Once again I’ve let time slip away from me without so much as an update. It’s funny how life just gets so tremendously busy and suddenly months have passed by in what feels like the blink of an eye. I think Ferris Bueller might have had it right, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ;) So once again, here comes another novel in the Lopez saga…enjoy.
Botanical Gardens/Butterfly Pavilion
One of my absolute favorite times of the year is when the Botanical Gardens open up their Butterfly Pavilion! It is so beautiful and almost magical to be in there with hundreds, maybe even thousands of butterflies flying around. This year Aubrey and I went with some of our friends to check it out and as usual, it did NOT disappoint. One of the coolest things that happened was when we first walked in and a butterfly landed on our friend Dasia’s head! It was amazing! The rest of us were not as lucky as Miss Dasia, but we managed to get some pictures with other butterflies in the background. It was simply gorgeous; the pictures speak for themselves below.
After the butterflies, we took a break and ate some delish cupcakes (courtesy of Miss Ann bo nan!) and just enjoyed the afternoon and soaked up some sun before continuing our journey. Once we had successfully gorged ourselves on several tasty cupcakes, we checked out the Rose Garden and then headed over to the Aquarium to visit the fishies.
It never ceases to amaze me how much Aubrey LOVES the Aquarium. She just gets such a kick out of all the fish swimming around (although lately the giant sting ray in the big tank seems to scare her a little…she doesn’t like to be next to the tank when he swims by). We made our way through and let the kids run while the Moms enjoyed the air conditioning. All in all…a SUPER play date!
Fort
Don’t really know how noteworthy this is, but it was a blast! We built a fort in our living room one night and ate dinner in there! Aubrey loved it and of course started crying when we made her come out of it. I think the pictures speak for themselves here.
Durango Camping Trip
We were able to make it out for a few days to the annual Durango camping trip with our fellow Lopez’s and enjoy some days away. I don’t know if you can really call it a ‘camping’ trip per se when you have an Auntie Jackie like we do! This woman is insanely amazing! While “camping” we enjoyed luxury cabins, delicious meals It was Aubrey’s first camping trip and I think she had a BLAST! Swimming, fishing, dirt, mud, waterfalls, hot springs, shopping, junk food…what’s not to love? We were also joined by Nana and Zampa (that’s what Aubrey calls my Dad…haha) which made our trip that much more awesome!
Aubrey’s Papa (Justin’s Dad) got us all geared up with fishing stuff before we left for Durango, so we were VERY excited to get to the lake while we were camping. He even had a kids fishing pole for Aubrey (Parenting side note: We didn’t put a hook on it, just a weight.). So we got up early one morning and went fishing at Electra Lake. Justin got me and him all setup with our fishing poles and once we got them in the water we then played with Aubrey and showed her how to use her fishing pole. She thought it was so funny! She kept dunking it and splashing it in the water. Eventually, like any toddler, she got bored with it after awhile and just started splashing in the water. She also thought she was super cool in her brand new Hello Kitty camping chair.
I’m proud to say that I DID catch a fish! I’m even prouder to say that my fish was bigger than Justin’s! Oh yeah, Fishing Master. See pictures below for indisputable evidence to my victory.
In addition to fishing, we enjoyed a day at the Hot Springs in Ouray, shopping in Durango, swimming, delicious cooking by Aunt Jackie and just the great outdoors. It was a blast!
On our way home, Justin and I decided to take an adventure detour to cross off an item on our bucket list; see the Four Corners. So we made our way out towards, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona all at the same time. NOW, let me tell you, as neat as it is to say that you stood in four states at once, the four corners are NOT that exciting. For starters, it is literally in the middle of the desert. There is NOTHING around it for miles..and it is hot as hell. I think we were there for a total of like 15 minutes. It literally felt like my $1 Old Navy flip flops were melting with each step I took. Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea that we did with regards to our adventure because believe it or not, THERE WAS A LINE to stand in the four states. Are you kidding me? However, we had already come this far, so we waited and much to our dismay there was some sort of school or camp in front of us in which they took a zillion pictures (yes, a zillion). They took a group picture, then a kids only picture, then a teachers/counselors only picture, then individual pictures; meanwhile the rest of us are melting. Eventually we made it to the front of the line, quickly took our awesome picture and then hurried back to the car, air conditioning and cold Gatorade. Like I said, not overly exciting, but, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED; we’ll cross that one off the list.
Father’s Day
We had another great Father’s Day this year! Justin actually wanted to go to the Flea Market and shop around which was a strange choice coming from my hubby but we did exactly that. It actually ended up being a great time despite the extreme heat and all of us found some good stuff! Turns out my hubby’s real motive for going to the flea market was to find a camo, floppy hat. Mission accomplished, we scored one for $3 people! Nothing quite beats an amazing deal at the Flea Market. We also found an awesome inflatable pool for Aubrey on our shopping adventure…another great steal…about half the price of the same ones we saw at the stores. All in all it was a pretty mellow but very nice day. I also think that Aubrey and I did pretty good with our gift giving this year. I got him some portable speakers for his I-phone and she made him an awesome picture…her gift was better than mine. ;0)
4th of July
We were a little nervous for 4th of July this year now that Aubrey is a lot more aware of what is going on around her. She did really well last year with the fireworks but we weren’t sure how she would do this year. Well she is a product of her Mommy and Daddy because she LOVED the fireworks! We celebrated with family at a BBQ at my Tio Remmy’s house and we ended the night watching Lumbre del Sol down at Santa Fe High School followed by fireworks. My mom’s birthday is July 3rd so we also threw in a really nice family lunch at Maria’s Kitchen filled with fun, laughter and good times. It really don’t get no gooder.
Lumbre on the Plaza
Lumbre recently played on the Plaza in Santa Fe for the summer series and boy was it insane! Every year it gets bigger and bigger and this by far was the BIGGEST crowd I have ever seen show up to the plaza to see Lumbre! Wow! The band did amazing and the crowd was definitely NOT let down. They even had to do two encores just to try and tame them a little bit! There is no feeling in the world quite like seeing your Dad on stage bringing down the house. It is simply AMAZING! Truly a moment where you look at the stranger next to you and say, “Hey, that’s my Dad.”
Dukes Retro Night
The Dukes are coming out, coming out swinging, hustling all the way! Oh yeah, I went there. Dukes Retro night has got to be in the top five baseball nights that the Isotopes puts on. It is so cool to see all of the old Dukes merchandise for sale, players in their old yellow and red uniforms and of course hearing the Duke theme song. We pulled up some berm with Justin’s Dad and our niece Jessica and enjoyed a perfect evening of baseball followed by some awesome fireworks.
That’s about it for now. Our little family is doing great and as always, Justin and I are enjoying watching Aubrey grow and change before our eyes. One minute she was a baby and the next she is this “big girl” doing big girl things; drinking from a cup, walking everywhere, talking up a storm with you and just being the smartest and sweetest girl we know. Every day is a new adventure and it’s always an amazing day with our sweet Aubrey.
Love,
Justin, Candice & Aubrey
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