January 3- We woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow! I would guess at least 3 inches, but melting fast! I was able to catch a few shots of the snow before it almost completely melted by afternoon. I am sure the kids were excited because school was cancelled (and all the base employees were permitted to arrive 2 hours late). I know Susan is laughing to herself, since they easily get multiple feets of snow and still are expected to get to work! Adam and I also managed to squeeze in lunch at Miso Sushi (I would actually say that it is one of the best restaurants in town) where I satisfied my craving for a Washington roll (mmm, raw salmon!), a trip to the storage unit, and multiple trips to and from the Home Depot. 

January 4- Adam took our purchases from the Home Depot and turned it into this beauty...that's right, we built our parents a closet organization system. Yay! My mom came up with the design and then Adam and I purchased all the MDF, screws, mounts, hinges, etc. etc. It was slightly stressful since Adam and I were concerned about the weight of the MDF and how mounting it into the studs would work with holding it up securely. After using some furring strips and such, I think it turned out pretty good! We have to do a bit of touch up (you can see where we added the support strips so we'll be painting those white) but otherwise it is ready to go!

 

I'll also try and post a few photos of the updates we made to the house later on...yay for new carpet, new flooring, new toilets, and new paint!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011! This year, my plan is to take at least one photo a day just to record day-to-day life, and when I remember, I will post them here! So to kick things off, a few photos from the past few days!

January 1st- We quietly rang in the new year in Ridgecrest...though Adam did celebrate with a mint chip ice cream cone and a phone call to his mom (Happy birthday Margaret!)! Our day was filled with enjoying the brand new carpet that is in the house, trying to put the rooms back together, and watching some James Bond movies (that Betty bought dad for Christmas!).

January 2nd- Snow!! We got snow!! Adam and I made a few runs back and forth between the storage unit to bring back a few things. Spent some time at Walmart and Staples (where we picked up a new LCD monitor for dad!), but other than, just another regular day!

Celebrating an amazingly interesting year!

Oh my gosh, so much to share and not enough time! I cannot believe that I haven't posted since October! From Jennifer's EcuaAlbuquerque visit (since she couldn't come out to Ecuador when we were living there, but we were so far away still that it was like we were practically in Ecuador...she called it her EcuaAlbuquerque trip, haha) to our visit to Utah, arrival in Ridgecrest, painting/working on the house, Thanksgiving at Jennifer's to now...Christmas Eve and not an update from Adam and I! So many photographs and stories to share!

I promise that in 2011 there will be more regular posts once again (I am planning to do Project Life for 2011 and hope to take at least a photo a day for that project, so I hope that I can make time to also share them here). 2010 was a whirlwind year...making new friends, creating new memories, seeing new places (including the Galapagos Islands!), saying many hellos and goodbyes, leaving Peace Corps Ecuador and starting new beginnings once again...I have no idea what 2011 brings me but I hope that it will be as interesting as the past few years have been!

And I promise there will be photos up soon... until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Aperture, Wide Open!

After Jota got his 50mm lens and seeing how fast it was (and how inexpensive it is), I decided to get one for myself! I've been having fun taking photos (indoors, no less!) though I do have to say that I need to stop using such a wide aperture all the time! I just got the lens last week so it'll take some time for me to get used to the fact that I can't zoom in and out, and it'll also take some time for me not to stick to the widest aperture setting all the time (but it is so much fun!). Aperture!

Decor of California Missions in Adam's parents' house

Desert flowers in front of Adam's parents' house in New Mexico

Garlic knots, pre-oven...not as gorgeous as Jason's but tons of garlic on top! Yum!

Ginormous bento box...my new lens lets me have a really shallow depth of field (good or bad...lol, in this photo only the rice and a bit of the tempura is in focus)

Mmm, salmon inside and out!

Adam out on the deck with Mickie!

Last night Adam's mom made baked apples...these are pre oven...look at all that butter on top! YUM!

And we're back!!

Things have been great since being home! Family time, showers with hot water and lots of pressure, clothes that smell clean, and a trip to the Albuquerque Annual Balloon Fiesta! We headed out to see the balloons at 5am and were rewarded with seeing hundreds of hot air balloons take flight. I really enjoyed the special shape balloons (my favorites of the shapes were the Japanese Ebisu balloon, the Pondemonium balloon, and the owl) but really, everything was just stellar (minus the bad red chile breakfast burrito that Adam's mom and I shared).

First balloon to take off at around 5:45am

Decided to stop for a breakfast burrito (seemed to early for turkey legs, haha). Green chile one was decent, but we couldn't even finish the red chile burrito!

Finally! People started to get their balloons filled up! We had gotten up extra early to see the Dawn Patrol and the Morning Glow, but it didn't end up happening. 

All the balloonists filling up their air balloons

Slowly but surely the balloons started to fill up

And take off!

Pepsi can and a guppy, amongst the others

Starting to realize I am not in Ecuador anymore (everybody is too tall so I have to stand on tippy toes)

It really is amazing to see hundreds of balloons in the air, love it!!

I thought the dead cat balloon was hilarious

I thought the balloon on the right was just adorable! It is a pond scene with fish, swans, frogs, birds...

The Ebisu god balloon, holding a fish!

Wells Fargo stagecoach didn't quite get aloft

The balloon field from the parking lot