ABQ Beginnings

600 miles away from my family, my blog suddenly seems way more important...so, here is a humorous retelling of the last four days. (I say humorous because I'm intending to be funny--let me know how that works out by the time I'm done writing this.)

DAY 1--Load the truck

It started out great. Chris left the hotel in Draper at 7:30 in the morning, arriving at the house before 8:00 to finish up the last few to-dos before the truck showed up. He finished those tasks, cleaned up a bit, then read his book while he waited. And waited. And waited.

Luckily, his car was shipped to Albuquerque somewhere in the middle of that. So at least he was stranded at the house.

At 9:30, an hour and a half after the designated truck-arrival time (though still within their approximated window), we were informed that they would not be arriving for another three hours. Delightful.

We went out to lunch instead. There is no problem that Village Inn will not solve. I'm pretty sure about that.

It seemed entirely appropriate at that point to divest ourselves of the responsibilities of parenthood and ditch Amy with all the kids while we loaded the truck. Or, more accurately, watch a bunch of other guys load the truck.

Five and a half hours worth of watching. Fun stuff, let me tell ya.


It was 7:00 by the time we finally pulled out of Salt Lake. That was a bit off from our original plan of leaving at 1:00.

DAY 1 1/2--Drive to Albuquerque

I drove, Chris slept. Then I slept while Chris drove. And vice versa. And again.

It was a long drive.

My favorite part was Colorado. Why? I added a new state to my list. I'd never been to Colorado before, and now I have. Although I must say, there is not much to see in the dark. Weird. The highway signs and the lines on the road are roughly identical to Utah, and past that, I couldn't see anything. Perhaps someday I'll go back during daylight hours. That could be fun.

In addition to not being able to see anything, for the entire span of our Colorado stretch of road I was the only person awake in the vehicle. Maybe someday I'll go back in the daylight with people who are awake. That could be way fun.

DAY 2--Sleep. Wake up to eat. Go back to sleep.

DAY 3--Makeover Day

The girls wanted something fun to do, and I had been planning to cut Chris's hair. For the fun of it, we cut Ben's hair first. Jane was our photographer.

Then we cut Chris's hair. That seemed less picture-worthy (mostly because the girls were taking a bath at that point and we didn't have an alternate photographer handy), so I don't have any pictures. I will say, however, that his hair looks fabulous. So does the rest of him.

Then we cut Megan's hair. It started with a trim of her bangs, then I ended up trimming all the way around.

Now she has eyes again.

Then we cut Jane's hair. Why? Because she asked. Not that you can tell from the expression on her face.

Three unprofessional inches later, her hair is short and semi-uneven, but cute. While I agreed to cut her hair, I did resist cutting it as short as she originally asked. I wasn't up for a trim above the ears.

I was the only one who did not get my hair cut yesterday. I'm totally ok with that.

Following our barbershop, the girls threw themselves a tea party.

Nail painting followed. No pictures of that since I had the nailbrush in hand and the girls' hands were temporarily incapacitated due to wetness.

To round out the day, I found a few self-portraits I thought you'd enjoy. They made me chuckle.

DAY 4--Albuquerque Zoo

I'll post some pictures as soon as we go. Which will be right now.