First grade field trip

One of the great joys of being a stay at home mum is being able to go on the kids' field trips.  No is still of an age that he enjoys having his old mom around and actually begged me to go with him to the pumpkin patch with his class.  I took my own car and thus got to enjoy the field trip without the added benefit of riding in a bus with 60 howling first graders.    There was a fairly poor corn maze--even No could see over the top of the corn, a sad pumpkin 'patch' where many pumpkins had been dumped on the dirt and an even sadder zoo and playground.  The playground consisted of a cement culvert propped up at an angle to make it a slide.  Imagine, if you will, 6 schools on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and all of those little kids trying to slide.  The zoo was some chickens, a sheep and a zebra/mule cross breed.  Then we got to hike through mud to have our picnic (this was actually most of the boys' favorite part of the day, go figure)

It's fun having a day with my little one, but even more fun to ride home in quiet bliss while he gets to scream his heart out on the bus.

Punkin Patch

Why am I not growing?

we slid down slides

played in a fake gold mining flume

took funny pictures

dug in a corn bin

totally conquered the corn maze

and even got some pumpkins

rode the haywagon

Balloon Fiesta 2013

besides the food and the mountain probably my favorite thing about ABQ is the balloon fiesta.  On the first weekend of October our skies fill up with colorful floating air transports.   My favorite is the dawn patrol, where the balloons inflate in darkness and then you see the burners light up the balloon against the dark sky.  The sight when the whole patrol takes off is enough to get even this night owl up at an amazingly early time to watch the glowing balloons.  

inside the display balloon

Our beautiful watermelon mountains

The crew for the pig balloon--right next to the angry bird balloon

dawn patrol--my favorite!!!!

despite the budget crisis Smoky was still on duty

Noah's ark!

Noah and his ark

Zak's angry bird hat and the balloon it inspired

hat head

12th birthday treasure hunt

It's a clue!

following the treasure trail

Over hill and dale

fending off the mocking trolls

finally finding a present!  And more clues

Hooray!

And then we eat cake

Unless Janette has made a much prettier cake

First Day of School

Now in middle school

bring it on!

first grade

fourth grade

ready to ride his bike down

Old lady knees

orange foot from the iodine

On Trek this summer my right knee ended up hurting so badly I could barely walk.  It swelled up and no amount of ibuprofen could keep me mobile without limping.  So, off to the doctor, X-ray, MRI, physical therapy, finally an orthopedics appointment and the determination that surgery was needed.  Once the kids were back in school on a schedule I got my knee surgeried.  The kids found my coming down the stairs on my butt rather hilarious, but luckily that only lasted 3 or so days.  Post surgery the surgeon told me I had the tightest knees he has ever seen, which meant they couldn't clean up all the frayed edges of my meniscus.  Oh well.   Sadly, he also told me my knees look older than they should since the stuff covering the edges of my bones is nearly all worn away.  Lets hope someone comes up with a really cool bionic knee really soonish.  Or at least before I need a new knee.  

Travelin' home

Ouray.  My future vacation home

pointing out fossils at Dinosaur National Monument

Dying of the heat on a fossil hunt

Hey look!  educational stuff!

Flaming gorge.  We did not stop here.  No hot springs.  

On our way home both Jerran and Deanna drove quite a bit and my blood pressure suffered as a result. We also learned that our GPS is completely rubbish at locating national parks/monuments.  Seriously bad.  We stopped at the tourist center place in Vernal and they didn't even have a map of how to get to Dinosaur National.  So we navigated on hope.  It mostly worked.   The visitors center has changed since I was last here due to seismic something-or-other so you have to park down below, catch a smelly diesel tram up to the wall where the bones are and then either hike back down or ride back down.  We forced the children (cruelly, naturally) to hike down the trail and look for more fossils on the way down.  Isaac was the only enthusiastic fossil hunter.

Our voyage home finished that night in Grand Junction, where we had some of the yummiest bruschetta ever.  (yes, I live to eat)  The roads between Vernal and Grand Junction were quite pretty, windy and a little worrisome at times.   That is, I thought they were worrisome until we departed from Ouray, CO homewards.  That road was a fun one!  Still, we are glad we got to stop at the hot springs in Ouray and hope to go back soon.  If I had my druthers (and a billion euros) we'd live somewhere like Ouray.