July 2018
After spending almost a week in Colorado, we spent a week in New Mexico visiting James's family. We feel so lucky to have family to stay with who are so good to us! Our niece gave up her room and bathroom so we could explode all over the place with our three kids and massive amounts of luggage. That's true love, people.
We took advantage of having a few days of relative calm to do some laundry and rest up. Hyrum loves to help with folding clean clothes. He doesn't really understand the goal of course, but he loves to take each piece out, shake it a few times, roll it into a ball and stack it up. I love having a helper!
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| Helping me fold clothes |
Even better than a 21-month-old helper is a teenage helper! My niece was amazing with my kids and entertaining them. They've never been so spoiled with attention between my niece and nephews. Their youngest is 8-years-old so having babies around (for a week) was a fresh spice in life for the whole family.
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| Reading with cousins |
Turns out James's family is full of science-loving nerds so they had a giant old calculator that Hyrum absolutely loved! Looks like he has some of that science gene in him.
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| He loves buttons... |
We also really struggled to keep him off the computer station that is so older-kid friendly - not so toddler friendly. Haha! Our poor family. Fortunately for Hyrum, he is cute so we all still love him.
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| ...and technology |
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| So much fun with these guys! |
While in New Mexico, we also got to visit with James's parents. We spent a day at the zoo which my kids loved! The Albuquerque zoo has a great pond with ducks and Grandma Harper was great to bring loads of food to feed them. My kids LOVED it!
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| Feeding the ducks at the zoo |
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| Hyrum loved the ducks! |
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| Audrianne loved the fish |
Audrianne remembered the carousel she rode in Kansas a few weeks earlier and could not focus on anything else once she saw this carousel. She just stood there outside the fence forever until we all managed to ride it a couple times. Thanks, Grandma, for the fun!
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| Audrianne really wanted to ride the carousel |
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| Hyrum on the swan |
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| Audrianne on the giraffe |
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| At the zoo with Daddy |
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| At the polar bear exhibit |
After going to the zoo, we met up with Grandpa Harper at Dion's pizza restaurant which is a family favorite. Audrianne decided to be proper and cut her pizza with a fork and knife. Haha!
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| Learning to cut with a fork and knife |
OK, so here's a story for the ages. When James and I were dating, he decided he wanted to propose to me on the top of a mountain. He went early to Snowbird Ski Resort in the Salt Lake area, rode the tram to the top, scouted the area out, planned every detail. Then when he took me a week later, we were buying tickets to the tram when lightning was spotted and the tram shut down indefinitely. We waited it out while it poured rain but finally we had to leave to attend a family barbecue. He didn't propose until later that evening and was super bummed that his romantic picnic plan was literally rained on.
Fast forward to July 2018 while we were in Albuquerque with family: James's brother and sister-in-law graciously offered to watch our kids while we went on a date. Now, we had lived in New Mexico for four years but never managed to ride the tram - which happens to be the longest tram in America and third longest in the world - so we decided to do that for our date in celebration of 12 years of marriage. Well, wouldn't you know it but just as we were in line to buy tickets, lightning was spotted so they shut down the tram, at first for 30 minutes and ultimately for the night. AUGH! So, we don't know God is trying to tell us about trams, but clearly our romantic sentiment has become NOT riding the tram together. We decided maybe we'll try again after another twelve years.
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| Our second failed tram ride |
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| Happy Anniversary |
Our new impromptu plan for our anniversary date (with free babysitting!) became going to Old Town Albuquerque (something we didn't do in the four years we lived there). We walked around for a while and took in the culture before stopping at a cool restaurant known for the building's historic significance and the fact that a tree grows right through one of the rooms. That was fun! After we ate, we drove around on a driving tour of historic old homes and buildings in the area that I found online. I love that James will do adventurous and possibly boring things with me like look at old buildings in the rain! He's the best! We really are a great match!
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| Cool restaurant |
While we were in town, James's brother invited James and Abi to join him and his sons on a cub scout activity to the military base fire station. They got to sit in trucks and fire the hose! That's way cool! While they were there, I took the twins to the aquarium and botanical garden which they loved. It was such a nice slow day of doing whatever we felt like. So great!
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| Military fire department tour |
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| Abi spraying the fire hose |
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| James spraying the first hose |
On Sunday, we drove out to the temple to take pictures. This EPIC road trip will take us by just over 20 temples that we could potentially stop and visit. We plan to see as many as possible! Enjoy counting them with us as I continue posting the trip. Here's temple number 1!
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| At the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple |
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| Abigail |
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| Hyrum |
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| Audrianne |
While all temples are the same in purpose and religious significance, this particular temple is very special to our family as it is the temple in which James and I were sealed when we got married AND the temple in which Abigail was sealed to us after her adoption was finalized. We are so grateful to know that our family is sealed for not just this life, but for all eternity!
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| Where it all started |
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| The kids |
Abigail never fails to make me laugh!
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| She cracks me up |
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| They love swinging |
My nephew plays cello fairly well and since Abi loves music so much, I asked him to give us a concert and inspire her. He totally did! And what's more, he let her play it a bit and showed her how. We feel so blessed to have supportive family!
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| My nephew taught her to play the cello |
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| She thinks she's pretty talented already |
We loved being in New Mexico and visiting so many good friends and family! But the time eventually came to continue our EPIC road trip!
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| Can you see Abigail? |
We drove through the southwest tip of Colorado where we stopped in Cortez to visit the library while James took a work call. He was still interviewing for jobs which is priority when you don't have one... did I mention he was on the job hunt again? Hm, well such has been our year.
This library was really neat! The kids had a blast!
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| Stop at a library |
Ok, so here's temple number 2 on our EPIC road trip. Our kids are not great models for photos and as the trip wore on, and we all got more tired, the pictures got more hilarious. They actually tell a great story of our trip.
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| Monticello, UT temple |
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| This is what memories are made of |
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