Going Green

In true Irish spirit, we were a little more than excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year. I mean, I really do enjoy any opportunity to get in touch with the roots of my ancestors, and when the occasion enables me to wear obnoxious amounts of my favorite color (besides pink), it's a win-win situation. Cody and I started the day with a breakfast fit for a leprechaun, featuring green scrambled eggs. While they may not have been the most appealing in looks, they sure did taste excellent...or should I say "egg"-cellent. :)

After searching high and low for something festive to decorate Rio with, I finally decided to dress myself and we joined our friends Chris and Samantha for some fun festivities. We went to Ump 88, a local bar that is owned by a MLB National League umpire. I always love to go there because of the baseball memorabilia all over the walls, and can't wait to take Dad there on his next visit. Cody enjoyed the traditional green beer, I ate way too much and we watched the NCAA tournament. I, however, am boycotting it at this point due to the fact that Missouri's unexpected loss pretty much devastated my bracket. I don't lose very well. The weather was beautiful, despite being a bit too windy for my tastes, but we had a blast hanging out with some wonderful friends.

 Before green beer...

 ...and after green beer!

 My sweet friend, Samantha, and me

James and Zetdi

 Sam and Chris

Sam keeping her champagne chilled with a little Alion action. Cody was proud of her marketing skills. 

We'll be back soon--Cody's birthday is rapidly approaching!

One with Nature

Hello blog world! It has been quite some time since we graced you with our presence. Life continues to go by more quickly than ever, and we just manage to stay busy (and not necessarily with things more exciting than work and puppy parenting). Needless to say, we have been slacking in the adventure department, unless you count playing travel agents for our trip to Maine and Boston this summer. At least you will have something to look forward to in our blog world come July! I have also been fighting the tremendous urge to shower my little niece-to-be with sassy outfits. Somehow Cody convinced me that I should wait to go all out princess shopping until the doc confirms the gender 100%. Yeah, he's practical, but I like to live on the edge... :)

On another note, I have been fully indoctrinated into spring weather in New Mexico. While the sky is always blue and the sun is always shining, there is one thing that I have not been the biggest fan of--the crazy winds. Let me tell you, this is no spring breeze my friends. This is a full on, dust in your eyes so your eyeliner runs, wear cute dresses at your own risk kind of gust. In a word, it's ugly. I suppose we could be taking cover for tornadoes on a weekly basis though, so I shall count my blessings.

This weekend we decided to brave the wind and soak up some sun with a trip to Aguirre Springs Park, which is just down the road in the mountains. We hiked a couple of the trails and enjoyed the mini-getaway. Rio was absolutely in heaven with so many rocks upon which he could mark his territory, and boy did he do just that! We love being so close to such amazing scenery, and are constantly reminded of God's amazing power when we see the majestic mountains. Sometimes I'm convinced that this is really why He placed us here, so that we would always remember that He is in control and so much bigger than us. I definitely need that reminder from time to time! It was a great afternoon becoming one with nature and spending some quality time with the fam in the mountain wilderness. We can't wait to go camping and spend even more time away from the hustle and bustle of "city" life. Haha.

Here are a few pics from our adventure.

A Weekend Away

I can definitely tell that we are back to the grind and the holidays are a long way behind us. Some say that January is one of the most depressing times of the year because of this fact. I disagree, however, because I'm not really sure where January has gone! The weeks are flying and its hard to believe that we are almost finished with February. Needless to say, my blogging skills have been only sub-par in the last few weeks, but I'm happy to redeem myself now!

Cody was in San Antonio all last week for work, leaving me all by my lonesome while he and Rio spent some time in my homeland. My parents, being the amazing people that they are, puppy-sat our little man so that he wouldn't be alone when I flew into SA on Friday night. They had lots of fun with him, and I think he is missing all of the attention and early morning walks. It's always heck going back to the real world, isn't it? My mom taught Rio a few things while he was at their house...very important life skills like how to dust, mop and change the sheets. Our dog was of course an excellent helper, though he couldn't quite understand why the duster couldn't be thrown and fetched. Dad also contributed to Rio's life lessons by teaching him how to bring him a cold beverage. I was a little surprised that Dad was the first to introduce Rio to this trick, but I know Cody is very appreciative! Rio will definitely be looking forward to his next trip to SA, I'm sure of it.

Very blurry, but Rio is helping Mom dust.

Just doing what he does best, being the man of the house.

So proud of his newest trick that his "Grandad" taught him. (That's a Coors Light can for those that can't decipher it.)

The weekend was absolutely perfect and we were able to spend lots of time visiting with my grandparents, parents, sister and old friends. The days always go so quickly, but it's nice to do some catching up. We shopped (of course), played the traditional family card game and met some friends at Silo for live music and drinks. As always, it was hard to say goodbye. We can't wait for the next trip in the spring!

Ashley and me. Love this girl!

Me and the hubs, reunited after a long week

Duncan and Ash--miss them so much!

Love these sweet girlfriends. So glad Christina joined us!

Me, Christina and Britt. So glad I got to see these sweet friends.

This is trouble... :) Cody was so excited to spend some time with Stephen. These boys are the best!

We hope you are all enjoying the new year as much as we have thus far. Stay tuned because in the very, very near future we will be able to reveal whether we'll have a precious niece or nephew come August! 

