White Sands National Monument

White Sands National Monument

approx 300 square miles of white gypsum sand

Sooooo amazing, I couldn't stop snapping pics

My boys

Getting ready for some sledding

Perfect ridge line

Keegan loved climbing up the hills

My cutie

Keegan couldn't walk up the dune and hold the sled, so I tied it to him

Getting ready for a trip down the dune

A battle wound, on his last run down he somehow managed to bang his chin on the hard packed sand at the bottom of the hill.

Our Trip to Disneyland

We decided a while ago that for Keegan's 5th birthday we would go to Disneyland. I think, we were way more excited than he was, especially since when we asked him if he wanted to go he said "what's Disneyland?"
By the time the day came to leave he was excited. I had showed him everything I could on-line about Disneyland and told him how he would get to meet all the characters.
So here's my cute little man in his mouse hat.

Ok, we'll have to back up a day though. The day we got to Cali we didn't run straight over to Disney. We decided since part of the day would already be gone we would wait till the next day to start our adventure in the happiest place on earth. So...we went to the beach for a little bit, went to Medieval Times and Keegan spent some time leaping from one bed to another.

When we finally got to Disneyland we let Keegan take the lead. He decided on The Matterhorn for his first ride in the park. I was a little worried since the biggest ride he's ever been on is the Elmo's Flying Fish ride at Sea World and it's kind of like the Dumbo ride. But he got in his bobsled ready to see the Abominable Snowman, he rode with Josh and I was constantly listening for any sign that he was unhappy but as we got off the ride I heard "I wanna do that again!"
We also did Small World, the Tiki Room, Tarzan's Tree house and of course stayed for the fireworks.

Keegan was lucky enough to meet ALMOST all of the characters. If you ask him he will let you know that we didn't get to see Daisy Duck.

Here he is with the Big Mouse Himself. We headed over to California Adventure as well where we went to the Bugs Life Theater and Land. We also got to see Lightening McQueen and Mater

He loved the rapids ride, I think the part he loved the best was where I got soaked and also listening to "Pa'' freak out about the ride. It was kind of funny.

We had a great time in Disneyland. He was also brave enough to go on The Tower of Terror, and while he didn't scream, cry, or pee his pants he let us know that he didn't need to do that one again. In the end his favorite ride ended up being Thunder Mtn RR with The Matterhorn following as a close 2nd.

Goodbye 2010

What a great year! We had so much fun this last year, I only hope 2011 can be just as good if not better!!

January 2010

In January we were in Vancouver, WA. I think it was one of my most favorite places we've been so far. Pa and Grandma came it visit. While they were here we saw Cannon Beach, OR. The Tillimook Cheese Factory, the Portland Zoo and Multnomah falls. As a family of 3 we also went to Mt. St. Helens and Silver Falls St. Park.

February 2010

In February someone turned 4!! We enjoyed our last couple of weeks in Vancouver and packed up and headed back to Ut. Once we got to Ut we had a fun bowling party for Keegans birthday and settled into life at "home"

March 2010

In March Keegan started swimming lessons. Despite the face he LOVED them, he was just mad I wouldn't let him get in the pool yet. He spent his days playing with his new best friend Evan and playing with Pa as much as possible.

April 2010

In April Josh and I went to Mexico with our friend Tyler. What an amazing trip!!! We had so much fun! While in Mexico Keegan got to spend quality time with Grandma Sue and The Viehwegs

May 2010

In May once it warmed up outside Keegan spent as much time as possible outside. He loves to ride the razor. Keegan loved the time in Ut since he was able to play with his favorite people. He loves his Grandma Sue, The Viehwegs and anytime possible Mom and Keegan snuck over to the Willis' house I just love being 2 houses away from both of our BFF's

June 2010

In June we snuck away to Spruces and had a campout. Our friends The Floyds joined us for dinner and smores. We were lucky enough to see some wildlife. Also in June we spent A LOT of time over at the Viehwegs. They were remodeling the kitchen and we got to help paint, tile and install wood floors.

July 2010

In July we FINALLY got our next assignment. We ended up in Roswell, NM. We saw A LOT of aliens. The little town was.....little. It was just a short 1 month assignment. We were lucky enough to be placed in a cute little house with a backyard so there was plenty of time to play and run through the sprinklers. We also made a trip to Carlsbad Caverns to see the amazing cave system. One of the other fun places to visit was Bottomless Lakes SP. It was a cute little lake with a fun swimming area and beach.

August 2010
In August we left Roswell behind, spent almost 20 hours in the car and headed up to one of our favorite places ever! We joined the family in Island Park, ID. We spent a great week with Grandma and Grandpa "Cow Ball" as well as the rest of the Viehweg's. After our week in fishing heaven we packed the car up and headed right back to NM to start a new assignment in Albuquerque. We got to ABQ so Josh could go back to work at The Heart Hospital. It's where he worked when we were here last year and of course, they loved him!

September 2010

We spent September filling our freezer with yummy green chiles and reminding ourselves why we loved Albuquerque. We visited the new Hard Rock Hotel, the Albuquerque Aquarium, the Rio Grande Zoo and of course all of our favorite places to eat. We also headed back up the tram to visit the top of Sandia Peak.

