Saturday, November 17, 2012

Jumping through June...new pictures added

In June, Rich and I were able to venture out and see parts of Arizona that we haven't seen before.
 
Thanks to a lucky draw of our name on our honey moon cruise, we won a trip to Aruba that we took for our first anniversary and two smaller state side trips. Our trip to Sedona was compliments of that lucky draw.
 
On our way to Arizona, Rich and I stopped at the Meteor Crater. What a site to see. It is hard to fathom how big this crater is, how deep and how wide it runs, even when standing at the top. Despite the 60+ mile an hour winds, we stepped out to see all there was to see of this huge hole. then we climbed to the top to see it from a birds eye view. WOW. It is simply amazing. 
 
 

 
When we arrived to our resort in Sedona, this is the view we were greeted with from the second floor balcony. Our resort suite was 2 stories with 2 bedrooms and 3 full baths. A Kitchen, fireplace and living room completed the suite. It was beyond what we expected to be staying in!

 
One of the things we wanted to make sure we were able to see while living in this part of the country was the Grand Canyon. Breathtaking!
 
Rich and I decided to rent some bikes and take a bike tour of the canyon. We had an awesome guide and one other tourist with us, she was from Australia and had the most awesome accent. I was fearful to ride the bike because I hadn't ridden one since I was a kid, at least 20 years ago. But, Rich talked me into it.
 
Ready for our ride

 
Our first look at the canyon

 
The tree I killed.
Remember the fear? Yup, I had reason for it. I killed a tree, scraped my elbow and knees and was bleeding in places I will not speak of. Down a hill, around a corner and faulty breaks lead to this oh so painful memory.

 
:( OUCH

 
But I survived, and loved the hike around the crest of the canyon.
I took this picture just for my mommy.  She doesn't like heights. She also doesn't like anyone being near an edge of anything higher than a curb. How could I not take this picture for her?

 
there was a cute little breakfast place within walking distance from our resort. The sights along the walk were absolutely beautiful!

 
Rich's goal is to hit all the major league ballparks. We had to cross one off the list while we were in Arizona. Lets go Diamondbacks. It was a good game with great seats and yummy food.

 
At the game, all the Arizona schools mascots came to celebrate the Diamondback's mascot, it was his birthday (I forget his name now). Just for Sheila, I ran the Lumberjack down so I could get this picture with her college mascot. the things we do for our friends!

 
On our way home, we stopped at the petrified forest. BEAUTIFUL. It is hard to believe that these trees were once trees. They are all petrified now, like stone. The cracks, the bark, the age rings of the tree stumps, all intact but not wood any longer. So cool.


 
And, the promised additional pictures:
 
 
 
Rich posing at the crater
this is the inside museum there, so you could get
 "up close" and personal with the crater


Rich always wanted to be an astronaut
I just want to be goofy



MASSIVE crater. thats a house with a fence around it down there...


Largest fragment of the meteor they found




Beautiful view driving into Sedona



Loved all the outlooks over the Grand Canyon

 Hermit's Rest
 
 
The outside of the fireplace at Hermit's Rest

 
The inside view. This thing was ENORMOUS

Again, for Mom.  Its so PURTY!

Look mom, no hands

Love this one!

That, my friends, is a HUGE tree trunk that is petrified.

It was story time in the forest.
We had a walking map that told us some history about the forest and what we were looking at. Everytime we got to the next number, Rich would read to me what it said.


The color variations of all the logs was so pretty. Too bad it is a federal crime to take any of the purties with you! :(
 
 

May Madness

May was just as busy as April.  My goal was to run the Run for the Zoo 5k at the beginning of May. I had to have a procedure on my foot in April that prevented me from being able to complete the training.  Though I wasn't able to run the 5k, I was able to complete it in decent time and run part of it (the last 30 feet, that counts right!?).  A dear friend and co-worker ran it. Corina is the whole reason I even entertained the idea of running it in the first place.

 Just a short week after the Run for the Zoo, Rich and I were blessed enough to get to fly to Austin to celebrate Mitch's graduation from Baylor with his MBA. A lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication were put into this and I couldn't be more proud of him. A truly amazing accomplishment all while working full time and holding the title of both husband and daddy!



