Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Rich was able to come home for fathers day weekend. We were all so excited to see him.  I have to admit having him gone can be hard, I have good days and bad days. We talk on the phone every night when he's away, it feels like we are dating again. I do love that.  I think missing Rich has made me realize how important he is to our family, we function so much better when he is home.  Our kids are lucky to have him as their dad and I feel lucky to have him as my husband. Here are some pictures from our weekend together. 

 Rich's Father's Day  Breakfast.... Buttermilk biscuits, eggs, bacon, fruit and O.J.
I couldn't get him to smile for this picture, this is as good as it gets.

My friend Lisa offered many times to watch all our kids so we could go out on date. I finally took her up on her offer, we went out to dinner and a movie on Friday night. We had a lot of fun:)

Father's Day Dinner...
 Shish kabobs,  sweet baked potatoes, grilled pineapple and homemade potato rolls.  For dessert we had Rich's favorite chocolate cake.

My friend Lisa invited us to go swimming at her community pool on Friday.

 Sami is finally walking! She's 15 months and she just barely took her first steps.

Rich pulling the "Kenny Chesney" attire with his swim shorts and cowboy hat. 

Explora

I finally took the kids to Explora last Friday for the first time, it's a childrens science museum.  Our kids loved it,  I think we might get a pass here for the year. It's nice because it's indoor and it will give us something to do during the  hot summer. I loved watching my kids tinker with the different experiments, and watching them play and be creative. I have been surprised how much there is to here in Albuquerque, there are a lot of places to visit geared towards families, and it's all really close to us. We are never bored.  Here are a few pictures at the museum...

Take me out to the ball game

 We went to a Isotopes game last Thursday, we had a lot of fun. My friend Lisa had extra tickets and invited us. My boys love baseball and so does Rich, we've been wanting to go to a Isotopes game since we have moved here. It was too bad that Rich was out of town, he would have loved this. This is are first time sitting in box seats, I've always wondered what it would be like and it was awesome. They have a living area for you to sit if you don't want to be outside the whole time, I thought it was funny that most of the guys were watching the basketball game on t.v and not watching the baseball game. We were also given dinner, nothing too fancy but it was perfect while watching the game.  Hot dogs, chips and a plate of desserts to choose from. My kids were in heaven and we were definitely spoiled. They better be ok with going to the cheap seats next time, because we might not see seats like this again. I'm not even a huge fan of baseball but there is something about the atmosphere I love when going to a game. Here are a few pictures... 

Hot Summer Day at Cliff's

We went to Cliff's Amusement Park today, we had so much fun! I left Samantha with a friend, I didn't dare take all four kids to the park without Rich's help, I would have come home with one or two missing. Rich is out of town on a 6 week rotation right now, we miss him and wished he was with us. We were able to get into to the park free because JDRF held their 2011 Walk to Cure Diabetes kick-off in the morning at the park. Our kids could hardly sit still through the meeting as we talked about fundraising and getting into teams, they just wanted to get on the rides.  We all had a blast, here are some pictures...