Surprise! We're home for Christmas!

We didn't plan on surprising the Vosses by coming home for Christmas 2010...  But wow, was it fun!

Earlier this month, we realized that with moving, putting a down-payment on a house, and David starting a new job, we weren't able to make it to the Voss Christmas this year.  And we were having a hard time with that decision, as ALL of the Voss family (except us!) would be home for Christmas.  We'd listen to the radio and hear "I'll be Home for Christmas," and get so miserable, we'd have to turn it off.

But then David earned one day of leave, and we found out he could take it at Christmas.  We bought flights on Saturday, and it dawned on us that we could pull off one amazing surprise.  We got brothers Matt and Mark in on the plan, and they pulled it off with finesse.

Walking into the ABQ airport, we were serenaded by a full gospel choir, and greeted by no other than Santa Claus and his elves, handing out presents.  Elijah (wearing the reindeer antlers he picked out himself and insisted on wearing) got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time, though he wailed.  Santa turned to his elf and said, "Get this little guy a present, quick!"  We clapped and listened to the gospel choir for a while, laughing how this put us in the perfect mood for Christmas!

Matt picked us up at the IND airport Wednesday night, and brought us back to his and Mark's house in Upland, telling us how he had intercepted our Christmas care-package so we would have presents to open on Christmas, and how Mark sneaked the portable crib out of the house so Elijah had a place to sleep!

In the morning, we all headed over to the Voss house, with Matt going in before us, telling Mom that he hadn't mailed our Christmas presents after all (putting her in a state of disappointment... perfect for an uplifting surprise!) while Mark slyly pulled out his video camera.  David, Elijah and I walked into the kitchen, and the reaction was priceless.  Mom dropped the towel she was holding, and started shaking, and crying.  Dad laughed.  One by one, sleepy-eyed brothers stumbled out of their rooms to see us!  We got to have 3 surprises, as Mary showed up later, and Hank and Johanna and kids arrived that afternoon.  Mark recorded each reaction, and we've put the links up here for you to get a feel for this Christmas in the Voss house!


Surprising Mom and Dad


Surprising Mary


Surprising Hank and Johanna

Puye Cliffs

We had anticipated moving into our new house on this past Friday, but due to the mortgage company being swamped with applications because of the ultra-low interest rates at the moment, we weren’t able to sign till late Friday afternoon. Because we closed late Friday afternoon we missed the federal bank transfer deadline so the mortgage company couldn’t transfer the loan amount to the Title Company. So despite having our POD with all of our belongings sitting in the driveway of our new home, with the house being empty and ready to move in, we aren’t able to. This forced us to enjoy our new home… New Mexico.
Now New Mexico has the most varied landscape of anywhere I’ve ever lived (save maybe Israel). When you’re outside of the Rio Grande valley east of ABQ, you could mistake the terrain for Mars (not that I’ve been there, but I’ve seen pictures). Heading into the Rio Grande valley you’ll find trees, green grass, and outside of ABQ, farm land. If you head north into Santa Fe and the mountains you find your self in beautiful mountains with rivers and plenty of coniferous trees. South of ABQ you’ll run into White Sands, sheer desert.
Anyway, because we had the weekend to enjoy we decided to drive a couple hours north of ABQ to some ancient dwellings of the Santa Clara Pueblo.

