Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

 While my parents were in town for Anderson's birthday, we made a trip to Albuquerque to see the balloon fiesta. We got there in the evening and ate at Chili's where we waited for almost 2 hours for our food. It was ridiculous. 

 The next morning, we woke our kids up at 3:30am in order to get to the early morning balloon rise. It was SO early, but luckily the kids did much better than we expected. Taylor was happy as a clam!

 It was really, really cold that morning. We layered up and bought some hot chocolate and warm breakfast burritos while we waited for the balloons to start.

 The Balloon Fiesta was one of the neatest things we have ever done. Every five seconds we kept saying, "Wow! This is so awesome! Oh my gosh, I love this!" We literally couldn't get enough. And the longer we were there, the cooler it got! There were hundreds of balloons and we were right in the middle of it all. There wasn't a bad seat. 

 How amazing is that??!?!

We LOVED it. 

One of our very favorite memories!!

Anderson is 5!

On October 2, 2015, our little Shmanderson turned 5. He had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks and decided that he was going to have a costume party. So we invited Jonathan and Daija and their kids and told Anderson that we would have a little party at our house. Just before the party, I told him that we had to go get part of his birthday present. We got in the car and drove to the miniature Farmington, NM airport. The airport was so little that they didn't even realize where we were. Then, out from the building came his Grandma and Grandpa Brownell! He was SO excited. Beyond excited, really. He was so happy to have them here for his party. It was the perfect surprise.

 Jack, Bridger, Anderson, and Lizzy

He was one happy 5 year old!

Arizona!

Shortly after our household good arrived, Justin had to go out of town for pediatric interview. So naturally, I left my disaster of a house with open boxes in every corner and packed up the kids to drive to Arizona to see the Pothier's. I hadn't seen them in years and I was planning on taking full advantage of living 6 hrs away.

 These two little peanuts are about 3 weeks apart. They were two peas in a pod, sharing cheerios and their favorite blankies.

 Of course Kara and I had to do some sort of project while I was there. She ended up teaching me how to use her handy dandy saw and we made some really cute haunted houses.

 We went scorpion hunting, a first for me. And after, Kara and I showed off our super adventurous side and jumped in the pool at midnight. There were lots of laughs going on, which I'm sure her neighbors were super happy about!

 The kids swam and swam to their heart's desire. Even though they don't remember each other from the last time we were together, they were quick friends and it made my heart happy to see them all playing and laughing together. 

We could only stay for the weekend, and of course it went by way too fast! But it was time well spent and I could not have been happier. It had been 12 years since Kara and I first met at college, and it was like we never missed a beat. I can't believe we have produced these seven crazy kids. My how things have changed since our single days in Rexburg!

I'm hoping these two stay good friends. And when I say good friends, I mean I want them to get married. Our family ties with the Pothier's needs to be made official. :)

 Oh, and as a little bonus, I pulled over to change Taylor's poopy diaper which smelled horrendous, and found....THIS. Poop EVERYWHERE. It was lovely.

Thank you Taylor!

Life in New Mexico

 After being with our families, we got back on the road and left for New Mexico. We got there the end of July 2015. We were greeted by this awesome sign with graffiti on it that said, "Welcome to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment." Isn't that view enchanting??

 We of course didn't have any of our belongings, except for what was in our suitcase, so we started our life there with sink baths and laundromat visits.

 We went to a baseball game and both Anderson and Jack ended up with a ball, which they were over the moon about.

 Jonathan took us up to Durango on a little hike with some gorgeous views! The trees and fresh air were good for the soul. It's amazing how quickly you can cross the border of Colorado and the scenery changes so drastically.

 We even saw a huge brown bear right after we got back into our car, thankfully!

 Taylor was distracting the ladies at church with his 8 month old smile. :)

 Our license plates made it official.

 Jack started 2nd grade at Ladera with Mrs. Willard. He ended up making lots of friends in his class and really enjoyed Mrs. Willard.

 On August 19, 2015, our 11th anniversary, our household goods shipment came!! It was the best anniversary present we could have got. It felt like Christmas. Although our house was so tiny that we could hardly fit it all inside, we were still happy to see our stuff after 2 months of living out of suitcases.

 Justin started working at Smiles for Kids. He was really nervous when he first started there because the number of patients he had to see in a day. But he ended up gaining the most valuable experiences there and it helped him to confirm that pediatrics is really what he wanted to do.

 Anderson started at Cate Pre-K. He was so, so excited to start school. His teacher, Mrs. Lillywhite, what so fun and kind to him. He made lots of friends and was a natural leader in his class.