Friday, April 5, 2013

Exploring Explora

This is another flashback post--all the way to March 1. It seemed perfectly fitting that we make our first family outing to Albuquerque's Children's Museum on none other than Deborah's birthday, our local children's museum queen.

I've got to admit, Explora is pretty dang cool. We only even heard of it because it was a field trip for Jane's class, and I'm really glad we decided to make it a family event. It was well worth it.

We built block towers,


played with magnifiers,


built block towers,


played with bubbles,




built block towers,


flew a plane,



built block towers,


played puzzle games,




and built more block towers. Ben was really digging the blocks.






Megan had her share of fun with the blocks, too.




A couple of the COOLEST attractions here were the tightrope bike and the elevator. Yes, I said the elevator. But bike first.


I was surprisingly nervous to actually get on myself, until it was compared to skydiving. Yes, I went skydiving and therefore this was a piece of cake. I was even complimented on my great skill in getting in and out of the harness. If Outlook taught me nothing else, I'm a whiz with these harnesses now!

Chris went, too. He wasn't nervous at all, ever.


As for the elevator, this is hands-down the largest and coolest elevator I have ever seen. Not only is it ENORMOUS for an elevator--especially considering that it only goes between two floors!--it's furnished.



I didn't get any better pictures, but I will admit that more than once have we gotten on that elevator and completely forgotten to push the buttons to actually go anywhere. Why think about leaving when it's so comfortable to stay?

All told, it's an awesome place to play. We went back with Heather and Brandon for a double date a couple weeks later, and...we forgot to push the elevator buttons again.


We'll be going back.


Thursday, April 4, 2013

Forgotten Februaries

My blogging brain was largely out of commission during the month of February (and March), which means I have a plethora of unblogged pictures just waiting to make their online debut. I debated long and hard (or maybe more like short and not at all) about whether to backdate these all in the individual posts I had envisioned at the time of the picture-takings, but...nope. Not gonna. Instead you get February 2013 in a nutshell. A colorfully adorable filled-with-my-children nutshell.

There is a really nice playground just across the intersection from our apartment complex that is quite fun. We've been there several times now, and even ran into Chris's boss there and chatted with him while our kids played with his girls. That was fun.


This particular day was really cold, despite the sunshine. Wind in Albuquerque is a killer--Jane's bike streamers can give you some idea. On the upside, this park has a sidewalk track perfect for bikes, several slides, swings, and even a zip line.












Not in Utah moment: I can't remember any park near our house in Salt Lake that actually had sand instead of bark, pebble gravel, or rubber. I also can't remember any park that didn't have a bathroom. No parks in Albuquerque have bathrooms, no matter what time of year it is. But at least the girls have been able to make dozens of "birthday cakes" to their hearts' content.

Hey, remember that holiday in February? Valentine's Day, I think? Yeah. Our entire celebration of Valentine's Day consisted of Megan, Ben and I joining in on the party at Jane's preschool. Note how healthy the lunch menu was that day. Made me smile since they generally are such a health-food conscious establishment.



 We had a good time. Megan and Ben especially loved the chance to actually stay and play, when generally they are just in and out and don't touch anything while I'm dropping off/picking up Jane.



Cute girls!


Since it, you know, doesn't snow in Albuquerque, we've been getting fair use out of the bikes the girls got for Christmas. Around our apartment complex we are constantly coming across weird seed-like things that fall off the trees and litter the sidewalks. After bike riding one day, Chris decided to bring a few of the seeds inside so we could all dissect them and see what their guts look like.




That was a fun little family science experiment.

We also have been known to build block towers. Lots and lots and lots of block towers. So many, in fact, that I have gotten tired of pulling out the camera so I only have pictures of one.




Last but not least, Chris built me a desk. I had been doing all of my business work while sitting on my bed, which is not conducive to prolonged productivity, let alone back health. Perfect timing--he found three large sheets of MDF next to a dumpster that he claimed on my behalf.


It's quite different working on this little porch versus the garage we had in Utah. (I was going to add quite a list of positive adjectives before the word garage there, but let's not rub salt in the wound, eh?)