The top two pictures show the south facing side of the Mesa. The bottom two pictures show the homes on the top of the Mesa. The cliff homes are located to the left in the bottom left picture.
It is believed the Santa Clara Pueblo first built this village in the 1400’s with a population of around 1800 members. Jamie, Eli, and I had our own private tour by direct descendants of the members of this village who took us all over the village. We were amazed at the level of sophistication the residents used in their town. First let me explain the village layout. Now the mesa the people picked is located at around 11,000 ft, and becomes very cold in the winter. Because of this they built two homes for every family. The summer home was on the top of the mesa where the continuous breeze acted as a natural AC. Homes were designed with slits that forced the cool breeze in threw the bottom of the homes and forced the hot air out. Walls were erected to direct the breeze throughout the village. During the cold winter months they lived in homes on the south facing side of the cliff where the hill blocked the wind, acted as a solar concentrator, and allowed for twenty to thirty degree temperature differences due to its location. Its funny that only now are we really designing homes to be energy efficient with location of windows and the layout of the home being a part of the design matrix. These New Mexico residents were designing their homes this way almost a 1000 years ago.
Another interesting part of their city planning was their water collection system. Residents built a large collection pond on the slope of the mountain to collect runoff. However, they new stagnant water was not good to drink. So they cut a 40 ft channel on the lower end of the pond, filled it with gravel and sand, and used it as a filter to drink clean their water (basically the same principle as many water treatment plants). The tour guides claimed the design reduced virtually 100 percent of the contaminants.
During the tour we were able to ask many questions as well as a get a little re-enactment of a family song in the language of the people while being in an underground Kiava. Elijah loved that part of the tour as the guides bass voice resonated with the surrounding walls. It really gave one a feel of what it probably sounded like 700 years ago as members of the tribe would join with each other in song for religious and festive reasons.
It was sad to hear of some of the negative effects the Spanish had when they first came to the area. Due to the lack of exposure the local inhabitants had to European diseases the kill rate for the local population (estimated at 20,000 in just the local hills around the pueblo we visited) was 98%.
Overall it was a great tour and a great way to begin to learn of some of our local history, which predates much of the Boston history we had been hearing by hundreds of years.
The drive to the site was also very beautiful as the below picture will illustrate.

View from the top of the Mesa…

A recreated wall of the pueblo with some of the excavated walls in the background. Elijah loving the rocks and dirt of the area. By the end of the tour the kid was covered with it.

The great migration

This past month has been a busy month as we are in the process of moving from Boston to Albuquerque. As always the process from moving from one location to another is complicated, but moving from one state to another with a couple business trips thrown in led to a logistical masterpiece. In October Jamie, Eli, and I flew down to ABQ to look for homes. After returning from ABQ, the next week I attended a meeting in Huntsville, AL. After the meeting I was able to drop by the Marshal Space Flight Center’s Museum.
  
It was amazing to see the rockets that were the size of a football field and to realize they propelled man to the moon. Walking through the museum, seeing one of the capsules that returned from space was a great experience. If anybody has a chance to see the museum it is well worth the trip to Huntsville.
After returning to Boston we had one week to pack most of our things prior to me heading out to Kodiak, Alaska for the launch of the first University Nanosatellite. So prior to even starting my job with AFRL as PM for the UNP position I was taking business trips (fun but crazy and way to long away from Jamie and Eli). I left on a Monday to Kodiak which took an entire day to reach from Boston. Our purpose for heading up early was to charge the batteries for our spacecraft prior to launch. Our satellite launched on a Minotaur rocket along with five other small satellites. Kodiak was a beautiful location and the launch was very successful. Currently all satellites have made contact with their respective ground stations.
 

After leaving Kodiak I flew directly to ABQ for my in-processing on the Monday before Thanksgiving. After spending the day running around the base getting signatures and filling out forms I caught a red eye back to Boston. That same day Jamie and Eli flew to Peoria leaving the car at the airport. When I arrived on Tuesday morning my brother Mark, who was flying from Chicago where he had been helping my brother Hank out, arrived within 15 minutes of when I landed. After picking up the car where Jamie had left it, we drove back to Manchester where we met up with three good friends who helped us load up all of our items in a POD which had been delivered the day before. It was such a blessing to have everybody there helping me load up all of our belongings. Thankfully nearly everything we owned fit into the POD (using virtually every square inch of the POD). The below picture is a picture of the inside of the POD as we were loading it.

