Thursday, November 13, 2014

Halloween

Our pumpkin picking was pretty simple this year. The church down the road from us was selling the gourds, so we picked one up for family home evening, then wheeled it and the boys home in the wagon.




 I received a sewing machine for my birthday, so I thought I would break it in by making the boy's Halloween costumes. They chose to be Fire flies...from the PBS show Wild Kratts.
Paul helped me with the wings and glowing parts, I sewed the shirts.The good news is they can be "creature suits" from here out.
What ever you do, don't look too closely at my sewing skills

One set of wings

Don't tell them they were wearing tights ;)

Church Halloween Party

Cutest fire flies on scooters ever!

Going bonkers on sugar!

Unfortunately, Seth ate too much candy and wasn't in the mood to show off his costume.
We didn't have a large showing for trick or treaters, but the boys had fun handing out the candy.
You can see their glowing bums while they search for Trick or Treaters

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Bucket List

I have very few things on my "bucket list"(if you could call it that), but one of them was to see lots of hot air balloons. I talked Paul into taking the boys and me to Albuquerque, NM to see the Balloon Fiesta and their awesome balloons. My brother and his family live there, and my parents came down,so it was also a little reunion.
The start of the 10 hour trip was full of excitement and questions. Half an hour into the trip, we were already tired of the question "are we still in TX?". For those of you not familiar with a road trip in Texas, it can take days to get out of the state. This was not our first road trip, but each year Matthew and Seth become more aware of how much easier a plane trip would be.

The good news: traveling in October is much more bearable weather wise than during the summer months. It was actually pleasant to play at parks this time.
The rain fell as soon as I started driving. Go figure.

Friday morning we were delighted to see the balloons from our hotel room.

The soccer ball for Paul













Little did we know that this would be the only good day to see any balloons.
Balloons would land anywhere they wanted, mostly parking lots.

The Explora Museum for kids was a hit. We hadn't been in the door more than 5 min when the boys found their favorite exhibit.Balls were moving in all sorts of directions.


Building block with the cousins

Riding a bike some twenty feet in the air on a wire.

Speedy Paul was not even nervous about the height
Friday night we attempted to see the Glodeo. When the weather is good you can see the balloons lit up and you can walk around them. It was rainy and windy so it was canceled.
Waiting to find out if we'll see any balloons.

Seth's cousin Kimberly made the same face and Seth thought he'd imitate.

Killing time by posing for pictures
The rain drove us to this tent all about balloons, with this empty basket to climb in.
Even though it was canceled, and we were wet, smiles were still had and we got to see an awesome fire works show. Plus we were hopeful we could try again Saturday night.
We spent Saturday at the hotel pool and ate lunch at a Japanese grill. 

 
The boys waiting for me to come down the slide. They were very disappointment they weren't tall enough to take the plunge.
It was decided that we would again try for another Glodeo that night. All signs pointed to good weather, but then a huge wind storm came up, and again things were canceled. We were lucky enough to see a few more balloons this time.
It was beautiful, until we realized it was coming right towards us!

Balloons trying to fill up.

Seth LOVED his older cousin Kiara.
Matthew had the best view.

Seth was brave enough meet the cow, thanks to Phillip.

While the entire crew, minus these two, went to the bathroom, Matthew got to see some balloons up close.
Then the wind came and what balloons were inflated came down. It was just not meant to be. Poor Kiara was especially sad since it was her birthday weekend. Luckily while we were scrambling to find shelter, we came across a small dolphin shaped balloon being swept away in the wind. Kiara and our boys ran after and managed to catch it. She was happy to have a souvenir.

Once again we were treated to another fire works show. Apparently wind and rain can't shut down the fireworks.











Sunday was spent trying to keep boys from tearing apart our hotel room while we waited for one o'clock church. We found a nearby park to get some energy out.

Giving high five's
Sliding down the cement drainage canal.




























Sunday evening while we were hanging with Sean's family, Paul handed me some paper work to fill out. The paper work was a a liability release for taking a hot air balloon ride! Paul had been planning this for over three months trying to keep me from finding out. During the whole trip Paul kept mentioning what the weather would be on Monday. I kept saying who cared since we were supposed to be traveling home that day. He was worried that the flight might be canceled due to weather. And with our luck with the Glodeo's it was a real possibility it wouldn't work.


Monday morning Paul and I woke up super early and headed out. My parents were kind enough to also wake up early and watch the boys for us.
Cold but exited! Finally I get to see some balloons!


The other balloon setting up next to our basket



After all that planning it's finally happening!
Here we go!

How many people can you cram in one basket? 11.

Our Pilot







Matthew and Seth chose souvenir balloon that looked like this. They called it the American Flag Balloon.


Our Balloon also did a trip down to the river. Our pilot called it a splash and dash.

After an our or so of flying, it was time to land.


Take down. It looks a lot like set up in these pics :)

It was so much fun flying in a hot air balloon. I've always wanted to ride one, and to be honest I did not think I would ride one on this trip.When we first planned our excursion, I looked up balloon rides, saw the price and wrote it off. So Paul really surprised me!
Thank you Paul!

The rest of the day was spent driving back to Texas. We didn't get home until 2 am and with our early wake up, it was a long day. BUT SO WORTH IT!