Our Vacation Was Fantastic!
Grandma Deb, Tim, the boys and I took an impromptu mini-vacation to Albuquerque, New Mexico. A dozen days give or take to plan a vacation seemed impossible but Tim and I tag teamed all the arrangements and made the impossible possible. We left extremely early Saturday morning and arrived at check in time at the hotel. We relaxed the first day by swimming and shopping. We spent the second day driving around checking out the city quadrants. We drove up to Rio Rancho the third day and did some more shopping. Our last day, which coincided with Drama King’s 6th birthday, was spent at the Albuquerque BioPark includes the Aquarium, Botanic Garden, Zoo and Tingley Beach.
We’ve been home for almost two days and we’re all longing to go back. The BioPark was fabulous – I’ll write up more on it later – and we had a wonderful time and met some interesting people. There are so many differences between Tucson and Albuquerque and none of them make us want to stay here. Albuquerque looks better and better every time I walk out our door. From the laid back drivers to the friendly locals, I cannot wait to go back again.
Spontaneous Family Vacation In 5 Days
About two weeks ago Tim sprung an idea on us. We have been talking about moving away from Arizona and New Mexico is a forerunner in the locations to move our family so he thought why not take a short vacation when he has his next three day weekend. We thought it was a fantastic idea and the only drawback was the timing of it all. Tim’s next three day weekend is the 31st less than two weeks from when he had the brilliant idea. We, also, opted to include my mom on the vacation because she would be moving with us more than likely.
We’re renting a mini van to allow ample space for everyone and all necessary luggage. It was really hard to find a mini van, or any large vehicle, that had unlimited miles that weekend. One place even said that she was surprised it didn’t have unlimited miles and asked if there was a special event because normally that changes the mileage allowance. After lots of phone calls and many online quotes, we settled on Hertz. The customer service was fantastic at working around their system to get us the best deal AND keep unlimited miles. We pick up at one place because they have the van available but we’ll drop it at the airport because it has a later drop off time. This allowed us to keep the van the extra few hours we needed without having to pay for an entire day or for every mile over the very limited mileage.
We researched online for things to do while in New Mexico and stumbled across some local coupons for visitors. One of the coupons was for a free night at Red Roof Inn if you stayed three nights. We already had made reservations but thought we’d call and check out the price with the free night. It was a tad bit more than our current reservation but it included a few things that the first hotel did not and it was worth the few bucks more.
We’re planning on spending one day neighborhood spying, as I’m referring to it. We’ll drive around to the different areas in town and get a feel for the good and bad things about each area. We’ve done some research on home price and rental prices to help us with our spying.
Another coupon was for a local shop that was offering a free dreamcatcher. Drama King has been asking for one of these for the longest time. He wakes up frequently by bad dreams and the only time he doesn’t is when he’s at Grandma Deb’s house. The difference: She has a dreamcatcher on her bed and he doesn’t. See how that could lead him to believe that he needs one, too. I haven’t found a place online that sells them because of their unique qualities and we haven’t had a chance to go to the reservation to pick one up for him. This will be a perfect solution.
The last day we are deeming kids’ day for two reasons; a) It’s Drama King’s birthday and b) they’ll deserve it after the adults check out the area. We are planning on spending the entire day at the local zoo. They offer a reciprocal 50% discount on admission because we have a membership to our local zoo. However even at their regular admission price, it would be worth it for what you get.
For now, I’m off to finish our itinerary and do laundry to begin packing. I’ve learned through our many trips to pack enough entertainment for each child so I’m customizing their backpacks for New Mexico. I have printed a coloring ABC book, a few activities, and placed blank and lined paper in their binders. I, also, printed a Flat Stanley for them to design on the drive up. And we’re bringing some books, a few toys, and their table trays. I’ll be packing their portable DVD players and a few DVDs for each of them. I’m not sure if we’ll need them but better safe than sorry.
What’s going on with the blog while we’re gone? I have a few Blogmaniacs posts scheduled for some bonus entries. We also have the $25 Kroger gift card giveaway for you to enter.
Any guest posts? I’m looking into that. I’ve never done a guest post but if you’re interested, let me know.
Will we be checking in? I’ll probably check in at least once for comments but am not expecting to write anything until we get back. Our new phones are smart phones so we may check in on Twitter or Facebook so make sure you’re following us on there, too.
Will we get to hear more about the trip? Yes, after we get back. We’ll probably do a post covering the places we visited and things we learned.
Are the boys excited? Oh yes! And so are the adults.
Proud To Be An American
Today, many Americans will celebrate our independence day; the birth of our great nation.