My goal was to be packed up by 6pm and to drive our two cars a couple hours to western Mass where we were going to say at a hotel. However, one of the friends who helped us move lived outside of Hartford Connecticut and invited Mark and I stay at their house for the night. After leaving from their house on Wednesday morning we made it to Indiana where we stayed at my families home. From there we picked up my brothers Matt and Tim and travelled to Peoria were we were able to spend Thanksgiving with the Jamie and Eli at the Ottens.

After leaving Peoria we made it to a small town outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to spend the night. The drive was a good time with the brothers and seeing the beautifully flat portion of the US.

We made it to ABQ on Saturday afternoon. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel we headed straight to the longest tramway in the world which takes you to the top of the Sandia Mountains (elevation 11,000 ft) where we watched the sunset.


The next day we drove up to an extinct volcano in the area that has hot springs, ruins, an extinct volcano, and some great hikes.


We drove through Los Alamos and Sante Fe on the way home to ABQ where we had dinner at El Pinto, a local restaurant that is famous for its food and celebrities that have dropped in over the years (including Bush, Obama, McCain, Palin, and many others).
The brothers have now headed back to the Midwest and Jamie is expected to be down to ABQ this weekend. So the great migration to the Southwest is coming to a close, but we have been thankful for how God has brought everything together so well. There were numerous times were the carefully scripted plan could have derailed, but everything worked together.

Elijah at 18 months

33 inches tall,  23.5 pounds

Elijah is talking constantly.  He is very adept at baby sign language, thank goodness, because he can be very insistent on what he wants to communicate.  Otherwise… well, here’s a list of Words Only We Can Understand:
-na-na: monkey-lovey (Maybe comes from “banana?” or “Nigh-night?”)
-na-ni: Here, take this.  Repeat incessantly until parent grabs object.
-ma-ne: anything dairy.  Milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and nursing (though as of his 18-month birthday, he is fully weaned.)
-oo-wa: water
-fwitty: drink.  (maybe comes from “thirsty?”)
-aa-paa (with a laugh): potty (He loves throwing tissue into the toilet.)
-fwa fwa: dog (woof woof)
-maaa: cat (meow)
-whee whee: (shortened from oh-whee-oh-whee-oh.) firetruck.  We’re working on this one!
-da-ta: dump truck
-toe-ta: tow truck
-eh-ta: excavator
-sid-see: skidsteer
-ba-ka: backhoe

Elijah is starting to really play.  He now makes “vrrooom-vrrooom!” noises as he pushes his trucks around on the floor.  He hits his plastic play golf balls with plastic golf clubs (though swinging wildly… We’re working on form, Uncle Larry!) He knocks down blocks with glee.  He loves reading books, and does that delightful “reading/babbling aloud” with an open book that toddlers do.  He is constantly on the move.
He is into mimicking: sweeping the floor like I do, pushing the vacuum, pretending to put on make-up when I do, sitting the same way David does on the couch.
A few days ago, Elijah found my bottle of eye-drops, and held them gently up to his monkey’s mouth like he was feeding it a bottle, announcing “Baby!”  He then covered the monkey up with a blanket.  (There is a new baby at the school nursery, and Elijah and friend Chelsea are fascinated by her.)
Opinions… It now matters to Elijah who feeds him. If Daddy starts feeding him yogurt, Mommy can’t take over.  Daddy must finish.  We can’t move his high chair around the room and expect him to eat from it.  And eat with a high chair tray? No way.  He expects to eat at the table.  Elijah is developing tastes, as well.  One week he will adore a certain food, like broccoli, then the next day look at you in disgust (or worse, yell and cry) when you serve it to him.  We’re praying for grace and wisdom in this area of opinions/wailing.  We don’t want a finicky eater, but we don’t want food to become a battle-ground, either.
Friends: Elijah loves seeing his buddies Chelsea and Lily, and talks about them often.  He gets into the car, happily bouncing, when told he is going to see them.  He even plays with them, which is unusual for this age, we hear.
His passion continues to be tractors.  He yells in excitement when he sees construction equipment in traffic, asks people to draw him tractors, he wants to see tractors on the computer (thank you, YouTube!).  A standard greeting is “TRAC-TA!”  His Poppi thinks that “tractor” can be also used as an adjective for wonderful, such as “This is such a tractor day!”

