Santa Fe in pictures

Well it's been a long few days but a good and full few days. I'm typing this from the hotel room while I sit and wait for Ben to get back from his full day of meeting people and having interviews. Right now he's at some restaurant downtown with the marketing director. It wasn't really in the schedule to leave the opera, but the HR girl is out sick so things have been sorta thrown off anyway. This is all I know and Ben's been gone for almost 7 hours. I'm dying! But I did take a nice little walk today and explored the area around the hotel. Some of these pics are from yesterday and Wednesday as well.

The drive was actually really enjoyable. I watched two movies, took two naps and enjoyed the beautiful nature around us for the first part of the drive. The second half was rough with bumpy highways but we managed and our car has been PLUSH which this pregnant woman appreciates! I'll admit every time I had a Braxton Hicks contraction I mini panicked afraid I was going into labor...but that's everyone's fault who psyched me out that this baby was going to be born on the side of the freeway. He's STILL in my belly people! :-)

We had to stop for about 20 minutes due to some AZ road construction and I got some pretty pics of the surrounding beauty as well as of our nice rental car.

Our first exposure to New Mexico was a little shaky...we stopped somewhere to pee. It was called Gallup, the first city we came to after AZ. I went in to the Shop and Stop to find a bathroom...it smelled like D.I. (which isn't bad I guess cuz I shop there a lot haha) and I was the ONLY white person in the place, just a little weird culture shock. And the back had a burrito stop or some sort. Ok so that was different....and we just felt SO out of place. We kept going though and it got more charming as we went on. We arrived just as it got dark in Santa Fe which is sort of a bummer, we felt really lost and had no idea or sense of where we were. Thank goodness for GPS! My second impression of New Mexico was better...I went to the bathroom inside of a Smith's grocery store which is my favorite store in the world (really it is) and there were some white people this time! (Don't get me wrong I'm NOT racist just NOT used to being a minority! Thanks a lot for THAT Utah...haha) Ben teased that I'd be ok cuz Santa Fe had Smith's and Redbox. It didn't feel to different from home at that point. We got to our hotel which let's be honest was a BIT of a disappointment. It reminded me of a revamped Motel 6. It is a small room, a lot like a Motel 6 and at 36 1/2 weeks pregnant the most uncomfortable thing you can do is try to adjust to a different bed. OUCH. Bad night. And the floors above us are thin so we hear every step people are taking. Talk about a bad combo. We had a hard time sleeping and I woke up VERY puffy in the face the next day. The altitude difference and lack of sleep made it hard for us to want to explore too much but we did the best we could. We saw a few apartments and found a condo we can see ourselves squeezing into for at least the first year here. It'd be a big adjustment from our spacious townhouse in Cedar, but hey I'm willing to give it a whirl!

The people here have been nothing but kind and genuine. They don't stare, they aren't OVERLY friendly like I would imagine some other cultures are, but they are just nice. And it's hard to know the locals from the visitors because there is a balloon festival going on here and so a lot of out of towners. But our first night here we got free KFC because the employee charged our card for the wrong amount then just credited us and didn't charge again. She said dinner was on her...so nice!

It's so confusing trying to get acclimated with where I am and where everything is but hey we've only been here a couple days. We drove by the Opera and both of us felt a weird tingle but weren't sure if it was just our lack of sleep fuzzy heads or if this might really be Ben's job soon. Can you get jet lag from driving???

I can't get over how it looks just like St. George meets Cedar City in terms of the scenery. Some of these pics show what I mean. The yellow on the mountain I suspect are the leaves changing...just as they are in Cedar right now. The bottom right pic is of part of the Opera theater space. These pics are taken from the opera, it has a fantastic view!

The many beautiful flowers of Santa Fe...and even a yellowed cedar tree. Couldn't get enough of all the pretty flowers!

Some interesting sights I saw on my way back to the hotel from McDonalds today. I walked half a mile there to get a Big Mac..it equals out right?! The pic on the top right is one of the prettiest parts of the Railroad park...

The pic on the bottom right is a funny tummy shot I took. The bump is ready to burst! :-)

This beautiful and unique park is right across from our hotel. Ben and I discovered it last night when walking to the farmer's market that was just ending. It was so pretty and we got to see a beautiful sunset. I didn't have my camera but went back over today to take some pics. The bench in the picture is the one we sat on.

The park has some interesting things to look at from the giant metal dog, the metal dinosaur I didn't get a pic of, the bus stop bench and the trails. I walked by the slides and almost didn't realize they were slides!

Below is my little squirrel friend who seriously looked like he was posing for the pictures. He didn't move hardly at all. :-)

So here I am still sitting and waiting. I last heard from Ben over an hour ago...can't wait to know what is going on. I'm really glad I came with him and have really enjoyed the visit to Santa Fe. The weather is great here too! I just can't wait to get home to my sweet Connor. My mom has been such a champ taking care of him. She got strep throat the day we left and still took care of him without complaint. Desi has been helping a lot I've heard which makes me feel a little less guilty. I just keep telling myself that if we move they'll really miss him so hopefully even though she's been sick my mom has enjoyed her grandma time. It is mine and Ben's last time to really have some quiet alone time before Parker gets here too.

Mini update on Parker: Laurie asked if I wanted to be induced at 39 weeks. I only hesitated a moment before saying....um...yes? Why not! I think it's because she knows we may be moving soon and my first induction went really well. Since it's not my first time having a baby I guess I get to cheat the system a little! I'm SO ready to have him here. It's hard to not bend over, to have to pee so often and to just feel SO overtaken! I just really can't wait to smell him and hold him in my arms. There's nothing better! So for now unless he comes even sooner, he'll be entering the world on October 17th! YAY!

I'll post as soon as we know anything about the job! Until then....happy day!