Today, many Americans will, silently or not so silently, thank a person in uniform for defending our freedoms.
Today, we will join with family and friends to watch the amazing displays of fireworks.
Happy Birthday, America!
We drove down to see our local fireworks. They were amazing and so unlike two years ago. The highlight of our night was when our “A” mountain caught on fire, at least three times. I can’t remember a single 4th of July that didn’t include catching the mountain on fire. Darn that desert landscape of our world!
Corn Dogs, Beef Jerky And a Sprinkle of Rain
Yesterday, Grandma Deb and I took the boys to the county fair. Before we left, a few ground rules had to be set for our little adventure.
- The rides do not open until 3pm.
- We will see a few shows, walk through the exhibit halls, and window shop at booths before going to the ride because we have time to kill.
- The rides do not open until 3pm.
- No matter how excited you are, you will not run! But you can skip, jump, jog, or walk along side us or in front of us.
- And again, the rides do not open until 3pm!!
The boys enjoyed the rides so much last year that we decided to try out a wristband night this year. Last night was also a cheap admission night due to a Wendy’s promotion where every receipt equaled one free admission. We, also, brought two 20 oz bottles of Dr. Pepper to receive a $5 discount off each wristband. The county fair also boasted that all carnival games were $1 but we typically don’t do games, Although, it seemed like every game the boys had any interest in playing had signs up stating they weren’t participating in the discount programs. We saw one game that was giving away free fish and a portable plastic mini-tank. The boys have played the game and won in the past so we thought we’d check them out since their fish (the same ones they won) passed away last year. The game was not participating in the $1 games so we opted to skip the game. I would have paid $1 to win a fish, I wouldn’t have paid $5 since we already have a large tank at home just waiting for new friends.
While we were there, I thought it would be interesting to walk through the artwork competitions and see if the boys had any interest in partaking next year. They were intrigued by the project boards because they had the word hypothesis (a word they recently learned and now use to talk about everything), the decorated rock (a new category), and the various collections. They have a lot of great ideas and are excited to enter next year.
Of course, no trip to our county fair is complete without stopping by Farmer John’s farm to help with chores, play in the oversize building block area, sift through sand to discover a gem, and watch the model trains run around the small scale village. Another stop on our to do list was the power from the past exhibit because the boys love making a rope and playing with the large selection of antique telephones.
The rest of the evening was spent hopping between rides and avoiding the rainfall. It was obvious that water falling from the sky appears to scare most of the people who live here as when it started to rain, most people scrambled for cover either under umbrellas, under overhangs, or inside the closest exhibit hall. We took a break from the rain for a while about midway through the day. Little T ate a corn dog, Drama King ate some beef jerky and we all watched a few demonstrations, one for a peeler that you could use with any finger and one for the Shammy. Both demonstrations were highly entertaining and the boys watched with intent but easily walked away when it was over.
Towards the end of the night, it was raining so hard that it got uncomfortable. The boys asked to ride a couple last things before we left. They made one last trip up and down the pirate obstacle course and then once around the merry go round.
I’m sorting through the pictures and videos now so I’ll upload those soon.
Tank Turns 5
Tank celebrated his fifth year with a birthday bash at Reid park. This was the first time we were able to see Erica and Rob’s girlfriend, Melissa, at the same place at the same time. I think they did a great job attempting to get along with each other. The ex and the new girl. It was quite interesting watching them put on the party, together, cooperating in ways I never would have imagined.
In attendance was not only our two boys and the birthday boy but Rob’s girlfriend’s two kids, Nucleus Girl and Marvel Boy, and a few other kids that I don’t know. The kids had a blast at the party. They spent a lot of time running up and down a large hill, playing on the playground, and drawing on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk.
Food was grilled by Tony, decorations were put up and maintained by Erica and Melissa, and dog corralling was Rob’s department. Little T deputed his device and proudly talked to Erica about seeing John Cena a few days ago.
A few days after the party, Tank had his 5 year check up. His pediatrician cleared him for attending kindergarten but referred him to an optometrist because his vision test said he needed glasses. Erica took him to the optometrist and it was confirmed that he needed glasses. His vision tested at 20/70 and from what Erica was told that’s pretty uncommon in young children so they gave him the strongest child lens (only one off from 20/70) and are hoping that his body will learn to adjust to the strongest lens. If not, he’d need adult lens which are heavier and not child friendly. So, of course, Erica is very concerned about teaching him to keep glasses on and not throw or break them. Tank already threw a pair of glasses while they were at the optometrist’s office.
Tank is enrolled at his local elementary school but it is unknown how the school is handling the ‘no more kindergarten’ law that was passed recently by our governor. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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