monkey then-and-now

 about a week old…

at nearly 18 months old

Elijah’s monkey (“Na-na”)  has become very important to him.  He asks for it if he gets hurt; he clutches it and bravely runs into nursery at church or school.  Wiggly Warriors teacher, Ms. Pat, told me we could never forget the monkey again, that it was too important!  So we bought 2 more identical ones.  One for everyday use (mostly at sleep time), one for the school nursery, and one “just in case of disaster.”  They actually sell these loveys in packs of three at the store, a brilliant idea.

Sadly, today we forgot the monkey on our rush to church.  Bleary-eyed from being out late at a goodbye party with David’s lab, and disorganized from the piles of boxes stacked around the house, we left the house without the na-na.  We dropped Elijah off at the nursery, hoping just maybe the toy tractors would distract him from the beloved monkey long enough for the church service.

Now, Elijah is famous for this monkey at the church nursery.  It solves all of his tears, and he requests it.  A few weeks ago, David picked up Elijah from the nursery and LEFT THE NA-NA.  We discovered this on the church steps, and David quickly ran back to get it.  When David asked the worker for the monkey, she turned to the other workers announcing, “We are missing the Na-na.  Everyone, we are missing the Na-na.  We need to find the Na-na.”  We laughed because every one of the workers knew exactly what she meant.  Elijah’s pretty proud of this monkey, and often holds it in the air, announcing to a stranger, “NA-NA!”  This is my monkey.

Today when we picked Elijah up from the church nursery, the worker, a man this time, while pulling out Elijah’s diaper bag to give to us, says, “I have just 2 questions for you.  WHAT is a na-na, and WHY isn’t it in this bag?!”  Apparently, Elijah spent most of the nursery requesting, “Na-na? Na-na?”  He kept pointing at the diaper bag (where it usually is to be found) and he and the worker went through every pocket “several times” looking for the na-na.

We’ll never forget it again.

Albuquerque

The big news for our family is that we’re moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico! For those who may be geography challenged Albuquerque, (or ABQ from now on… it’s a long name to spell!!) is located in the Southwest directly south of Colorado. Although many may think of it as a desert, ABQ was established in the 1500’s around the Rio Grande valley by Spanish missionaries and sports a number of trees around the river area. The city itself is located about a mile high with the Sandia Mountain range hemming it on the east side rising another 5000 ft to ~11,000 ft. The city’s population is around 850,000 people.
Apparently, it’s supposed to have 4 wonderfully mild, but distinct seasons… a high of 90 and a low of 40 degrees throughout the year, and 300 days of sunshine. It’s sleeting outside here in Boston as I write this.

A picture of ABQ from looking east from Petroglyph National Park
So after spending seven wonderful years in Boston we have accepted a position with the Air Force Research Labs at the Kirtland, Air Force Base. I will be the program manager for the University Nanosatellite Program, a program I was involved in both at Taylor and BU. The program funds a 11 universities to build a nanosatellite and walks them through the design phases. At the end of the two years we pick a winner who will get their satellite launched.
I'm really excited to be working with the group I'm being hired into. The majority of the labs are fellow engineers who work on exciting science and technology spacecrafts. I'm hoping to build some good relationships with members of the AFRL team in a variety of areas. In particular I will have two excellent collegues working on the Nanosatellite Program with me. So we’re trading the sand of the beach for the sand of the desert…  We’re going to dearly miss our life here in Manchester-by-the-sea, but are looking forward to God leading us to the new adventure in New Mexico. Below are some pictures we took from our previous visits to entice you to come visit!

