Living in Albuquerque...

I know, many of you have been waiting to see pictures of our house in ABQ. Well, wait no more. I finally took some pictures and am posting them for you to see. Enjoy!



Our entry way, all decked out for Fall.


Our half bath. I sure do miss our red one in VA!



Our dinning room. One day soon we will have a new table and chair set, this one has seen better days!

Dinning/living room view

Kitchen, see my brand new Kitchen Aid mixer?! We got a great deal on it so Rich got it for my birthday, This is the ONLY appliance I will allow to be given as a birthday gift (or any gift for that matter!) :)

Lots of counter space and lots of pantry space. We use every bit of it too!

View from the kitchen into the dinning room/ living room.

Our down stairs living room.

Mom sent me the chairs that were my grandparents (the wood/gold ones). I have wanted these forever. When we figure out what color our furniture will be in this room we will have all of them recovered and the wood restored!

Its a pretty empty room for now, we will eventually get more furniture and make this our "formal" living room.

Our office, it rarely gets used. We need a new desk top computer, then it will be loved more than it is currently.

This is our upstairs loft/family room. This is where we keep the tv and our couch and recliner. This is where we spend most of our time, when we are home.

Ajax and Comet like the table under the window, they use it as their way to get to the window ledge where they watch the neighborhood kids and dogs from a safe distance.

Our guest room..nothing special, but it will be warm and welcoming for those of you who would like to visit! :)

We do have a third bedroom, at the moment it is our storage/catch all room. It is not ready for its close up, guess you will have to come visit if you want to see it. Who knows, by then maybe it will be a nursery!!!

Our guest bath

We have our own deck off the master. The cats like to walk the ledge (makes me nervous, thanks Mom for passing on your nervous genes!) but Rich lets them. I think they like it too, they taunt the neighbors dogs.

LOVE my walk in closet. Its ALMOST big enough for both of us! :)

Gotta LOVE having double sinks!

My soaking tub. Sorry David, Blythe and Michael...it doesn't have a jet engine but it is big enough for the 3 of you when you come visit!

Our master bedroom...

We even have our own fire place in our bedroom. I cant wait for winter to come so we can use it!

its big and cozy. We have enough room for a chair or two, a sitting area of sorts. Maybe when we hit the lottery (well, when mom hits it, since she is the only one who plays) then we can make a sitting area!


If you want to see more of the house, you have to come visit! Let us know when and we will have everything ready for your arrival! :)

Falcon Football and friends

Rich and I took a trip to Colorado Springs to see friends and the Air Force football game. Before the game, Rich took his friend Beth and I on a tour of the academy. It is a beautiful campus rich with history and tradition.





Tom, Rich's best friend from the academy, is now and instructor. One of his students is on the football team and gave Tom tickets so that we could go to the game. We had fantastic seats, it was fun to see all the tradition that the academy has and be able to see a glimpse into the life of a cadet, through Rich's eyes.

We arrived to the stadium just as the cadets were marching onto the field. I couldn't get through the crowd so Beth squeezed her way through to snag a picture of them marching through the tunnel for me. Thanks Beth!


As the cadets come out of the tunnel they march onto the field.


Pretty soon the whole field is filled with cadets. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself!


After the National Anthem and the Cadets are released to their seats in the stadium, the pre-game show begins. The parachuters jump from high above and land on the 50 yard line. There was one with the American flag, the POW/MIA flag, the Air Force Flag as well as the Falcon Mascot himself.



Shortly after the last jumper landed, one of them proposed to his girlfriend at center field. Sweet, but Rich and I keep wondering how he got her on the field without her knowing something was up....



There was of course the traditional fly over. Apparently they were F16 planes. I didn't know this, when Tom asked me what kind of fly over we had my response was "a good one"...Rich laughed at me. Apparently that question required a response with the type of air craft that was flown, as if I would know this by looking at the underside of them as they flew over head at the speed of light!?


Let the game begin....and boy did it. The Falcons scored the first touch down in the first 60 seconds of the game.


Somewhere out there I am convinced is Shelia's husband, I just couldn't zoom in enough to pin point which one he is. Guess we need to go to another game! :)



At the half time show, the falcon is usually flown. This game however, she didn't fly. We were told this was only her second appearance at a game and both times she suffered from stage fright. Rich said this is the first time he has EVER seen that happen...lucky us!



Thanks Beth for taking this picture for us!


49-27, not too shabby! Way to go AFA!!


Off we go into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun; Here they come zooming to meet our thunder, At'em boys, give'er the gun! Down we dive, spouting our flame from under, off with one helluva roar! We live in fame of go down in flame. Hey! Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!


We had a great weekend! We were able to spend time with Beth, Tom and Jen, Tori and Rich's sponsors from his time at the academy. I look forward to our next visit!

Our very own Wine and waterfall tour.

Rich and I were looking for some fun things to do in and around Seattle. We found a brochure for a Wine and Waterfall tour. They listed all the places they stopped on the tour so after some research Rich and I decided to do it our selves instead of being stuck on a bus with a group of strangers for 6 hours. This way we could take our time, enjoy it just being the two of us and enjoy the day.

Our first stop was Chateau Ste. Michelle.

We started with a tour and then a free tasting in the tasting room.

Of course we bought a YUMMY bottle of wine. And I was nicknamed the "wine horrder" by Rich. He says I like to buy wine and then I wont drink it...Its hard to justify opening a bottle of wine that we get on one of our trips because we wont be able to get it again!

Our second stop was the Columbia Winery tasting room.

Rich likes his sun glasses, I made him take them off for the picture, this is what I got. I might think twice before I make him take them off for another photo if this is the result! :)

Unfortunately the third winery we stopped at, we failed to take any pictures :( Silver Lake Winery had some tasty treats (including the grapes off the vine that they make the wine from...that was pretty cool!) and since we were the only ones there we were given special tastings off of their tasting list, it worked too...we bought a bottle. well, we bought a bottle at all three but shhhh...dont tell Silver Lake that!

After our tastings and some lunch we headed out for the waterfall portion of our day. Even with the over cast, it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around and reading all about the hydro plant and waterfall at Snoqualmie Falls Park.

When we had read all there was to read and took all the pictures we wanted, Rich and I headed for Boehms Candies. We were able to taste, and purchase, some yummy chocolatey treats that are made by hand, fresh everyday, by master candy makers. Since we arrived so late in the afternoon they candy making for the day had been completed so we were only able to take the window tour, cute all the same!!