Cross Country Travels...Albuquerque to New York City!

We headed out for Albuquerque on May 7th to visit friends, watch some of our students graduate high school, meet a new baby that arrived while we were in South America and we had a fabulous time! 

This is Geneva above, with her two beautiful children Diego & Tahj. What a wonderful first few days at their oasis home in the foothills of the Sandias. Their house is off the grid so it is solar powered and extremely energy efficient - we even enjoyed a woodburning stove hot tub! It was great to see Geneva & her husband Brad, what amazing friends we have in NM.

We also got to see Aimee while we were at Geneva's house - it was GREAT to see her beautiful face. We had a great time wedding dress shopping, talking, and visiting Cornstalk.
Diego was making sure to keep us safe from the bad guys the entire time we were there - thanks Diego!

Then we headed to Jim & Jenny's house near Rio Rancho to have a fun picnic. They are almost finished with the process of adopting a beautiful little girl, so we had a great time getting to know her. There was leap frog, dancing, food, domino's, and soccer! We had a great time!

We got to celebrate Aiden's birthday at our friend's Alison & Rob's house - 8 years old! We enjoyed sharing pictures, stories, reading and leggo building! Alison & Rob let us use their truck while we were in town which was VERY handy - Thanks guys!
Then we got to meet little Alessandro! Sunny & Stephen sure made a beautiful little baby... 6 1/2 months old and what an agreeable little man! We enjoyed dinner, wedding dress shopping, and hearing stories of the last year of our lives! A lot has happened for all of us...
 Alessandro, can you just be a little cuter? Cuz I don't think you are channeling your inner cuteness enough ;)
Our first graduation was Albuquerque High where we saw our little Quinn graduate high school - I first had Quinn as a 7th grader in the Cornstalk program, it is amazing to see how much he has grown. Congratulations Quinn! We sat with a number of friends including Colin who is a Junior next year and we found out he got a $20,000 scholarship to college! These are two of the students that went with us to Argentina last summer on the bike tour. You guys continue to make us proud :)
Graduation #2! Rio Grande High School... we surprised some students at this one, there were some tears shed and it was amazing to see these guys graduate! In this picture are six students we worked with in Albuquerque Breanna, Gabby, and Ray graduated this year. Keep reaching your goals guys we are very proud of you!
Us with Ray - an amazing young man with an equally incredible family. Congrat's Ray!
Here we are with Chava and Maricela twins that I first met six years ago as middle schoolers in the Cornstalk program. How amazing it was to watch them graduate. Chava used to teach me spanish during the afterschool program. Thanks for being my teacher Chava!
We got to have lunch with two of the graduates (Ray & Breanna) and one of our past co-workers/friend, Ema - we love Amadeo's in the South Valley!

After lunch we headed to Aurora and Procopio's house where Procopio told Tito that he approved of our engagement ;) And he offered for his band to play at our wedding
Here is a group shot of us after the lunch. The little guy is Ray's son, Mathew - what a beautiful young child and we are proud of Ray for continuing towards his dreams while being a responsible father. Keep it up Ray!
We were able to get a bunch of students together for an Argentina Bike Trip reunion - Phil, Liz, Colin, Dustin, Aaron, JJ, Lorie, Me, Tito, Quinn... we shared pictures, called Kylee & Ashlee, and just had a great time hanging out at Java Joes and at the Park across the street from our old apartment. It was really great to see everyone :)

OKLAHOMA CITY!
Then we took a Greyhound bus to Oklahoma City where we visited with Tony's brother Tom, his wife Jamie, and their daughter Desiree. We watched Desiree graduate high school and celebrated by camping and hanging out at the lake. We rode the wave runner, went tubing, and enjoyed lively conversation around the campfire. Tito's parents were there and it was also where we finally decided where we would be living for the next few years.... VIRGINIA here we come!
Uncle Tony can give Desiree great advice about being a college student, since he seems to be a professional student himself. He has two masters and now he will be getting a PhD from Old Dominion University in Higher Education Administration. Congrat's to Desiree - she will be attending college in the Fall in Kansas City, Missouri and she is going to study English.
Then we boarded the greyhound yet again headed to New York City. Since we decided we were going to Virginia where Tito's program started on June 1st we had to shorten our trip to NYC and pretty much see the city in one day. So one of my oldest friends Sarah, made an excellent map for us and we walked through Manhattan from Central Park to Chinatown! Here we are in Central Park...
We walked through Times Square and saw the Naked Cowboy as well...
It was a hot day so lots of people were enjoying the parks and fountains! We also walked by a taping of sesame street at this park!
Here we are hanging out on Sarah & Jon's stoop in Brooklyn after our long day of walking...
"One of these things is not like the other" Which one? Three New Yorkers and a country bumpkin... Sarah & Jaime are in the back and Cate is in the front with me. The four of us have been friends since grade school. We had a great dinner and came up with suggestions for names of Jaime's baby who is coming in October... Thank you for hosting us and our crazy whirlwind of a trip!

We headed back to CT this past weekend and have been packing and planning for our move to Virginia. If anyone has any contacts in Norfolk Virginia, let us know.

Tony will be in Virginia taking summer classes in June. I will be leaving June 7th to co-lead another bike trip in Argentina for a group of students from Minneapolis and will arrive back to Virginia June 27th. I will then look for a job and start classes for my Master in Social Work from Norfolk State University in the Fall. It is amazing how things are falling into place, as our wise friend Rita says - you shouldn't have to force anything - it will come together and flow. And so it has.

It seems our wild year is coming to a close... of course there will always be another adventure out there and another place to see - so stay tuned, we may be in a town near you very soon!

lots of love to all out there who have helped us this year... we are always here to return the favor, just ask! Special thanks to our parents for being so patient with us and our decisions. We truly appreciate all that you do and love you very much!