Once again this year we took off to spend some time in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We predict that in the future everybody will be spending a month and a half of the year in Albuquerque and we have some attractive real estate options for those of you who want to get in on the action early.
Needless to say, we learned a lot about packing from our trip last year (mostly that Dad was right about how much stuff we needed... ;) ) and the trip this year was much simpler. No Uhaul, got packed the day before we left, took off during nap time. It seemed like our exit would be seemless...
Luckily for us, Ana had arranged to receive her endowments the morning of the day we were leaving so that we could be there. When we went to bed the night before the car was packed, everything was set out, the house was clean, you name it. Not that any of that helped get us out the door.... Katie and I got up and were ready to go to the temple with plenty of time. However, Kallie who NEVER has a potty accident or wets the bed wakes up 30 minutes before we have to leave having wet all over her bed, Andrew wakes up 15 minutes before we have to leave with a fever and congestion and diarhea, Ben wet the bed and never woke up but managed to sleepwalk to our commands, and the newly repaired roof started leaking. On top of that the neighbor that agreed to watch the kids for us that morning forgot to tell her husband, whom we awoke when we brought the kids over and they were also sick at their house.
When we got back from lunch instead of hopping right in the car as we had planned a good portion of our early afternoon was spent doing a last minute favor for someone in need. Luckily, we only planned to drive to Cortez, Colorado that day, which meant we could arrive with time to go swimming before the hotel closed the pool.
So we get to the hotel, request a crib and hit the pool. Since, the kids were going to have to bathe before bedtime now, we decided to do it in shifts. I took Andrew up to shower with me and Katie and the other two were supposed to follow in 10 minutes. Well.... I'm standing in the room in my birthday suit while Andrew finishes playing in the tub after the shower and there's a knock on the door. Now, the first thought that should have crossed my mind is my "hotel-door-card-monging" children and their mother would surely never have need to knock on the door. Nope, the thought that crossed my mind was, "hey, that's Katie and the kids: I had better open the door." Luckily, as I opened the door I was able to process the fact that it was Andrew's crib before the female desk clerk got a full ray of sunshine. Needless to say she was a little surprised later when we asked for directions to the church for the next day.
Not that we are particularly able to process clear direction even with a gps unit sitting in the car. It didn't help that Katie was waffling between the 9 and 11 o'clock services right up until 8:48 when she decided on 9. We passed the turn off to the chapel, but luckily a couple miles down the road in the middle of some farms magically appeared another LDS chapel. Given the much longer than prepared for route to church we missed the beginning of the service, and were relegated to sitting in the foyer with three very tired children who didn't appreciate getting stuffed into their church clothes in the space of 1.3 minutes. After church we were on the road again.
Guess who's bed isn't made...
The odd thing about this room is that the child who sleeps here doesn't use either bed... and it isn't Andrew.
The balcony even has room for a splash pool.
Bet you didn't think there was any grass here... we didn't.
We even scored an overlook of the playground and pool!
So we get to the hotel, request a crib and hit the pool. Since, the kids were going to have to bathe before bedtime now, we decided to do it in shifts. I took Andrew up to shower with me and Katie and the other two were supposed to follow in 10 minutes. Well.... I'm standing in the room in my birthday suit while Andrew finishes playing in the tub after the shower and there's a knock on the door. Now, the first thought that should have crossed my mind is my "hotel-door-card-monging" children and their mother would surely never have need to knock on the door. Nope, the thought that crossed my mind was, "hey, that's Katie and the kids: I had better open the door." Luckily, as I opened the door I was able to process the fact that it was Andrew's crib before the female desk clerk got a full ray of sunshine. Needless to say she was a little surprised later when we asked for directions to the church for the next day.
In the course of our travels we came across some pretty uninteresting things that some people thought were pretty interesting. You, know things that really help you appreciate the level of education that you possess. For example we found "Hole N the Rock". I don't know about anybody else, but where I come from we call that a cave dab gummit. And we ain't so stupid as to need a great big sign and an arrow to tell us where it is. The pointer-outer-of-rock-holes must have run out of paint however, because as we drove along we saw lots of holes in rocks that they had forgot to mark... Aside from that we caught some wildlife when a couple of monkeys took our order at a McDonald's in Cuba, NM. Let's just say that you would be surprised to learn that it is possible to be too incompetant to work at McyD's. All in all we had a very safe and very fun drive to Albuquerque.
Nerve racking, intense, scary, unreal. Andrew spent 10 scary days in the NICU before we were able to bring him home. How quickly he went from this....
Now he is everywhere! He is the fastest little crawler I have ever seen and can get into anything by the time I turn my back. Needless to say he keeps us on our toes!
Andrew was simply amazed by this
After a much needed nap we put on our swim suits and headed over to swim in an indoor swimming pool. Since Andrew loved swimming so much while we were in California I thought he would really like to do that for his birthday. We were there for about 4-5 hours and he didn't want to get out once! He did try a few times to crawl thru water that was a little too deep for him, but he is a quick learner :) We were lucky enough that our friends came and joined us there. Andrew and J-- are only 16 days apart (she is the older of the two) and they had fun watching each other. Ben and Kallie had fun playing with J--'s big brothers and J--'s mom and I had fun not being there alone with 7 kids! We had a blast! (Yes that green 'eyed' girl is Kallie :)
The next birthday celebration was at Grandma and Grandpa's for pizza and swimming! It really didn't matter it was only in the 60's. The spa was pretty warm for the kids and gave Andrew a shot to try out his new water toy! He even got in a little practice stealing Ava's Binky. Good thing Grandma is quick!
A cute girlie with her handsome daddy
Love this shot of Amy and her model pose...you are so cute!
This is the cake I made him for his next birthday celebration at my aunt Jan's house. The little cake was for him to eat. (if you can't tell it's a racetrack...he's fast so I thought it fit his personality...and he loves to eat cars!)
He also has graduated into a new car seat! I love this forward facing one!
While we were at Jan's we had our Ellsworth side Easter dinner and egg hunt (I'll post pictures of that later...not going to try my luck with blogger again) Andrew was also able to meet their new colt Cisco, who also shares his April 17th birthday! This little guy is only 2 days old!
All in all I think Andrew had an awesome birthday. He has taken such great naps for me ever since :) We love him and just can't believe how fast a year can fly! He makes our home so fun and exciting. Andrew is always up for anything and is just such an amazing little man. I can't wait for all the fun birthday's to come!