Our day with the Allen's

Meet our friends the Allen's - Amanda and I met at the Student Creative Marketing Department where we designed ads for BYU campus back in the day (aka, 10 years ago). She and Dan had just married. Rob & I had just met. I brought Rob to a beginning of school work party (2nd or 3rd date) where he and Dan became instant buddies (very similar personalities). Toward the end of the evening, as we four sat around talking; Rob was teasing me about something and Dan, in my defense said "well that's why you married her, right?". Awkward moment. Well, I guess that got him thinking, and the rest is history.

The Allen's and their soon to be five children liven in Albuquerque. They are as fun as ever which is why they were one of our first stops on our road trip. Amanda and I and five of the kids (two who had learned to ride training wheel free only the week before) took a fantastic bike ride that morning. Our families, minus Rob who had work to do with his technicians in Albuquerque, visited the amazing Sandia Tram that evening. 

The Sandia Tram is the longest in the world - 2.7 miles. It climbs something like 5,ooo feet in about 20 minutes and the view is incredible as you might imagine.

Amanda is a photographer in her spare time! She took all the photos in this posting even though you may catch a glimpse of my camera bag which I hauled up there minus one memory card...oops. We hiked down the back side of the mountain a short distance to the perfect picnic spot where we enjoyed still toasty warm breakfast burritos Amanda and I had made. These were an instant hit with the kids and appeared a few other times in our road trip menu.

I'm fiddling around with these two shots for a wedding announcement of the future. Clara is just a few months younger than Jeremiah and as precious as can be. She can out-talk him by a long shot which I figure is a good basis for a marriage.

This photo sums up the tortured Bennett who was forced to walk back up the mountain after we hiked around. It wasn't pretty, but he made it.

A huge thank you to Dan and Amanda for making us feel so welcome and showing us a good time. We're so glad to have really cool friends like you!