So Many things to Love about New Mexico

We arrived in the summer, so it was obvious that there would be a lot of sunshine here, but I had no idea that there would be so many pretty rainbows too.  Many days there was a very brief rain shower in the afternoon or early evening and there would be these beautiful rainbows afterwards.

 Many times there would be double rainbows and they are all so brilliant!  This place and it's sunshine has blown us away.  I have never lived somewhere with so much of it!!  You have to wear sunglasses constantly.

 We went to the 4th of July celebration soon after we arrived.  Albuquerque is actually big enough to have bands playing that we have actually heard of.  They also had some fun fireworks!  But the lines at all the booths were ridiculous so we didn't get anything to eat.  Big does mean lots of people!

 Balloons!  We see them out our windows and on our runs every morning. They are so pretty and make me happy.

 They have a real life state fair!  With performances like these pogo guys (this one was from Russia) to real concerts and a honest to goodness official rodeo.

 They had sponsors like the dairy guys where you could pretend to milk a cow

 They had rows of places to eat and lots of buildings with people selling stuff and competing!

 This was a little place inside one of the building where they were racing pigs.  It was a cowboy exhibit where you played horse shoes, saddled a horse

 milked a cow- hee hee, I had to take a picture of that sign!  It was so tempting to drink the cow water!

 And make rope!

 They also had a little exhibit of Aussie animals.  See the Albino Kangaroo?

 We finally get to have our trampoline up again.  The boys are ecstatic!  Sam is learning a layout full twist right now and Joe has perfected his front flip.

We got to go watch a Lobos versus Boise state game.  College football is fun. 

Max's class got to go to the balloon museum.  They made their own balloons using a tutorial online.

Then when they got to the museum they had these stations where they filled them up with hot air 

 and let them fly!

 Then the kids caught them and if they need repairs, they went to a repair station and then they did it all over again!  The kids had a ton of fun.

The balloon festival is amazing!

 These two balloons- Darth and Yoda were obviously owned by the Lucas company.  They had all these guys dressed up that were just there to interact with the crowd and take pictures with them as the balloons filled up.

They even sent two balloons off from Max's school yard one day.  You just had to get up a little early to come see it.

 This is an English bobby.  He had a robber that he floated with most of the time.

 A Heffalump!  The kids didn't even know what a Heffalump was!

I know some people think I don't like Albuquerque much, because of the difficulties we have had in this move.  Everything has taken 3 times as long.  The schools are crazy about their registrations.  I had to go in 3 times for Max and Sam until they decided I was finished and twice for Joe.  I have had to fight the high school over issues with sports and grades and AP credit.  The closing of the house took over a month, just because that is how long it takes to approve people for loans here.  The ward is huge and full of mostly Utah transplants that have never moved in their lives until now and find it extremely hard and cry about it often, or have lived here their whole lives and have family and friends all over the place.  They are also very young- very young!  It's hard to feel wanted, needed or even a part of a ward like that.  But in the end, I am trying to keep a positive attitude.  I think the stuff with the schools is finally worked out!  I got to advocate with them for military children and that was a good thing.  I am loving the sun and all the outdoors stuff.  We are playing tennis and running and riding bikes on the many trails.  We have hiked the Sandias.  Life is good- for now.