Washington DC

We have just returned from Washington DC! We had a blast spending the last 4 days out there seeing the sites and visiting all the free museums. About a month ago Ryan was invited by the American Society of Landscape Architects to represent the landscape architecture students in New Mexico. This is quite the honor considering he is only a first year student. So for the first two days he was in meetings and was able to visit the congressmen from NM. Then the next two days were ours to roam the city. Check out our video of short clips and pictures. Also check out the funny picture of us feeding a squirrel.

What a great day

Well to start off Valentines day week was a busy one. I surprised Ryan with a different surprise each day of the past week. I gave him a little gift each day, and then for his big gift i had his bike tuned and fixed. He does not like only having one working gear on his bike, so now he has 21 to chose from.
Yesterday Ryan mysteriously packed his red back pack and asked if I could be ready to go at one. I had no idea what he was up to, but we left. We ended up driving around the back side of the sandia mountains and to a spot where you could see all of Albuquerque from 10,000 ft. up in the air. Thankfully his red packback had my warm coat, snacks, and tennis shoes in it. We ended up taking a short hike to the kiwanas cabin. It was cool hike, Ryan liked all the Spanish moss hanging from the trees. The Cabin was a Civilian Conservation Corps project and was built in 1936. For being 10,000ft up in the air it was not that cold or not very much snow. After we drove back down and ate dinner at casa de benavidez which means House of lies according to Corey. The food was very delish and really good soppapias. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

So here is what i have been up too at school...
My last project was to design a 33 home development that was a sustaniable community. This was my final project for studio one. I presented this to a panel of professional/Judges, and overall they really liked it.





The project before this one was to design a new urban public park in downtown albuquerque.




One more project is a japanese garden design.

Goodbye to 08'

Our Christmas Tree
We had a great time Spending Christmas in Utah. It was so nice to be home and see family and friends. I love the nativity and spice rack Steve and Jeanne gave us. Then the camping gear will be so much fun my parents gave us. Since Ryan is the 11 year old scout leader he will keep it well used.




2008 has been an eventful year for us, to keep things simple this is what has happened. Married in July and moved to Albuquerque a month later. 2009 is here and looking forward to the adventures.

We just returned from having a great Thanksgiving Holiday with my family in Andover, Kansas. We took the long drive from Albuquerque to Kansas which took about 10 hours each way, but it was so much fun to see family. We feel so blessed to see family so soon, we just saw Ryan’s parents when they came down to visit us two weeks ago. Then in another two weeks we will be in Utah with family again.

Well here is what Ryan has been up to at school, here are some pictures of part of his past projects.

Even though we miss everyone, life in Albuquerque has been fun for us. We are especially looking forward to spending Thanksgiving in Kansas and spending Christmas in Utah. We hope to see our friends from Utah during Christmas break. We went to the zoo a few weekends back and took some funny pictures.
Sadly a lot of the animals reminded me of my family. These lumps look like my brothers Aaron, Nate, and Rob watching TV. Then the gorillas reminded me of my dad on a Sunday afternoon. I’m just joking but Ryan and I both had a good laugh about it. We had a great time, it was cool to see all the animals and act like little kids.

It’s hard to cheer for the Lobos, but we went to the Lobo game this weekend. They beat San Diego St. 70-7; it was a very lopsided victory.

Ryan & Emily
The N.Y. Times calls it sensational. Washington Post called it a timeless classic. The Happy Land Gazette Said “It’s a movie for anyone who wants to get lost in a beautiful story, for anyone who believes romance is still alive on film.”
Corey Anderson, the top critic and writer for the Happy Land Gazette wrote:
“Ryan & Emily is the story of a boy from the poor side of the ditch who – predictably – falls for a beautiful girl down the street. What is not so predictable is how far she'll go to prove they were meant to be together….Ryan & Emily is a gentle romantic tale in the midst of blockbuster action films and goofball comedies”

Read the full review at http://happylandgazette.blogspot.com/

Now for your viewing pleasure Ryan & Emily (click play to watch)


Bonus features and behind the scenes interviews.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3585753545186480846&hl=en