Fun Times and Exciting News!

This has been a super fun past couple weeks...along with some very good and exciting things happening to us!

I'll begin this post with last weeks events. It was memorial day weekend, Neal had an extra 2 days off and of course we had to do something fun! We didn't do very much on Saturday, went to the movies and had a little date night. Sunday, we went canoeing down the Rio Grande! All we really wanted was to be near water, since there is so little of it out here in the desert. We found a canoeing company that rents canoes and we had a nice little day trip down the Rio Grande. Unfortunately, this river was not exactly what we had envisioned. It happens to be the drainage system for ABQ, so it kind of smelled and there was a lot of trash. It was also extremely shallow...nothing like the rivers back home! It was also REALLY windy so there were parts we were actually going backwards... not the greatest canoe trip. But the scenery was beautiful, it was nice watching the Sandia mountains float by.

Monday, we went to the ABQ wine festival! This festival was held at Balloon Fiesta park with most of the wineries from all around New Mexico present. We walked around with our little wine glasses and went from booth to booth, testing all kinds of different wines. It was a great day! The food was great too!

Then, this weekend was great too! Sunday we finally went to the ABQ Biopark! The Biopark is the Zoo, Aquarium, and Botanic Gardens all in the middle of ABQ. We had an awesome time! We started out at the zoo and saw all kinds of fun things. Finally we got to my favorite animal - the Giraffes! It was also feeding time! We each got 2 sprigs of leaves and we lined up in front of the giraffes. The giraffes were watching us very closely and were licking there lips - they were hungry! I held out my leaves and before I knew, he stuck out his long black tongue and took it from my hand! It was so awesome!

A water pig.. actually about the size of pig.

Sleepy lion...

Kangaroos...

Prairie dogs...these things are everywhere here!

Hey Abby...I think you have these in your house??

The best part of the whole day!!!

After the zoo, we caught the shuttle train to the aquarium and gardens. We went to the aquarium first, and saw all kind of cool sting rays- Neal's favorite!, sharks, jellyfish, and even creepy looking eels! Then we headed out to the gardens. We didn't make it through the whole thing, by that time we were really tired and hot! We did make it to the butterfly house...it was really cool to be surrounded by a bunch of butterflies and to see so many different kinds. After that we headed back to catch the shuttle train back to the zoo - only to find it was broken! So unfortunately, we had to call a cab to get back to our vehicle. But all in all, it was a good day!

Eels!

Big sting ray!

Yep...I'm tired of the desert....

Neal loves everything...

The butterflies!

Now, for the most exciting news......WE GOT A HOUSE! We are both so excited that we finally officially have a house ready and waiting for us in Georgia. We have been looking for houses since we got this assignment a year ago, and the past couple months I have been looking almost every hour. Last week, we finally found it and immediately called! Got some pictures, did a Skype video tour, and put down the deposit to rent! It is now ours! It's everything we could ever want too...4 beds, 2 baths, HUGE backyard, jacuzzi tub, monster of a master closet. The ceiling fans even have remote controls. Not to mention its in a super nice subdivision (Banks Lake Point between Moody AFB and Lakeland, GA) that comes with a community pool - 2 doors down! Can we leave already?!?

Unfortunately, like most things in the military, things are not going as planned. Neal has only been able to fly once, due to broken airplanes. Last week he didn't fly at all. He still has 7 flights to go, and at this rate, we really doubt we will make it out of here by the end of June. Anyway, we will see what happens and hopefully get to go home soon! :) Thanks for reading!