This post was a hard one to write. Life is so hectic busy when you move, you don't fully realize how much you are going to miss a place til you're gone. I wish I had been better about taking good pictures of the things I loved most about Albuquerque. I partly blame the fact that I was a single mom for the last 5 weeks before we moved...David was already in Mesquite working and I was left behind to pack the house and until we found a place to live in Mesquite. But Albuquerque will always hold a special place in my heart, even though we were only there for a short time. We met some amazing people, some of the best friends we've had. We grew to love the surroundings and the culture. So here is a really random post, compiled of iphone pictures of the last few months or so in ABQ.
Of course, one of the greatest things about Albuquerque is the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta that takes place in October. It is one of the most beautiful things in the world to look up in the sky on any given day in October and see 10, 20, 30, 50, or even more balloons in the sky. It never gets old! During the week preceding the opening weekend of the Fiesta, there is a balloon launch at the different elementary schools around town. We walked down to Maia's school to see the one they launched there. It was so neat!
I miss living (semi) close to this sweet friend...we were lucky to get together quite often for shopping trips, etc. This particular trip was so much fun! David completely surprised me for my 30th bday with a weekend retreat with Megan. We went out to eat, stayed in a hotel, and shopped soooooo much. It was a blast!
These next couple of pictures are just totally random...this one of Elsie...she came to me one day and said, "Look mom, I'm like Pippi Longstocking!" Too bad it was permanent marker haha...
And this is just a handsome one of Mason before Church one day...
Another thing I miss..all the things there are to do in a big city...Below is a picture of Maia on one of her school fieldtrips to Explora Museum, a really cool children's museum.
And a picture of Elsie at Gravity Park, a huge trampoline warehouse, with wall to wall trampolines and foam pits...a favorite for sure!
Around Halloween there is this really cute pumpkin patch/activity place that has all sorts of free things to do...a huge corn kernel pit, sand boxes, tube slides, animals to feed, etc. And then at Christmas, they turn it into a little Christmas village and have different activities you can do. It is so much fun! Here are a couple pictures from the Christmas Corral....
Another thing I love...The River of Lights at the Botanical Gardens around Christmas...they have so many different lights, all animals, insects, fish, dinosaurs, etc. and it is really fun to walk through the gardens at night and look at them all. The botanical gardens are hands down one of my favorite places to go in Albuquerque. It is an escape from the desert and is really relaxing and fun. They have a fun children's play area where we could spend hours playing! Here is a (poor quality) picture of the girls at the River of Lights this last year. They are standing below the Unicorn, which you can't see, but was their favorite thing!
I miss co-op teaching Elsie's preschool class. There was a group of 6 girls and they were so much fun. Here they are at a pumpkin patch for a fall fieldtrip.
And singing at a nursing home around Christmas...
I miss our ward in ABQ. These pictures are from the ward Christmas party. The girls loved seeing Santa:)
TRADER JOES....That's about all I need to say about that!! I'm craving their Kettle Corn and Italian Style Turkey, and dried mangoes and their Joe-Joe's as we speak....:)
I miss all the parks they had right close by. Mesquite does have some nice parks too, which is good, but I loved the variety in our neighborhood that were within walking distance. I also miss the walking trail around my neighborhood.
Okay, this is another random picture, but definitely post worthy! Mason was supposed to be sleeping, but wasn't settling in...I finally went in to check on him and what I saw did not make me happy to say the least! All I had to do was say "NO!" and he broke down in tears, he knew he was in trouble. That poop finger painting job took a LONG time to clean up! It was the most disgusting thing ever. He is my first child to ever do such a thing. When he repeated this exercise the following day (on David's watch this time haha) we had to have a serious intervention of onesie's on at all times! Thankfully that did the trick:)
Okay back to what I miss most about Albuquerque... Most of all I miss all of our good friends! Below is a picture of bowling night with Rich and Katie. We love those guys so much! They are seriously like family to us! They would frequently have the girls over after church on Sundays for dinner, walks, crafts, games and books. My girls got to the point where they would invite themselves EVERY Sunday if I didn't intervene! They talk about those days so much.
This is a picture of my good friend Jen's girls and my girls. They were some of our first friends in Albuquerque and they always played so well together. It worked perfectly because Jen and I could visit or craft with each other and the girls would just play. This was our last night of fun with them and then we had to say goodbye:(( Miss them so much!
A GNO shopping/eating trip...( I love how it looks like the poster in the back is just part of our group haha!)
Double (triple?) dating with the Chavez's and the Lee's... This night was such a fun fun night and such a true Albuquerque experience. We ate a the historic Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town. It was authentic New Mexican cuisine and to make it even better they had Mexican singers serenading you while you ate. I can't even describe it. The ambiance was perfect and I remember saying this was one of my Albuquerque experiences that I will never forget. After dinner, we walked around Old Town and stopped in at the shops. A perfect night. I look creepy in this picture tho!
And one more good one...this picture was taken on my last GNO in Albuquerque. We had gone to dinner, and out to get Menchie's and then a few of us came back to my house to chat til late into the night. The more tired you get, the more crazy ideas come to your head. We had been staring at the built in shelving in my living room and someone suggested that we all take a space. I had to grab my camera to document it and I'm glad I did! It was so funny. Love these girls.
Other things I miss that I don't have pictures of...impromptu dinners at Sara's house..she was always so sweet to think of me when Tim and David were both working late schedules and especially when I was on my own...she would often invite me over for dinner and it was good home cookin' and good company! Miss her lots.
I miss story time at the Balloon Museum with Holly...this storytime was so awesome. Miss Laurie was the lady that did it and she always had a good mix of music, stories, crafts,etc. It was always upbeat and active and exciting. Holly went faithfully every week and I joined her when I could. I really miss Holly and her friendship!
I miss crafting with friends and I definitely miss Cleaning Club!! This is where me and Kristie and Darbie would get together every week at one of our houses and eat lunch and then clean/organize whatever the host chose for that week. This was the best club we ever invented!! Seriously, the best.
I miss 9:00am church!! I suffered through a year of 1pm church in ABQ and then we finally switched over to 9am at the beginning of the year...only to move here the middle of February and switch to 2PM church. 2PM!!! The worst!!!!! EVER!!!!
I'm sure I could think of many more things if I sat down and took the time to do it. It was a good place for us and I'm so happy we had the experience there. I'm hopeful that in time I will be able to write a post about all the things I love about Mesquite...it just takes time to get settled in and, well, being the new girl in town is never easy! But with that said, we feel blessed to have the opportunity to buy a practice here and be close to family, which is something we both really wanted. Change is never easy, but we are hoping that this will be something that we will look back on as one of the best decisions we made:)