 By the way, that's not snow, it's sawdust.

It would have been a really nice desk. I say would have been because in the very last stages of building, in the steps of adding superfluous elements solely at my request which were completely unnecessary structurally speaking, the whole thing broke. In a move to tilt it back from its side to upright, the MDF split apart at no less than six of the screw points. Always a risk with cheap wood, and here was excellent proof of that. So, instead I now have a black skinny folding table for a desk. Much less personal and "built with love"...but Chris still totally gets all the wonderful husband points!

Which reminds me--I have never blogged about our bed!!! I have been shocked and dismayed at how many people don't know that it's finished, and especially don't know how gorgeous it is. That most definitely deserves a post of its own and it will be coming soon!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Officially Official

I have THREE major announcements to make, albeit with a few qualifiers. My first two announcements are largely public knowledge amongst the Wampler clan and anyone associated with said clan via Facebook...but I still like to think that it's blogworthy nonetheless. My third announcement has been slowly spreading by word of mouth, but as we all know, nothing really happens at our house until it's on the blog. And it's less well-known, so be excited.

And we're off to the races...

HEATHER IS ENGAGED!

Set the way back machine to Heather's first year in college at Utah State and you'll meet Brandon--the man of her dreams, which were yet unfulfilled. Until March 16th, that is.


You may recall a certain post I wrote here on March 16th, chronicling the enormous success of the Wamplers on that night. The FORBIDDEN TO BLOG success was the engagement that happened between leaving the ward party and getting back to our house shortly thereafter.


Only now will I qualify my chess win that night--Heather was distracted by said new fiance who was sitting next to her holding her hand. I assure you that nothing short of proposal of marriage immediately preceding the game would have allowed me to win. But, let it be known, I have still beat Heather at chess. Regardless of the circumstances. Or how many people were helping me. Like Chris. And Brandon. And eventually even Heather telling me how to beat her just so we could be done and they could go ring shopping.

I still won.

Next...

CHARLOTTE OLIVIA WAMPLER WAS BORN!

Amanda gave birth to her second baby on March 25.



Along with that fabulous success, Michael now has a daughter and Ivan has a sister. Funny how those things go together...


Yay for new nieces! Stay tuned for another arriving shortly.

And finally...

WE HAVE CHOSEN A GRADUATE SCHOOL!

Come August, we will be moving to... drum roll please...

ATLANTA, GEORGIA
where Chris will be attending


I'm mentally prepping myself as best I can for the switch from completely dry to overwhelmingly humid and everything brown to everything green. That second switch I'm all kinds of looking forward to, the first...slightly less so. We'll see how well we do in wet heat versus absolute desert.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Sanctuary Invasion

It's becoming no big secret that I LOVE going to the laundromat. Enormously productive for the family (no less than six loads at a time usually) and completely acceptable for me to do whatever the heck I want while it's going. Awe-some.


Unless I end up bringing kids with me. Decidedly less awesome.

Like today, for example. I could have done the laundry on Saturday but...I didn't. One of those days where I never made it out the door so it just didn't happen. And so, we ventured out before Jane needed to be in school so we could load up the washers and get them going, then took Jane to school and came back for the drying and folding.

We did this same thing about a month and a half ago, but I never blogged about it. (Did you know that the frequency of posts on my blog is a wonderful indicator of my mental health? The fewer posts, the worse off my brain is at any given time...) I took pictures that time.


You can always tell how desperate our laundry situation is by how many days Ben spends in pajamas. He has about four days' worth of clothes less than needed for how often we do laundry. But at least he's cute in pajamas, sneakers, and camo hat.


And there is plenty of room to run and run and run in circles around the laundromat. As long as you avoid the ornery attendant, that is...

Megan's favorite was being Mom's helper. She was great at putting clothes in the machines, taking it out, and most especially putting the money in and pushing buttons.


Once all the inherent excitement of a laundromat has worn out, there's always Netflix.


The only downside that day was that I planned entertainment for the kids, but none for me. Boring boring boring. Today I was smarter and brought my laptop, too, so I could blog. Aren't you glad we're doing laundry today?