Mount ranges outside of ABQ

Elijah in Petroglyph National Park

Home we put an offer on and going through the mortgage process

Halloween 2010

Elijah picked out his own Halloween costume this year.  He was riding in the shopping cart’s seat, when suddenly he started jumping up and down, shrieking “GIR-AFFF!”  I wheeled him over to where he was pointing, and he pulled the giraffe costume off the hanger, hugging it to himself, saying “gir-aff!"  It was on sale.  I bought it for him.  The whole way home he sat in his car seat, hugging the costume, saying “gir-aff!” over and over.  We hung it in his room.  It became part of his bedtime routine to say goodnight to his costume.

When we put it on him, he laughed at himself in the mirror, pointing and shouting “gir-aff!”

Manchester-by-the-sea puts on an annual Halloween parade for the costumed children, called the “Wobblin’ Goblins.”  Of course we had to do it again this year! 

All the shop keepers come out of their stores along Beach Street and hand out candy to the kids.

Elijah didn’t know what was in the shiny, crinkly things he was picking up, but got a kick out of it.  David was annoyed that Elijah kept passing up the Reese’s cups for things that were in shiny wrappers.

Our friends Kendra and JR brought their daughter, Chelsea, dressed as a butterfly.  Chelsea and Elijah are old friends, regular play-dates, and fellow “Wiggly Warriors” at the nursery at my school.

This is how we do Halloween in New England.  Hats, scarves, coats, and little ones in fleecey, hooded costumes with sweatshirts underneath!

Our parade ended at the community center for munchkins and coffee, but we took the little ones to the playground.  Their fuzzy suits made them fly on the slides, much to Elijah’s delight.

Guest Blog: Oma

We had a fantastic time in Boston. Elijah entertained us royally!! He is such a people person and so communicative. He has signs for a lot of things and enjoys being quizzed on the signs and sounds that things make. His favorite word is still "tractor". He says it even when there is no tractor in sight. Poppi thinks it is a word that means something is wonderful as he says it most when he is excited. He loves backhoes "back -ka". One morning when we were walking and turned a corner he kept saying "back-ka". We said," sorry there is no backhoe" but when we turned around and crossed the street, sure enough there was a backhoe. He had either seen it when we turned or heard it. He also told us there was a choo-choo coming long before we heard it.
On Wednesday we needed to be at Jamie's by 6:45am so we could babysit while Jamie went to work.  Poppi and I felt like we did real grandparent duty since we were babysitting. We walked down to a little cafe for breakfast and Elijah ate a whole piece of french toast and half a sausage. And that was his second breakfast!

We walked and toured all over Boston on Sunday. We took the famous Boston Duck tour and really enjoyed that. They let Elijah "drive" the boat part. He cried when he had to give it up. We ate at Durgan Park Restaurant where my Mom (Nana) and Dad used to eat when they lived in Boston. On the menu it says-- "We've been in business so long your grandfather probably ate here  -- and perhaps your great-grandfather too". We had to take a picture of Elijah, Jamie, and Nana with the menu. 

We drove around seeing the trees and beautiful New England homes, beaches, little touristy shops and the apple farm. We ate -- clam chowder, prime rib, pizza, fried clams & onion rings, and lobster roll.

Elijah has a special sign for Nana whom he has nicknamed "Yaya". We think that is to distinguish her from his monkey lovey - na-na (nah-nah). At the first dinner Elijah did something cute and Nana clapped her hands to each side of her face and exclaimed "Oh my". Elijah thought that was a riot so kept repeating it. When he wanted to get her attention he clapped his hands to his face. They also had a game they played in the car. Nana sat in the front seat and Elijah in the back, he yelled "Yaya" and she laughed "ha ha ha". He thought it was hysterical and kept it up.
Now that we are home Elijah is still asking about Oma and Papa (Poppi). The other day when he came in the house he ran to the computer, pointed and said "Oma, Oma" because he wanted to Skype with me. Of course I am only too glad to reinforce that behavior!