October 2010

In October we had a GREAT time at the Balloon Fiesta. Our favorite visitors came to experience the fiesta for themselves. It was a week of early mornings but it was all worth it. We had a lot of fun while they were here! After Pa and Grandma left we had another visitor, Tyler came for the weekend just to relax and hang out. October also ment Halloween, this year Keegan had wanted to be Batman. Everytime you asked him what costume he wanted it was always the same response.....Batman. When it finally came down to picking out his costume he chose a Ninja costume. Keegan and I had a great time trick-or-treating, he made a killing. As usual we carved multiple amazing pumpkins, it's our thing, what can I say.

November 2010

November was a lot of fun. We went to the Natural History Museum and finally got the picture I had been kicking myself for not getting last year. We spent some fun days at the Aquarium, Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Josh had a few days off so we packed up the car and headed over to Phoenix to see Tyler. He is always a lot of fun! We spent time hanging out, eating cupcakes from Sprinkles.....so yummy! We also went to the Phoenix Zoo! It was really nice, the enclosures are so big and nice. The animals there are really lucky. We had a great Thanksgiving with just the 3 of us. I made all of our favorite dishes with a great turkey to make the best turkey sandwiches ever!

December 2010

Wow! December flew by, we put up our cute little tree and added all our ornaments that we've collected from our travels. We spent a week up in Utah visiting family and friends. We had a great time looking at lights and getting to see everyone. Keegan was lucky enough to get an early Christmas at both Grandma Sue's and The Viehweg's as everyone wanted to get to see him open his gifts. We had a great time but had to retun to ABQ. On our way home we spent the night in Moab and then the next morning took the tour through the cool house at Hole "N The Rock. Once back in ABQ we got SNOW!! Not something that happens often but we were excited to see it. We had a wonderful Christmas just the 3 of us. Keegan gets more fun every year. He decided to leave treats for Santa and not cookies he also left oats for his reindeer. Keegan has been such a good boy, he is so smart and such a joy!

Hole N'' The Rock

After our fun visit home we left a day early to miss a snow storm. Nothing says fun like Spanish Fork Canyon covered in snow....in the dark. So we ended up leaving and missing the storm. Since we weren't in a hurry we spent the night in Moab. We've driven through 9 times in the last year and never stopped for longer than it takes to eat breakfast.

On the south end of town there is this. It used to be the home of some crazy guy and his wife. He spent 15 years blasting a 5000 sq ft home out of the rock. Part of it is now a gift shop but the rest is still just the way it was when the couple lived there.

He carved this on the outside of the "house"

It's now just a place for tourists to stop and has a "general store" and a bunch of other "Art" around the property

Mater was on display

This golfer statue is made of golf club parts

Here is another example of the metal work here. This jeep is covered with liscense plates. And if you notice the wheels are all made of random metal things

See the "tire"

A front view. Not sure what the huge bone is doing on top.

Scottsdale and Phoenix

On Sunday night Josh asked if we should head over to Scottsdale to visit Tyler. Of course I said yes, so I called Tyler and let him know that Josh has Tues- Thurs off and asked if we can come visit, he says yes, so it's a plan. Monday morning I jump out of bed because I realize Josh is late for work, turns out that he got called off (somehow I didn't hear the phone). So at 8:00 am we call Tyler and let him know we are leaving right then instead of the next day. So we threw some clothes in a bag and we hit the road.

The drive is actually really nice. Once we got into AZ, we took a different route than last time, it was so pretty!!! Who knew AZ was pretty, it was all trees and mountains until about 40 miles outside of Scottsdale.

We got in Monday afternoon and already knew where we were going for dinner. Tyler got off work and we headed straight over to Cafe Rio. Mmmm

The next day while we were just relaxing at Tylers house he and I decided to go get a pedicure. It was so nice!! Right by the pedicure place was

this....

Keegan has his own eating establishment.

Wednesday we headed over to the Phoenix Zoo. It was really nice with lots of shade!! All of the animal enclosures are really big , and they have a fun petting zoo section were Keegan had to pet every single one of the goats in there.

The first thing we did was go to this little animal show, it was pretty cheesy but Keegan had fun. Here he is with a strange smile.


Muscle Man on a huge tree stump

Keegs in a kangaroo pouch

Riding a lion

Keegan on the elephant statues, he looks pretty relaxed

This was in a cute little village area, the animals were off display but I thought it was a cute place for a photo and he is almost smiling normal. (what you don't see is the HUGE bite of pretzel that he is somehow hiding in his mouth)

A lion

A view of the desert in the zoo

And we are done. We got there early and were able to get out of there before it got too warm.

We had a great time in Scottsdale with Tyler, lots of relaxing, lots of good food and even a Sprinkles Cupcake! so good!! And how can you forget a second trip to Rio.

Special Shape Balloons

Balloon Fiesta has a day (or 2) where they launch all the fun shaped balloons. This year 109 different special shapes participated, click here to see most of them. Here are some that I got pics of. There are a lot....but I'm not really sorry.