 
First things first, Michael needed a ride on Uncle Rich's back. These two are BFFs!

 
Mitch being hooded at the hooding ceremony on the morning of graduation.

 
Family photo time.

 
That weekends celebration was heightened even more by dedicating Caroline in church that Sunday.
 
 
I've said it before, New Mexico was not one of the places on our list to move to. Rich pulled me kicking, crying and screaming the whole way. that being said, we have been very fortunate to move to this part of the country and get to travel to and see some of the cool things we have all because we live in New Mexico.
 
One of those things was the Solar Eclipse of 2012. New Mexico, Albuquerque specifically, had THE BEST seats in the house. We were able to get our, oh so fashionable, eclipse glasses and get to experience this once in a lifetime "front row" seat to this sight.
 
 
Who would think that the two pictures below were taken just a few moments apart!? The dark one was taken by placing my glasses over the camera of my iPhone. Rich said it wouldn't work, proof is in the photo :p

April showers bring fun travels

April was a busy month for us. We did a lot of neat things.  On Easter weekend, Rich and I took an early anniversary trip down to Southern New Mexico.  We were able to plan it so that we could go see the Trinity site on one of the only two weekends it is open to the public during the year.  Trinity is where the first atomic bomb was tested and detonated. Trinity is part of the White Sands Missile Range and is still an active test and launch site, this is why it is only open to the public twice a year.
It was a pretty cool site to see. There are pieces of trinitite all over. The little pieces of green rock are all US Government property and it is considered a felony if removed from the site.
 
 
 
This is us in front of Fat Man. Fat Man was the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.
 
 
This is us standing inside JUMBO. Jumbo was originally built to house the first atomic bomb during its test. Jumbo ended up not being used during the test, allowing us to stand in him for this photo op.
 
 
 
After Spending the night at a bed and breakfast, otherwise known as a very cute little Inn with instant oatmeal and prepackaged breakfast foods, we went to church and then made our way down to Carlsbad Caverns.
I had been to Carlsbad in high school. I had very fond memories of visiting then, none of which were what Carlsbad was this time around. Very cool and a lot of fun all the same, just not how I remembered it.
 
I'm not sure, any guesses on what Rich is thinking as he poses for this picture?
Meh. Just pretend like you're having fun and let me take your picture!
 

 

 
 
On our way in through the 3.5 mile decent into the caverns...
 
 
 
So stinking cool to think these formations have been around for hundreds of years and that they continue to grow everyday!


In March, little miss Caroline was born. In April, Mitch had to go half a world away to complete his MBA. It didn't take much to get me down to Austin to help Natalie and have some quality Aunt Chelle time with the kiddos! We had fun everyday. I tried to keep them busy and out of Natalie's hair so she could take care of herself and her newest little one.  Michael and I went and had lunch bunch and recess with Blythe and then lunch with David.
One morning while Natalie went grocery shopping alone, something that doesn't happen often when you are a mommy to 4 kids, Michael and I watched cartoons, ate fruit cheerios and made a cheerios bird feeder.
 
 
That evening after dinner, we had cupcakes, fresh berries and an extra helping of whip cream. When Dad is away, Aunt Chelle gets to play!!!
 
We packed a picnic and went to the Texas State Capitol. We saw the Texas A&M Century singers, which our cousin Chris is a member of, perform in the rotunda. Aunt Chelle was creative enough to think ahead and pack a picnic lunch for all of us. After the choir sang, we headed outside and picked a great spot to eat, roll in the grass and climb on the statues. We packed it up and headed home when it started sprinkling.


 
 Once back home, I had a crazy busy work schedule. I was coordinating all the sign language interpreters and captioning services for a biannual conference that the NM Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing puts on.  One of the Key Note speakers was Lou Ferigno, aka THE HULK.  He was...interesting. Not the most warm person I have ever met. He was charging everyone $20 for a picture with him. Since we had intern interpreters there, I decided to give them a life lesson on how to get pictures of you while working, and not have to pay $20 for them. Below is one of those pictures. :)