Albuquerque Flashback

So, I was looking through some ABQ photos and I found some gems!  These were in a Sept. - Nov. file.  By then, of 2003, we had settled in quite nicely.  Micah started a Mother's Day Out at a local preschool.  He went only on Fridays for a few hours and loved it!  I loved it because it gave him time to play with other kids.  A few of those kids were in his kindergarten class the next year.

September and October were busy in Albuquerque.  We went with Grandmomma and Grandpoppa to the fair.  This must have been our first time there because we have a lot of fair pictures from a different trip.  This one rained.  We spent a lot of time dodging showers, taking cover, and doing activities when there was a break in rain.  It was fun to be together though!

We had actually been to Balloon Fiesta before and since we lived here now, we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn for everything.  Aunt Winna took this picture!  I'm not sure how the timing worked out for her with school, but she's in another picture from this batch.

The following picture is from an early zoo trip.  The boys did discover the jumping area right away. I love that we went to the zoo so much in ABQ.  We had an annual membership and we used it well.  Levi and I would sometimes go there on early release (school) day and he even had a birthday there!

Picture proof that we did do pumpkins and costumes with our boys!  Again, this was our first year in ABQ.  The other year, I found matching spider sweaters at a second hand store and Aunt Winna made spider masks out of black paper plates and pipe cleaners!

That Little Tikes car got a lot of use!  The black truck (from Gigi - it had belonged to cousin October) and gas station were added in Kentucky.  The infamous duck boots are in these pictures too!

These kinds of pictures were pretty typical of M and L's early years.  Fairs, special events/places, visits from Aunt Winna, pumpkins.

A final shot - M's beginning of photography. (At this point, I don't think I had even considered the boys would be taking pictures on their phones one day!)

Albuquerque Flashback

In April, 2003, Hubby and M flew from Kentucky to Albuquerque to find a home for us.  They chose well in a new neighborhood on the west side - Ventana Hills.  Our goal was to be some place new in order to meet new people and invite them to church.  You can see in the second picture that we didn't even have across the street neighbors yet.  The backyard pictures are to show what we did first thing - Hubby put in sprinklers!  We were doing this on our first weekend there - and we even invited people we met for the first time at Rio Vista Church to come help.  Of course, anyone willing to come into the mess inside and out were obviously going to be great friends!  And the Hendrixsons were - from day one to Jen being one of the last ones in our house to clean when we moved - a large part of Albuquerque memories are of them.

All that sod had to go in too!  We hauled it in the blue van (because we didn't have a truck) and that's where the "sod knife" came from.  Hubby used one of the knives from our kitchen set to cut the grass.  The knife is in our kitchen drawer right now and has been used on sod at every house we've lived since!

Right outside the back door Hubby and the boys built a deck (that's where he first let them use power tools!).  We left the part on the side dirt/sand for the boys to play in.  The swing you see int he picture went on the deck along with the grill and eventually a better patio table was there too.  We had many snacks and played many games there.  From the swing looking north you could see the Sango De Christo Mts.

We spent a lot of time outside at this home in both the front and back, walking in the neighborhood (Hubby taking Jazzy out in the undeveloped area to chase rabbits), and at the nearby parks.  Another great reason in choosing this spot was that it was down the street from the new elementary school.  I was even part of the neighborhood meeting that chose the school mascot  - the Roadrunners!

How is it possible that so much fun and playing went into two short years?  We had a small plastic square table at the end of the kitchen counter.  It was perfect because when you were at it you were in the kitchen, dining room and living room - we had a "Great Room"- the fireplace was at the center.  Although M, didn't actually have formal preschool, I made sure he went to school with a good foundation.  Well, except knowing what a needle and thread was and thinking ice cream was a nutritious snack (those were two things he missed on a kindergarten testing situation)!

In this picture you can get a better glimpse of the table the boys used constantly and can almost see the beginning of the fireplace (to the right of what was our bedroom door).  It was in front of this fireplace where we would act out Bible stories.  One of M's favorites to do was Samuel.  He would lay down and I would call his name.  After doing this a few times he would say "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

Weren't the boys lovely bandits?  (Nice transition from Samuel, hu?  Their pretending ran the gamut!) They have cowboy hats from Grandy.  Oh, M & L were the best of friends!  They spent countless hours pretending and playing together.  I hope they remember that and forge a friendship one day as adults. (The pictures of the boys are actually from May 2004 - almost a year after coming to ABQ and a few months before M started Kindergarten. L was 3.)

More ABQ flashbacks to come.  We were finally digital!