Spring is Here!!

See a trend? If this rate continues, there might only be one blog post each season! To our readers (if there even are any anymore), my apologies for the false sense of hope that there would be more adventures posted more recently than 3 MONTHS AGO! I'm starting to think this blog is mainly for our purposes...keeping track of things that we're doing so when we move back, we'll have a "diary" of sorts. For those of you still reading, thank you!

The past couple months have been a blur. I'll try to summarize as best as possible. I guess we left off shortly before Christmas with plans for my in-laws to come visit and for Cari and I to spend Christmas in Colorado. Well, thanks to the wonderful east coast winters, those plans didn't exactly hold true. Cari's family drove from Blacksburg, VA to Columbia, MD the Friday before Christmas with plans to come out Saturday. Unfortunately, they drove 13 hours in a blizzard, only to find out the next day that the flight was inevitably canceled. So, instead of re-booking all 5 of them to come out here, they graciously paid for Cari and I to fly out to Maryland for Christmas. We were disappointed to not host them here, but it turned out just fine, as we were able to see more of Cari's extended family.

Shuffling Christmas plans also required us to move our CO trip, which we were able to do with no problems or extra fees. We ended up driving to Colorado Springs New Years Day and spending the weekend there. The drive was interesting...not much in the way of scenery until an hour or so outside of CO Springs, as most of the area is the west side of the Great Plains (and boy, was it plain..ha..ha). However, waiting at the end of our trip was a fun little Bed and Breakfast/Inn with tons of character and welcoming hosts. If you haven't seen our pictures yet, check them out on Facebook. The mountains were beautiful and the city was small, but had a lot to offer. We had some amazing food (brewery, diner, Japanese to name a few) and saw a lot of great things. The first day we visited what's called the Garden of the Gods. It's a huge park area (free to the public) with tons of trails amongst gigantic rock formations shooting up through the ground. It was a tad chilly, but still incredible. The next day we took a cog railway to the top (well, almost...) of Pikes Peak! The ride was a little scary, but the scenery was absolutely amazing. We could see five states at one point and the Rockies hundreds of miles away! Overall, it was a relaxing time to get away from everyday life, and we would definitely visit Colorado again.

We also had the opportunity to travel back to N.C. for a wedding - Lindsey (who Cari used to work with at the Raleigh Rescue Mission) and her husband Brandon. Cari was in the wedding, so we split our time between seeing and visiting with my family, Cari's grandparents, Lindsey and Brandon's family and friends, and some of our friends. We were there for a long weekend (Wed-Sun), so we could have (always) used more time, but it was satisfying. I was able to come back a couple weeks later for a business trip (training I was able to complete in N.C.) which was also nice. I had the opportunity to stay at my parent's place and show my work colleagues some of the excellent N.C. sites/restaurants.

Since January, we've had the privilege of hosting some of Cari's family. Her grandmother came out to New Mexico for a couple weeks. She traveled with another group of people during the week, but she was able to stay with us on the weekends. We enjoyed relaxing, watching the Olympics, and hanging around here. We also got to do a few things like check out Old Town and the New Mexico Natural History Museum. This past weekend, we had the joy of Cari's aunt and cousin (Heidi and Becky) coming to visit during Becky's spring break from college. We got to go out to eat, to Old Town again (it's a great place to take visitors), and to Sante Fe. We also did something new, which was to ride the Tram to the top of Sandia Peak. Apparently, this is the world's longest aerial tramway (http://www.sandiapeak.com/index.php?page=tramway) and goes about 2.7 miles up to about 10,300 feet. It's more like a cable car that hangs down from the cable it's attached to above (like a ski lift), so the swaying and lack of anything below us (other than huge rocks) was a little disconcerting. However, the views at the top were incredible. Cari wouldn't do it again, but if any of you come out to visit, I'm happy to go up again! We're also looking forward to hosting Cari's mom, dad, and sister over Easter weekend in less than 2 weeks! Hopefully no illness or natural disasters prevent them from actually getting out here this time!!

I suppose that's about it. We've been filling our time in between the weekends with bible study, American Idol, and great food. We've finally started feeling like we're settling in here...meeting new people, spending time with friends, and keeping busy. We'll continue to pray and seek God's will for our lives and where He wants us to be, but at this point, we're learning to be content, even if it means being away from family. Albuquerque's not SO bad, and the Southwest certainly has quite a bit to offer that we have yet to take advantage of. This spring/summer, our plans are to check out the Grand Canyon, White Sands National Monument, and Carlsbad Caverns...all which are within a separate weekend trip. We also have plans to go to San Diego for a week and have tentative plans to come back east later in the summer to spend time with family.

We're still welcoming any and all visitors, so please feel free to come out and we'll show you the Southwest!! In the meantime, thanks for the thoughts and prayers..they're certainly being returned! Also, a special congratulations to Cari's friends Courtney (who just gave birth to her first child) and Sharon (who just found out she is expecting)! We love and miss everyone back east and can't wait to see you all soon!!!