The Butterfly emerges!!

A few weeks ago....Ben was at the kitchen sink and saw a caterpillar on the outside wall.  He went out and brought it in for the girls to put in their 'bug jar.'  Within 24 hours it was already in it's chrysalis/coccoon!  We were soo excited!  But week after week, we began to wonder if it was still alive!  Well, this morning, this is what we found!!!!!!!

 She was HUGE!  Her wings wouldn't open all of the way in the jar, so we took her outside and let her out.  She spread her wings and they were still wet, so she must of just hatched!!

 We watched her as she moved her wings and eventually flew up to a nearby bush,

and then flapped her wings and flew away!  

It was quite the adventerous morning!!!

More fun, ABQ style

So we've been doing a pretty good job of filling in the days with fun activities.  

For Kimber's Birthday we went to the Aquarium....we got a great deal on a season pass to the zoo, aquarium, and the botanical gardens.  We've definitely been taking advantage of it!! 

We have been going to one of the 3 places each week and have enjoyed each one.  

 The picture above is a slide down the log at the botanical gardens.  

 Kimber at the aquarium, by a HUGE fish.

 They look forward to Friday's because they can sleep on the 'couch bed'

They really look forward to it all week!

 The girls voted Zoo last week, so we went for a quick trip. 

Below is us on the train....pretty much our family these days...

we miss Ben, but are super glad he is doing so well at the Hospital.

 It was the perfect morning to go to the Zoo...all of the animals were out and moving!

 Zebra's are one of the girls favorites!

 After they'd had enough, we played on the jungle gym play area (above the girls in the pict) for about an hour, then they were hot....so before we went home for lunch they got drenched on the splash pad.

It was hilarious!  The water randomly shoots up out of the grate in all different places.  The girls had a ball chasing it and ended up little wet rats.  They giggled the entire time so it was well worth it!

We've decided weekday mornings are thee best times to go places like this because the crowds aren't bad and it isn't too hot!   Come and visit and we will take you to the awesome places too!!

Happy 4th of July!!

We had a wonderful 4th of July!  Ben was given the day off (HUGE SURPRISE) and our ward did a Pancake Breakfast and bike parade at the church.  It was a perfect, overcast morning and the girls had a ball!!

 Here are the girlio's eating their pancakes, ham, eggs, and banana!  DELISH!

 Cody doing what he does best....just being cute!

 Then came the bike decorating!  The girls were superstars and had so much fun!

 Holdyn and Kimber sporting their colors!  

I tried to get a good picture between the American Flag and the New Mexico flag, 

this was the best one I captured :)

 Then it was home for some fun in the yard and an awesome BBQ!

Since Ben had to be to work at 4am the next morning, we stayed home and did

sparklers in the rain.  It was a happy day!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!  

We are thankful to live in this AWESOME Country!

Land of the free and the home of the Brave!!

ABC Library Fun

In my efforts to find fun activities to do with the kids here in Albuquerque, while Ben is working,  a friend from church told us about the local libraries activities!  Well, THANK YOU Albuquerque Bernillilo County Library system for the AWESOME fun!

 Each Tuesday they do an activity for kids during the summer months.  We missed out on some good ones before we moved, BUT, the last three Tuesday's have been great!  The first one was a group of people from some organization that studies the sun.  They had 4 HUGE telescopes that we got to look through to see the sun.  We could see the sun spots and sun storms....it was pretty neat!

 The next Tuesday, they had a drum festival!  There was a man there with about 80 different drums and percussion instruments he let the kids play on and taught them some rhythms.  We had a blast!!

Yesterday, they had a world famous and prize winning storyteller come.  She was from Australia and was AWESOME!  She acted out 4 different stories as she told them and had the kids attention the entire time!  I didn't get any picts of her, but we are really loving Library day!!  They also have great prizes for the kids if they come with a paper signed that they read so many books (or had them read to) during the week!  The girls have gotten a book bag, stuffed animal, and a big squishy ball as prizes.  Thanks again ABC Library system!  We are glad to have taken advantage of you!  Tomorrow we are going to go again because they are doing balloon animals  :)  SO FUN!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!!

The girls were dying to have a party for Ben where they could jump out and yell surprise!  The only way this was going to work was to have the place/party ready to go before he got home from work on Friday, even though his birthday was Saturday!  The girls and I spent the day making and putting up decorations, baking his favorite German Choc cake and frosting, and getting ready to have pizza on the grill for dinner!  It was a fun day!  When Ben came in, the girls were soooo excited to hide and jump out and say "SURPRISE!"  It was a success!

Jared had just made it before Ben came in so he got in on the excitement! 

He also brought some sweet things for the girls to play with!  He is winning the favorite uncle status quickly!

Ben was a great sport and we had a super fun evening!

Jared picked up his mom at the airport and we were lucky enough to have them stay at our house for the night and most of the next day!  They took us to the awesome kids museum Explora, in old town Albuquerque!  It was AWESOME!!!

Everything was hands on, and just as fun for adults as it was for kids!  

We all had a blast!

Here are Ben and Jared facing off with their hover crafts over the fan.

Here are the girls making their own pictures on the spiro...whatever it is called ;)

Here are the girls looking into a tunnel of mirrors....HILARIOUS!

Here are Jared and Ben.....AWESOME!

Cody seemed a bit scared!

Building with the blocks! 

Jared and Ben competing again!

GO JARED!

IF you thought we were in an elevator in the pic. below...

you'd be right!  AWESOME!

We then went to Red Robin and enjoyed an awesome  birthday dinner where we had the servers sing to Ben and if you know Ben, it was torture...but great for the rest of us!

Happy Birthday Ben!  WE LOVE YOU!

Also, THANKS so much to Jared and Renae Reese for the AWESOME DAY!!! 

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!