Lost in the "Maize"

The kids had been begging us to go to McCall's pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins. McCall's is where we went last year and had a great time. The only problem is it's about 90 minutes away each way so we kept putting it off. We finally put if of long enough that it was finally the last weekend we could go before we just wouldn't get pumpkins. We decided to find a patch a little closer though. There were two that were fairly close one just down the street and the other in Corrales. Corrales is the oldest farming community in the United States! We love it there so we decided to go pick our pumpkins there.

The Patch was at Wagner Farms, it wasn't as huge as McCall's but we had just as much fun. You start by going through the corn maze first. The maze was only 1 acre which is pretty small when you think that the one at McCall's is 13! The way they had it set up was really cute. They gave you a map and there were 12 checkpoints on the map that you had to find and when you got to the checkpoint stand there was a special shaped hole punch to punch your map. The kids loved this and couldn't wait to see what the next shape would be. It took us about an hour to do the whole thing. And we made it through the maze without getting lost and with all of our checkpoints punched!

Ready to start! It was so warm and sunny that day! It was amazing.

At the lookout in the middle of the maze. You don't really need the lookout but it's fun to be able to see the whole thing from the top.

When you are finished with the maze you can take a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch or just walk to it. The kids really wanted to ride the tractor so we hopped on and made our way to the pumpkins. Since it was so late in the month the pumpkins were pretty picked over so kids didn't find any that they liked. So we told them we would go find one somewhere else. On the way out the kids wanted to stop and get a snocone. Liv and Harris both got a blue one and while Harris was eating his he paused and showed it to me and said "mom, why is there purple in it too?" I said "well they must have gotten some red in it." And he happily kept eating it. After a minute he looked at me and showed it to me again and said "how is there more purple in it?" Upon closer inspection of his snocone it dawned on me what it was... Blood! The ice had ripped his mouth back open! (Ewwww! He was eating a bloody snocone!) I immediately took it and threw it away and got some napkins for his mouth. By the time we got back to the car the bleeding had stopped and he was no worse for the ware.

Just down the road Wagner Farms has their own farmers market where they still had a ton of pumpkins. The kids were able to find some that they liked and we also picked up some fresh pumpkin bread. Before we left Corrales we wanted to try a restaurant that is a local favorite called Village Pizza. We took and seat on the awesome patio and ordered pizza and breadsticks. It was awesome even though it took 45 minutes to get our food. ;) It was a perfect fall afternoon.

Twinkle Twinkle Glow

Yesterday was the start of the 2011 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! Last year we went to the Mass Ascension at 5 in the morning on the first day and sat in Fiesta traffic for almost 2 and a half hours! So this year we decided to skip Mass Ascension and go to the Glow on the first night. Chet got tickets from work so that meant that we got to hang out at the HP tent and have dinner and chill for a while before the event started. This was a good thing for two reasons. The first was because Casa Vieja was catering dinner and the second was because we could just hang out and watch the whole park for the balloons to start going up. For a while it looked like it was going to be too windy but then Scott the balloon pilot for HP headed out to the field and said it was a go.

Standing next to the HP balloon while they were filling it.

All the balloons have names. The HP balloon is just called Hewlett-Packard. Boring, right? At least it's pretty. ;)

This balloon was right next to the HP balloon. It was may favorite (next to Spyderpig). The way it glowed was just so pretty. Loved it!

The kids really liked this balloon because their school mascot is the dragonfly. I'm sure it has a name but it must be one of the ones that didn't pay to have it put in the magazine.

Every once in a while the announcer would tell the all the balloons to light up at the same time. It was awesome. But when he would tell them all to "flicker" it would freak out my eyes! I'm pretty sure it would cause some seizures.

I also love the one with the giraffes on it. It's called "It's a Zoo". I think that would have been my moms favorite. :)

This balloon is brand new this year. It is very neat looking. All the letters and barbed wire are 3D so they stick out of the balloon. 

Pink pig in the sky!!!

This one is simply called Carousel.

This is Tropical Sunrise It was one of the last ones lit when all the others were deflating.

 

We bought Harris a program that has all the balloons and their names listed and the first one that I saw when I opened it was Spyderpig. I was like, "I want to see that one!" It is also brand new this year. It is also a special shape so I wasn't expecting to see it until the Special Shape Rodeo. But as we were heading out I caught a glimpse of a red webbed balloon. We rushed over since the Glowdeo was coming to close.

 

Is it a pig? Is it Spiderman? No it's Spyderpig!!

 

 

 

The Wells Fargo balloon, Centr Stage, Joelly the bee and Betty Jean the butterfly with Spyderpig.

 

We had a great night! The Glows are much cooler than the Mass Ascensions. Although I am looking forward to the Special Shapes Mass Ascension on Friday!

Carlsbad Caverns

As summer began to wind down we realized there were a couple things we wanted to do but hadn't done yet.  One of those was a visit to Carlsbad Caverns.  We had heard from the locals that is was a cool thing to do and we had actually seen a National Geographic special that highlighted some of the neat formations that could be found there and only there.  The following is a photodocumentary of our visit there.

 There was a result of the wildfires that went through Arizona and southern New Mexico over the summer.  I thought these looked cool.

 The drive wasn't too bad, we stopped in Roswell on the way there and ate at a freaky McDonald's.  We slept at a hotel in Carlsbad, got up early and headed out to the Caverns.

 Heading down...

 The formations were so cool and the Caverns were so massive.

 Outrageous!  We also took the opportunity to try out our new camera and see how well it could do in low-light conditions...

 Cute kids!

 The formations in the distance are called "Frustrated Lovers".  People used to think they were touching and labeled them as some sort of kissing formation but turns out that they are actually separated by a very slim margin (according to the tour guide, a ranger slid a paper between them to prove his point)

 These look like some sort of pita chip to me...

 The Caverns are around 57 degrees year round, it felt quite chilly in there.  This picture reminds me of how cool is was in there for some reason.

 This is a cool formation that they call the "Witches Broom"...see it?

 It looks like it might have been claustrophobic in there but it actually wasn't.

 A number of the caverns were enormous, up to 300 feet high!

 For some reason this picture reminds me of Narnia...a strange statement on my part, I know.

 Some of the formations had signs to point out a specific name or shape.

 The handsome couple...

 As you can see, Harris was very impressed by the Caverns...

 This one was called the "Veiled Statue"

 See the kids way up there?

 It was like being on an alien planet.

 Welcome to the Hall of Giants...

 Aw, happy family...800 feet in the ground.

 HeeHeeHee...

This formation is the "Totem Pole"...Liv thought they looked like muffins

 This formation looked like a creepy dude to me...

 So cool!

 National Geographic did a big article on the Caverns in 1924 that really began to make them popular.  Having visited it I can see why.

 They had this cool lecture area that we stopped at for a photo opp.

 Mirror Lake was cool.  They hung the sign upside down so that you could look in the lake and see it right side up.

 I thought this looked like ice...it wasn't.

 Doesn't "Rock of Ages" sound grand?

As we said goodbye to The Caverns we stopped for one last photo.  We loved the experience and look forward to doing it again next year!