Albuquerque

Jeremy had to drive to New Mexico to hit a couple of clients this week, and since we all know how the Grolnars feel about New Mexican food, we decided Eliza and I would tag along and make it a bit of a vacation.

Cheetos make everything easier!

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Farmington, a larger-than-expected city just outside of Colorado.  The drive was amazingly beautiful, with gorgeous cloud-filled skies and mountainous landscapes.  I know we drove this way several times growing up, but it had been so long that I forgot how incredibly gorgeous southern Colorado is.  The drive over Wolf Creek Pass was pretty terrifying and I made FULL use of the oh shit bar.  We were both thanking our lucky stars that we decided to take the Subaru instead of the hybrid.  Other than that the drive was fine, it took about 7 hours and Eliza decided to cut her normal 2-3 hour nap down to 45 minutes so she could take in the scenery scream like a crazy fool.  Lol, no in all reality she did very well.  Her new obsession with the movie "Up" helped, as Jeremy loaded it on the iPad.  That, combined with a stash of special road-trip foods including Cheetos and Skittles made the whole thing bearable.

Our first night in Farmington was pretty miserable.  We were in a tiny hotel room and Eliza does NOT like to sleep when she can see us.  After two hours of screaming, both in her crib and in our bed, we finally hid out in the bathroom and voila! ten minutes later she was out like a light.  Oy.


Jeremy only had a half-day in Farmington so we made the 3 hour drive to Albuquerque Monday afternoon.  Eliza slept almost the whole way, I'm sure she was tuckered out from the night before.  Luckily our room here is a suite and has a kitchen where we stuck the crib so Eliza can't see us.  Like a charm, she has slept beautifully here (knock on wood.)

Jeremy took Tuesday off, so of course the temperatures were frigid with crazy high wind speeds.  We spent the day hiding from the outside, hitting the Albuquerque Aquarium and making our first of I'm sure maaaany trips to Trader Joe's.  And, of course, we dined like kings, hitting two of the top-rated New Mexican restaurants in the area.  Sadie's took the gold, hands down.  Any restaurant that has decided to replace the standard beans'n rice side with beans and diced fried potatoes gets my loyalty no questions asked!

Check out the size of that monster!

Today, Eliza and I spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History, which had the best dinosaur exhibit I think I've ever seen.  Dinosaurs are towards the top of E's favorite things list right now so she LOVED it.  I let her take the lead and we went through the very large exhibit four times, spending 2 1/2 hours with her running around growling at every dinosaur she saw.  It was definitely worth the $7 entry fee (so cheap!)  Now I'm back at the hotel room catching up while Eliza naps growls like a dinosaur and laughs maniacally in the kitchen.

In awe of this room

A few more days here, and then Friday we will head to Santa Fe for one day and night before heading home!

Starting Fresh

Hello friends and family!  My name is Janet.  You might remember me from forever-and-a-day ago when I used to actually post on a semi-regular basis.  I can't believe I've let almost three months go by with nothing.  Sheesh!

I find that the longer I wait to update this blog, the harder it is for me to make myself do it.  If I would have stayed on top of it, I could jot out a quick couple of lines to let everyone know how we are doing, along with a few pictures and be done in ten minutes.  Since my last post, however, we've been to Austin, San Francisco, had Thanksgiving and Christmas and the thought of catching up on all of that has made me avoid this webpage like the plague.  I know that's not fair though, a lot of friends and family from afar have complained, I know this is the only way that some get to "keep in touch" with us.

Sooooo I'll make you a deal . . . I'm gonna go ahead and make a resolution - something I never do - to update twice a month.  But here's the catch - there's no way I'm sifting through November, December and January pictures and boring you with what we've been up to....so here's a few of my faves from the past several weeks.  I promise to do better :-)

SNOW!!!

Causing trouble with cousin Ashlynn

Yeah, I'm a jerk.  I did it knowing full well what was going to happen.  HA!

Playing dress-up

This is why you don't leave kleenex anywhere near the crib

Bundled up at Grandma's - time to feed the chickens!

Christmas cuddles with favorite cousin Iz

Big girl haircut!  I can't believe what a good job she did this time :)

Lego fun!

Bonding with Jeremy over Legos AND computers!

Another bundled pic, they are my faves!

Reading nook :)

Fun at the zoo