Albuquerque and 6 YEaRs!

Last Saturday, the company Trav works for, hosted a picnic type thing in Albuquerque. It was at the Isotope  stadium, which is the baseball team that plays there. I guess it's the farm team for the Dodgers. 

Anyway, since the game was at 7pm and it's a 3 hour drive from Farmington to there, we decided to make a little trip of it and stay the night! Luckily, we have some pretty awesome friends that live there, that were willing to put us up for the night. :)

We left Saturday morning around 9am and so got there just after noon. Remember how I said it was a 3 hour drive? Ya, well it felt like 6. The kids were awful. AWFUL! Trav and I were dreaming of a car that has a screen window that will separate the front seats from the back... you know, kind of like a limo? Seriously, why hasn't this been invented yet?! I would SO purchase it. And the screen can act like a backdrop for a projector so they can watch movies. See? Win/ win. As it was, I finally snapped at Collin that if he didn't stop whining for food, we were going to pull over and leave him on the side of the road. That's a terrible thing to say to a 3 year old. And I didn't feel one ounce of remorse. (Clearly, I wouldn't have REALLY done it... it's just felt good to threaten it.) There were not very many minutes that one of them wasn't crying, whining, or screaming. What gives??!!

So FINALLY, we arrived in Albuquerque and our first stop was actually Bed, Bath and Beyond. My Shark cordless vacuum I like to use in the kitchen, bit the dust in Buffalo, and I've been in the Stone Ages using a broom and dust pan. (Gross.) But most stores don't carry cordless vacuums, so we had to buy it at Bed, Bath. 

I need to interject right here by saying that driving into Albuquerque was like opening my eyes for the first time! It was so BIG! There were just stores and restaurants galore. I found myself pining. Yes, pining. 

Here, I had just started getting used to Farmington, and then we drive here. It was like a carrot being dangled in front of my face. Oh, the options! People that live in big cities, just take these things for granted! I know, I did. Never again, folks. It was clear to me, once and for all, I am a city girl.

After Bed, Bath, we grabbed some McDonalds for the boys and headed to the zoo. (You can see Weston nibbling on a chicken nugget in this picture. I have never salivated so much over a McDonald's nugget or fries. I was in the middle of one of my fabulous stomach {episodes}, and couldn't risk eating anything. Actually, I didn't eat anything for the entire trip. OK, I had a Dr. Pepper and some aloe juice. It was TORTURE. Kinda put a big damper on everything for me... but I digress)

When we first got to the zoo, it was stinkin' hot. I think all we wanted to do was this:

But after an hour or so, some dark clouds moved in and it started to cool off and sprinkle.

Collin was not that interested in the animals. He never really was that big on the zoo. However, he had a BALL climbing rocks. Everywhere we walked, we were calling after Collin to hurry up, because he was scaling another rock.

In fact, the only way I got him to smile next to these zebras (yes, they are there... way in the back), was to promise him if he smiled we would go find a big rock for him to climb.

 Did I mention, it was our 6 year anniversary that day?! Yup, I've been married to this amazing guy for 6 whole years. Best decision I ever made. I don't know what I ever did to deserve him, but I won't ask questions... just be grateful he picked me! I could not picture anyone being better for me than Travis. He is so good to me and loves me despite all my annoying habits and hard to please nature. He should get an award. I am absolutely and completely in love with him!! (I would say I love him like {Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch over Katie Holmes}..... Buuuuut, we all know how that worked out, so never mind! :)

I love how random peacocks seem to just wander freely at zoos. 

After being there a few hours, the rain got pretty heavy, so we drove over to the aquarium next. Collin seems to prefer fish over animals anyway.

 Travis had told him that the creature in the tank was a {lobster}, so when I walked up, Collin was completely enthused to tell me all about, what he misinterpreted as, the big {monster}!! And he mimed it scratching your face off as he told me about it's big claws. It was an exciting day to meet a real, live monster.

Then we drove to the Marchant's house and got the kids in their jammies and ready to stay with the babysitter. And to think we were originally just going to take them with us! Praise Crescent and her foresight into what a bad idea that would have been! 

The company rented out the pavilion at the back of the field and had a catered picnic dinner for everyone. And let me tell you, it looked delicious. :(

This is a pic of all the dentists in the company that made it that night.

 At one point, they brought out a big cake for Martin, since it was his birthday this week and we all sang to him. He is the guy on the left side in the blue shirt. Dave Marchant is in the orange.... he works in one of their Albuquerque offices and we know him and Crescent from dental school. 

 We left the next morning around 9am, but I was sad when I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of the kids together! (And come to think of it, I didn't get one of Crescent either!) So I snapped this one real quick of Collin and Elsie. They have 3 kids, two girls and a boy, and Collin and Elsie are just one day apart. We were in the hospital together when we had them. They didn't have much time, but they played really well together.

Then sweet Crescent sent us off with a whole bag of special {Trader Joe} goodies she had bought for our drive home. So thoughtful! I couldn't wait to be able to eat the chocolate and toffee covered popcorn. Soooo yummy. 

The drive home was fairly similar to the one we had driving there... miserable. It has me seriously considering when I'll ever get up the courage to visit Arizona. But even so, I'm glad we went. Thank you Marchants for all you did for us! If you ever get a hankering to visit snazzy Farmington, you know where you can stay! :)