquerque since the beginning of June. Alex loves his research and is learning a lot. Clarke and I will be headed home in just a few weeks and Alex will follow about three weeks after that.

We've tried to make the most of our time here and explore the city. Here's a list of some of the things we've done so far:

Zoo
Tried lots of new restaurants
Had our (at least my) lifetime fill of green chile.
Old Town
Aquarium
Botanical gardens
Los Alamos (twice)
Ate at Chile Works
Santa Fe
Lots of swimming
Eaten free lunch at the park nearly every day
Story time at Barnes & Noble
Visited the Library
Read lots of books and gotten fun prizes for the library's summer reading program
Played with friends
Midnight showing of Man of Steel (Alex all by his lonesome because we had no babysitter)
Went to nursery for the first time
Watched a lot of Disney sing alongs (mostly Lion King) & Baby Einstein
Shopped for baby girl
Slept (and still sleeping) on an air mattress (which is getting increasingly uncomfortable for me)
Weekly visits to the laundromat (for Alex - love him)
Discovered the amazingness that is Good Will
Joined Pinterest
Spent a lot of time in the car
Seen LOTS of airplanes at Alex's work & in the air

I'm going to be honest....when we first drove into Albuquerque I told Alex, "Wow. What a big ugly city." Needless to say he was super offended by that comment given that he spent a good part of his growing up here in New Mexico. I've since found a soft place in my heart for Albuquerque. It is rather large (at least for me) and extremely dry and brown (seriously people, can't you paint your house blue or something? What is with all the brown?!) but I've learned to like it. I'm actually pretty sure we'll be back here someday and I'm starting to be okay with the idea.

Overall we've had a great summer so far. I've made some great friends who all have little boys around Clarke's age. So fun! I'm sad we're leaving Alex and our friends in a few weeks but I'm excited to see family and start getting things ready for baby girl.

Here are some pictures of our experience so far:

Clarke loves helping his daddy

 These boys and their strawberry milk!! They love it!

 Clarke's daily second breakfast with Daddy 

 Another second breakfast for Clarke

 Clarke loves his daddy (although you wouldn't know it when Alex tries to put him to bed!)

 Clarke is very observant and he always takes time to stop and smell the roses :)

 Fourth of July in Los Alamos/White Rock. We had a great time!

 Clarke likes chasing the massive ants they have here

 Waiting for the fireworks on the fourth

 Photo courtesy of Clarke. This kid is either going to be a photographer or a piano player when he grows up.  He loves the camera and is obsessed with the piano and music.

 Zonked after the fireworks show

 Best chocolate ice cream - thank you Kakawa House in Santa Fe!

 Clarke is a pro at carrying his bucket of cars back to his (our) room when we clean up 

Note: Can you tell that Alex has been "feeling lucky" here in Albuquerque? Notice his wardrobe in 75% of these pictures. Haha