Turkey Day

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, we did here. This was the first year that we had Thanksgiving by ourselves since we got married. We usually spend it with our family or our extended Air Force family. This year we expected to be in Albuquerque for turkey day. Even though we would have loved to travel up to our families the thought of another long car ride so soon after our cross country haul was enough to keep us home. We have been so busy the last month a quiet day at home sounded heavenly! But staying home also meant that I was responsible for cooking. As most of you know culinary skills are not at the top of my list. But I was actually impressed with the results. All the food was cooked, done on time and edible. SCORE!
Jack was not feeling well today. He ran a very high temp (104+) over the past two days so he didn't eat much at dinner. We had a great time today none the less. The day started out with us watching the Macy's parade of course. Jack loved watching all the balloons and performers. Then we snacked our way through the day until dinner time. It was a very nice, relaxing day!!

Watching the parade.....



Jack had to try everything on the plate..literally. He would take a bite of cheese or cracker then move onto the next piece.


The feast....we even pulled out the good china :) I think this was the first time we actually ate in our dining room too!





The aftermath....at least I burned off some calories doing those dishes.

Over the Weekend

We had a very relaxing weekend here at the Helton house. Brian was supposed to be gone for the weekend but to our delight his plane broke and he got to stay home. Here are some cute pics of Jack from over the weekend.


Jack and Daddy just hanging out. Yes, we do keep the heat on in the house, Jack just likes to wear his hat.


Jack being silly with Daddy.


My baby is getting so big. Here he is eating his first bowl of big boy cereal. Now, I may actually get to eat my bowl all by myself!

Choo Choo!

Today we met Cari and Seth at the mall to go ride the choo choo train. We did it for two reasons. First, Jack is obsessed with trains right now so we did it for him. Secondly, the train was set up right near Santa Claus. I want to get Jack used to seeing Santa a few times before we actually attempt trying to go and sit in his lap for pictures. He is not much into animated things right now so I am not sure if seeing Santa is going to fit into that category or not. We will just have to wait and see. Jack loved the train ride. As you can see by the pictures we had to go twice, because once just wasn't enough. He rode in the car without me like a big boy. Every time he rode past me he would get a big smile and squeal "choo choo".
The other picture was just too cute that I had to include it as well. We were calling Daddy at work on speaker phone as usual when Jack decided he needed to hold the phone to talk to him. He spent a good five minutes on the phone "talking" to Daddy. The conversation basically entailed Brian asking him questions and Jack saying "yes" a lot. He only handed the phone back over to me when he picked up his toy cell phone and started talking into it. So many cell phones, too little time.

Week with Poppy and Memaw

Wheew. Last week was a very busy week for us. My parents were visiting Albuqueruque and we were also packing up the apartment to head back to Florida. It was crazy, but we had such a wonderful visit. Here are a few pictures from last week. If you want to see all of them check out the link below:

November 2008

After our trip to Santa Fe and Taos we decided to stay local and check out Albuquerque's sights. We did some shopping and eating at Old Town. That same day we headed over to Luke's house to help celebrate his 2nd birthday!


The following day we headed up Sandia Peak on the tram. While we were there we ate lunch at the top. The peak sits at 10,000 feet and it was amazing to feel the temperature change from the bottom. There was even still a little snow on the ground.





The following day we headed to Albuquerque zoo, aquarium and botanical garden. Jack loved the animals and riding the train. You will notice there are no pictures of the garden and that is because we had a little incident with my camera. One minute it was on the stroller, the next minute in a pond. We were able to get the camera and luckily save the pictures, I can't say the same for my poor camera :(






And even though Poppy and Memaw were exhausted from all our travels they still found time to play around with Jack and he loved every minute of it!!

Jack's First Snow

Jack saw his first bit of snow this morning in Santa Fe. The one thing I was most disappointed in us leaving New Mexico early was the fact that Jack was not going to see snow while we were here. While we were sitting and eating our very yummy breakfast in the hotel this morning I looked out the window and saw some small white things falling from the sky....SNOW! We immediately went outside minus coats and hats to make sure Jack saw it in case it didn't last long. We went back in and got suited up to go back out and play in it. To be honest Jack wasn't too much of a fan. Granted it was more of a dusting than snow but it was white, fluffy and cold so it definitely counts. I can officially go home happy now that my baby saw snow.


Jack's hand prints in the snow






More pictures:
November 2008

Santa Fe

Our second stop on our road trip was Santa Fe. We stayed there overnight and had a wonderful time. We stayed at a great little place right near the plaza and other sights. It was a traditional adobe style building with chili peppers hanging everywhere, very New Mexico. We did a little sightseeing, a little shopping, a little eating....life is good :)

Here are some pics from in and around the hotel.





Some other pictures from around Santa Fe. The staircase is from Loretto Chapel. It is very interesting because the spiral staircase has no center or side supports holding it up.




More pictures:
November 2008

Taos

This weekend while my parents were here we took a road trip to Taos, NM. We had planned on going there later this winter to do some skiing but since we are heading back to Florida sooner than we thought we figured we better check it out now. We weren't sure what there was to do there besides skiing and after we left we decided, not much! We went and visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. There was a beautiful view of the river and gorge. The scary part was that the bridge was on a highway and there were no guardrails or anything protecting you from vehicles moving very fast! The second place we visited was the Taos Pueblo, which is a Native American reservation. We were surprised at the way these people lived. The place was very run down, almost like a third world country. What surprised us even more was the fact that they charge an arm and a leg to enter the Pueblo. They even charge $5 to bring your camera in. I took many more pictures that I will include on the link below. (I wanted my $5 worth!!)


Brian sporting his snipe hat.









More pictures at:
November 2008

Playing with Luke

Today was a very cold and windy day here in Albuquerque. We were getting a little bit stir crazy in our tiny apartment so we decided to attempt to take the boys to the local park anyway. We literally almost got blown over walking there. The boys didn't seem to mind it at all, they were just glad to be outside.



After the Mommy's decided they couldn't take the wind anymore we decided to move the playdate back inside. The boys still had a blast.....





They attempted to eat their Chex mix with a spoon. When that didn't work so well for Jack he had Luke try and feed him some. And when it fell on the floor, no worries they just ate it straight off the carpet. Apparently Jack still thinks he is a puppy.