Days 12-13 Albuquerque

My Aunt Elaine and Uncle Randy graciously offered to have us stay at their house for a few days in Albuquerque.  It was so nice to be in a home again after being on the road and camping for such a long time.  It was nice to have bedrooms and a bathroom we didn't have to share with people we didn't know!  We also had delicious meals and N2 had fun new to them toys to play with!  I think it was a great way to wrap up our vacation in the southwest. We all appreciated their fantastic hospitality.

I've been to Albuquerque numerous times but we've never been to the zoo.  Since N2 and Brian and I like zoos, we decided we had to check it out.  Albuquerque was hot while we were there so we went to the zoo in the morning and left by midday.  We met up with my cousin Liz and her son James.  We've never met James and we'll see him again at the reunion so it was fun to start getting to know him!

The zoo was really nice.  There were lots of animals to see and it wasn't too far for young ones to walk.  One of our favorite parts of the zoo was watching the smaller element play with the fountains that are in their exhibit.  Here he is with his foot over the fountain.  He would step on it and spray it in different directions.  He would suck out of the fountain.

We also saw a porcupine on a leash.

While we were at Aunt Elaine and Uncle Randy's house, N2 played with castle building blocks and their marble roller track.  We also played outside with the t-ball set.  They were getting a little rambunctious, so I asked for a jar and clothespins and they tried to drop clothespins into the jar (they had to hold the clothespin by their nose and not bend over).  Natalie stuck with it a little longer than Noah.

The next day that we were in Albuquerque we decided to ride the tram up to the top of the Sandias.  They closed all the hiking trails up there the same day we went so all we could do was stay on the boardwalk and look at the views.  We should have done the tram the day before because that was the last day the trails were open but oh well!  We thought since Monday was supposed to be hotter, it would be a better day to be at the top of the mountains where it is cooler.  N2 really liked the tram ride.  They didn't care too much for the views but they could have ridden the tram several times!  They kept asking to go down.

That afternoon, Aunt Elaine watched N2 (we put them down for naps) and let Brian and I go to the game store near them to try out new games.  We played 4 games while we were there and the store only carried 1 of them!  We did order one of them when we got back home.  It was so fun to be able to try out new games before buying them.  Thanks Aunt Elaine for watching N2!

The morning we left, Aunt Elaine read so many books to N2.  One of them asked if they could call her Grandma and she said she would be their Albuquerque Grandma!  We had such a fantastic time and it was so nice and relaxing!  Thanks for having us!