Oldies but Goodies

This past Friday night was such a good time. We went to a 'Zoo Music' night. This entails a night of pic-nicking it at the zoo on the huge park-like grassy area while listening to a live band. If you get there early-ish, you can stroll around and check out the animals in the evening, which is also very cool since our zoo never allows people in at night. The BEST part of the evening was meeting up with several of our friends from way back. We see some of them all the time, and some a few times a year. One couple, Jon and Bella, just moved back with their 4 kiddos and are staying in NM for good this time! We are always excited to get friends back instead of losing them to a move for a better job, etc.

We looked like a field trip school group walking all our kiddos through the zoo. It's amazing to me when I look around and everyone's families have doubled and tripled. Time passes and look what happens. It's just so funny to think back to when we were all living the good student life in our little apartments way back when. Those were the days when a night out took little to no planning and we were all up for whatever came our way. Spontaneity has sadly dwindled, but some quick planning and lots of snacks for the kiddies made for a fun night. Not to mention all the adults snagging each others kids as they left our group's blanketed territory. A little help never hurts!

The music was actually fairly good(don't ask me the name of the group), but the company was great. Thanks for a fun night guys!

The Fourth

The 4th of July never fails to make me feel like summer is finally here, and halfway over at the same time. Weird.

It's a nice change of thought, though, to take the time to think about our freedom and all the little things we take for granted every single second in this country...it's overwelming and humbling all at the same time. And I wish I could thank every person past and present who have worked so hard to make and keep it this way...I'd be a blubbering mess. I am just so, so thankful for all that we enjoy here. God Bless America.

We celebrated here in ABQ with Corey's family. His parents came into town for the weekend to ring in the 4th and lil' Emery's big 2nd birthday. How cool is it that she gets fireworks on her birthday, every year? She was sure a cutie blowing out her candles. She did it so fast that Meagan lit them an additional time while we finished singing 'Happy Birthday.' The adults munched and talked, the kids all splashed and played in Emery's new pool, and we all ended the night with lots of smoke and noise(the fireworks, of course!). Honestly, I thought most of the ones that Corey and Aaron bought this year were pretty boring(sorry, but it's true), except for the very last one they did. Not sure what it was called but it was very cool! Asher actually got into the pyro-play quite a bit this year, and got in trouble more than once for whipping his sparklers too close to nearby faces and feet. He had fun though. Beck was a crabby and rather clumsy little guy during the latter part of the night, but we couldn't have expected much else considering we were 2 hours past his preferred bedtime. We took him inside for the super loud whistly ones, and all he wanted to do was play ball anyway.

Fun night! And a Happy Fourth of July to all!

P.S. The boys watched some soccer during the World Cup. The United States' team loss was a huge disappointment, and now that Brazil is out too, Corey is beside himself. Who to cheer for now? This is a pic of the boys watching some W.C. 'football.'