Day Eleven

We’ve been here over a week and it’s thunder-stormed almost every day or night. I’m very pleased! They call this the monsoon season for Los Alamos. I’ve always missed the storms back home and am glad to hear them again, though the lightning isn’t quite as vivid here. The temperatures have been kept nicely to where we don’t need our AC ever. It’s nice to keep the windows open all day long- and our big sliding door too. Though it may not be super hot, you have to be extra careful in the sun here because it’s closer and more harmful to your skin-- something we’ll have to keep in mind.

As I said before, the view here is beautiful! Canyons and green hilly mountains. There are tons of trails for hiking and biking here that we can’t wait to explore. There are still yuckier desert sides to this area, but not so much in Los Alamos, which I appreciate. The adobe houses I still have to get used to. I’m excited to explore more of the housing areas here on the different plateaus.

We’ve been to Santa Fe a couple of times. A 45-minute to 1-hour drive. The roads there seem more confusing and narrow. Parking spots are really tight. Other than that, I’ve discovered they have more stores than I expected, which I’m happy about! They have ROSS and a walmart, target, and many others I’m forgetting.

The only grocery store in Los Alamos is Smiths (actually they may have an Albertsons too but that’s out of the question). Regardless of this, I’ve found that Smiths can have decent sales and aren’t as overly expensive as I expected. Their produce is usually the most expensive to me, but I’ve found out that SUNFLOWER marketplace is being built in town!! I love their deals on produce. Problem solved.

Our apartment is very nice. It has more space and a bigger KITCHEN! Funny thing is that we STILL have more stuff than we can fit, so Brian built shelves in our super tall storage closet on the balcony. Perfect. Kristy and G&G came to help us move in, which was really a big help to us! The smell in our apartment is strange to me and the people smoke below us. Plus we’re noticing more and more dog hair (especially in our vacuum) from the previous owners. Other than that, we really can’t complain. Avery not only has her own room now but her own bathroom too. Spoiled kid. But it won’t be for long! Haha.

In case you were wondering, my belly has grown much bigger within the last two weeks. It seems like it came out of nowhere. I should really get a maternity dress in Santa Fe; the only one I have is wintry. The baby kicks often and it’s strange to think I’m at that stage of the pregnancy. Surprisingly I’ve gotten some good nights rests here so far and it’s been a while. I’m liking that. Forget left side sleeping because I’m all about right side and back. That’s how it was with Avery and I’m not even going to fret about it because I sleep well!

Avery is adjusting well. She likes the stairs. Stairs, stairs, stairs. We have lots of stairs to our apartment. She likes exploring around the apartment and playing in our shower. She is taking frequent naps or having crib down time which is great by me. We’re getting more into doing time-out with her when she pitches a fit. We’re also limiting the binki to sleep times only.

Brian has biked to work a couple of times. Twenty-five minutes there and 10 minutes back. (It’ll be closer when he gets to his permanent building). Right now he’s doing a lot of reading on the computer. He’s okay with it, but he REALLY looks forward to what he’ll be doing after his security clearance. He’ll be doing everything having to do with product development (like research, development, prototype, the nine yards).

The transit system in Los Alamos is free for when Brian (or I) can’t bike or take the car. Nice. Everything is close to our apartment: the indoor pool, library (with very equipped children’s section and playground), the park and pond, grocery store, putt-putt (bring your own ball and club), etc. The library has free and efficient wi-fi, which brings me to our next point: We will NOT have Internet at our apartment! This does scare me, because I rely on it so heavily, but we decided we want to try saving that money (and weaning me from so much internet). We’re trying this for a few months to see how it goes. This means very long blogs and fewer between. Sorry! We’ll also be switching to Alltel/Verizon soon and down to one cell phone. Updates on that to come.

The ward here is nice; our neighbors are nice. The community is great. However, we miss you all and wish you were here with us!

Above is us at 4 corners on the way down to Los Alamos.