Hitting the Slopes

I would like to start this post with a disclaimer. It is my first attempt at using the Blogger app, so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, Cody leads a very hard life. He was forced by his company to spend the last week in Ruidoso for an ag conference, where he basically entertained and enjoyed the royal treatment himself. Being the loving wife that I am, I could not let him spend another day in Ruidoso alone, so on Friday after work I drove up to join him for a little weekend getaway. We stayed at the famous Inn of the Mountain Gods, where we dined in the delicious restaurant and enjoyed a room with a balcony view that was absolutely gorgeous. It was a little hard to come back to reality. Saturday morning, we indulged in a fantastic brunch, where I was greeted with a huge dessert buffet. Clearly they knew I was coming! After stocking up on lots of carb-filled energy, we hit the slopes for my first attempt at snow skiing. I was a little nervous, but figured that my natural athleticism would carry me through. I'm not going to lie, the brakes on my skis didn't seem to be working on the first couple of runs, so I did what any intelligent young woman would do and took full advantage of the junk in my trunk. That's right, I fell down in order to stop, and I'm not ashamed. I did catch on pretty quickly though, and by the third run I was shoop shooping like a pro. We'll definitely be going back soon, but not before I acquire the proper snow bunny attire and accessories. Cody is thrilled about that, too.

Here are a few pics from our day on the mountain!

Ski Apache, Ruidoso

Do I pull off the snow bunny look?

The hubs and me after a successful day

A little dark, but this is the view from our room off of the balcony

My hot ski instructor :)

Another one of the serene view outside our window. Blissful!

Baller Status

My husband is a celebrity everyone. A few weekends ago, Cody participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters charity basketball game with a few "local celebrities", taking on the Harlem Ambassadors, a group similar to the Harlem Globetrotters. It was quite entertaining to watch, but I will say that I was incredibly proud of my man's mad skills, as it has been quite sometime since he's hit the court. He even scored a 3-point shot on the pros! He's an all star, no big deal. I did allow the fame to go to his head for about a week, but it seems he has finally come down from it and returned to reality. He'll always be my MVP though! (Just excuse the ick factor, ok?) The event was lots of fun and for a great cause and I'm so glad that Cody was able to represent Wilson Binkley Advertising and Marketing in such an awesome way.

 Cody and his second biggest fan before the big game

 My husband the stud waiting for the game to begin

 Here come the Harlem Ambassadors. That's a slam dunk. Ready Cody?

 Cody in action!

 Ready to throw some 'bows

 Not only does he ball hard, but he can dance. Cody and his teammates also provided the halftime entertainment when they did the Cupid Shuffle with all of the kids.

 Thanks to a few freebie points, we were ahead at the half!

 Our friend Chris was a great sport and let the Ambassador girls bully him for our entertainment. 

 At least they put up a good fight! That's the final score.

 Samantha (Chris' fiance and a fellow Texan!) and I cheering on our guys.

 So proud of him!

Kilbourne's Hole

I'm going to go ahead and admit that I've been a bad blogger lately. Sure, my husband saved face by posting something this week, but it's pretty clear that I've kind of been slacking since all of the Christmas and New Years festivities have come to a close. That's not to say that we haven't had exciting things going on though... in fact, it has been quite the contrary. In the spirit of keeping things simple, here's the first update on what has been going on in the life of the Johnsons during the month of January. (By the way, can you believe it's almost over? Crazy I tell you!)

Lucky for us, January in New Mexico means gorgeous weather. Of course we've had the occasional chill, but for the most part it never feels as cold as the thermometer reads because it is typically sunny. We took advantage of the great weather by going out to our friend James' farm a few weekends ago. James took us on a tour of the desert on his Ranger, and we had a picnic at the site of Kilbourne's Hole. This is a historic site in our area, as it is the location of a huge volcanic crater. Call us nerdy, but we were fascinated by the layers of sediment that were visible in this ginormous hole that at one time housed a family at its base. Cody even climbed down into the crater and found some gorgeous rock. I'm no geologist, but it was green and sparkly, which made it pretty interesting to me. It was a great day of spending time with our friends, getting some fresh air, and enjoying the history of some of the natural elements of our new state.

 Kilbourne's Hole. If you look closely you can see where huge crater begins and ends.

 Zetdi and me in front of the crater

 Performing a very intense geologic study

 Amazing scenery

 James, Zetdi and Cody overlooking the hole

 Cody and the girls

Professor Johnson taking a few rock samples in the crater

Not only did we enjoy the chance to play scientists for the day, but it was pretty fun to change up our typical weekend activities and actually see something historic. We just love becoming one with nature!

Rio's First Duck Hunt

Over Christmas break this year Britt, Rio, and I got to go down to Harlingen which in turns means I got to do a little hunting.  I was lucky enough to go duck hunting with Ryan and Chip Falls, along with Jake Morton and his son Carson.  We had a great time riding on the air boat and shooting lots of ducks.  This was Rio's first time to ever be in water where he had to swim, his first time to retrieve a wounded bird, and first time to be around a bunch of people shooting over water.  All in all it was a great trip and I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them.

 Long retrieve sequence

 Rio not too sure why the duck keeps biting his face.

 The crew after a great hunt

 Hunting at the base of the high hill

 Rio and one proud owner

The hunting party on Ryan's airboat in the decoy spread