4th of July

We had a fun Independence day!  We started the morning with the ward breakfast.  We had breakfast casseroles, fruit, bacon, and pancakes.  Andrew was on bacon making duty for most of the morning.  In the afternoon we went to the park and had lunch with a few other couples from our ward, the Babcocks, Malones, and Dudleys.

Riley got tired, but he made a good pillow for his friend Evelyn.

In the night we went to the fireworks with the friends that we had lunch with.  We sat on top of a flood control dam and watched them.  Riley fell asleep right before they started, and missed the whole thing.  Andrew took these awesome pictures!

Some Pictures of Riley

We had some visitors last week.  Riley had fun with his grandparents.  This is when we went up the Tram to the top of Sandia Peak.

Riley got a life jacket

He likes cold things and he likes bananas, but not frozen bananas

My two handsome guys

Lots of Homes

When I tell people that we live in Pittsburgh during the school year I am sure this is what they imagine.

You can tell by the look on their face how sorry they are for me.

But it actually looks a little more like this

I won't lie, Pittsburgh still has a few industrial looking places, but it's not the whole town.

I have also had a negative reaction when I tell people we are living in Albuquerque.

I assume they imagine something like this

or this

or this

Albuquerque actually is a little more like this 

We even have a temple

I haven't exactly found the beauty in the rest of New Mexico, but I'm working on it.

This will always be my first home though (see you in a few weeks)

6 months

Riley is six months old.  Weighing in at 19.0 pounds and 27.5 inches long, putting him in the 70 somethingth and 80 somethingth percentiles respectively.  He's good at sitting and has 2 teeth.  I think he's super cute, so do all the ladies at Smith's that he smiles at. 

I would take half as long at the store without him.  First he finds a nice looking grandma, then gives her a super big smile, the she says "he's so cute" and then tells me about her granddaughter who's just a month older than him; or son who is 34 and lives far away; or how they're cute now, but when he's 16...  That's okay though, we aren't usually in a hurry and I think it's funny.

Now here are some nice pictures of him:

Getting ready to slide

Enjoying watermelon

I don't know why in my mind I still think it's important to leave the tags on beanie babies.  I know that it is not going to be a collector's item and bring me thousands of dollars one day.  Riley tried eating it and it fell off, now I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Sometimes we let Riley feed himself, but we've found it's best to do it outside or in the bathtub because he is very messy.

Future Michael Phelps?  His feet are big enough. 

Sick baby

Last week Riley woke up one night and was very warm.  We took his temperature and it was 101.7.  We gave him some baby tylenol and I stayed up with him most of the night.  It was a rough night, sorry Dallas and Adrianne.  They were visiting us.

I took him to the doctor in the morning.  Turns out he had an ear infection.  He had to start taking amoxicillin.  It was a big struggle every time we had to give it to him, especially in the mornings when Andrew was at work.  I guess Riley hates the color pink or something, but he is better now.

Apparently the first time your baby is sick is the hardest, so hopefully I am more prepared for the next time.  Luckily it wasn't anything serious and something that could be fixed quickly.

Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands

The first weekend in June some people in our ward invited us to go with them to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands.  We wanted to go there sometime and we figured that was as good of time as any, and it was nice to go with people who knew what they were doing and the good stuff to see.

The first night we got there we went to the bat show at the caves.  It was a little disappointing because not too many bats flew out, but we still saw some.  Riley got a little bored, so we had to move, he played with rocks and tried to eat them.

We camped that night.  We are not the most campy people in the world, but with our big air mattress it wasn't too bad.  It was Riley's first night camping and it wasn't too bad.  In the morning we went to the caverns.  They were really pretty.

Then we drove to a waterfall and the kids played in the water.  It was cold but Riley didn't care.  He loves swimming.

That night we got to white sands.  The sand is so white and fine, it was like playing in sugar.  Riley tried to eat it.  It was especially nice because it wasn't too hot and there weren't very many people.  We camped again that night.

In the morning we went on a little hike and played in some more water.  Then we went back to white sands.  It was really hot, but we still played for a while.  Then we got frozen custard and went home.  It was a fun trip and we did a lot of things and made some good friends in our ward.

Chef Lindsay presents. . .

Banana + Nutella (or the cheaper and just as tasty Jif Chocolate hazelnut spread) = best sandwich of my life.  Why didn't I think of this earlier?