Balloon Fiesta 2012

October 13, 2012

Balloon Fiesta Park

Albuquerque, NM

The first Saturday of Balloon Fiesta was cancelled due to high winds.  During the week, we enjoyed absolutely gorgeous weather and the kids loved seeing the balloons every morning as they were heading to school.  Sydney and Hayden especially loved pointing to all the balloons!  

So it was really sad, when the weather for the second weekend was questionable also.  We were worried the weather wouldn't cooperate this year, but the second Saturday ended up being PERFECT!  We got there a little after 6, (we lucked out in the traffic department and didn't have to sit for too long in the car.) 

 Here are all the kids bundled up and ready to go onto the field.

We enjoyed homemade breakfast burritos and hot chocolate while we waited for dawn.

By the way, a little piece of trivia I learned this year--Breakfast Burritos were invented for Balloon Fiesta in 1978.    So if you love a good breakfast burrito, you have Balloon Fiesta to thank!!

It was pretty cool to see the balloons firing up when it was still dark.

And the first ones were off!

the "insides"

Sydney loved the balloons from a distance, but when we got too close, the sound of the fire bursts startled her every time, and she just buried her head in the shoulder of whoever was holding her saying, "too scary!"  Poor thing!  

LOVE this!

Special Shapes!

These two were new to me.  I loved that Horton the Elephant Balloon.  

The bees

Air-a-Belle

Sydney kept calling the shark balloon a "dolphin."  :)  

Darth Vader is still a huge favorite of our family.  This year the kids even got their hands on a couple of  Darth Vader cards--usually it's so hard to get close enough to that balloon to talk to any of the crew who have the cards to pass out, so that was pretty exciting for Sean and Hayden. 

When we got home, we found we had just missed out on the excitement of a balloon landing on our street!  They were just packing up the basket when we pulled into our driveway!  And our cameras battery had died by the time we left Balloon Fiesta, so I don't even have any pictures of them loading up just two houses up from us.  Our cute next-door-neighbor, Simone, said she was ringing our doorbell and knocking on our door for us to come out and see it!  Too bad we weren't home yet!  This is the first year since we've lived here that the wind blew the balloons over to our neighborhood.  Most of the time they seem to head west.

Happy Balloon Fiesta!

As always, friends, mark your calendars for the first two weekends in October, 

and come visit us next year!    

You will not find a ballooning event to equal this one in the 

whole WIDE WORLD!

And, we promise to make you some amazing breakfast burritos.

Crimson Maple Trail

Friday, October 12, 2012

Cibola National Forest

4th of July Campground

Friday was the fall break holiday for the kids, so after lunch, we drove out to the Fourth of July Campground area and went for a "hike" (aka walk) through the beautiful fall colors.  We took a trail called the Crimson Maple Trail, and it was gorgeous.  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  So here's a WHOLE BUNCH!

When we got out of the car, Lily and Sydney ran to each other and hugged like they hadn't seen each other in YEARS!  I know I'm biased, but seriously, they are completely darling.

Nothing short of miraculous getting all those kids smiling in the same picture, 

AND it only took 2 shots to get this one!  

me and syd

holding  hands

the girlys

Lilly, wasn't super excited about getting torn away from her girl cousins to take some family shots . . .

just pretty

smiles

sillies

This time we got a smile out of Lily.  Maybe it's because there was laughy-taffy waiting for her . . .

Happy FALL!

sisters

Arthur and the boys

What a gorgeous, perfect day!  

When our hike was done, we all came back to our place and had a dinner of 

delicious Chipotle Chocolate Chili and sweet cornbread.  

Oh how I love fall!

And Gariety #6 is . . .

A Boy!
Due Feb. 18, 2013

We had our ultrasound yesterday and got to see this cute little guy through "the binocularth that can thee through your thkin" (Hayden's description of the ultrasound machine.) Daphne was hoping for another little sister, but it didn't take her long to be thrilled about a little boy.  She said, "Boys diapers are easier to change anyway."

And I'm pretty sure our little guy got my straight nose.  (All the other kids were lucky and got Arthur's cute nose.  ;)  I hope that's not embarrassing to him that I think his nose is cute.)  Although on a boy, maybe my nose will look very distinguished.

Here are our name ideas so far:

In preparation to teach his little brother all the ways of boys, Hayden suggested Ammo! (as in ammunition such as nerf darts and BBs etc . . .)
Daphne likes Peter
I suggested Mitt Ryan Gariety (a little political, but actually has a nice ring to it, I think.  ;)
Hayden suggested Kaidon, and Sean suggested John (as if I don't already get all the names mixed up!)  Sean also contributed Darth Vader.
I can't remember what Dallin suggested.  But he advised against the name John because he knows a really nice kid named John and doesn't want our little guy to mess the name up.  (Come on, Dallin, have a little faith!)
Bennett, Stone, and Arthur are also in the brainstorming mix.  My favorites right now are Bennett Arthur Gariety or Bennett Stone Gariety.
Arthur tends to use the "veto" power more frequently than the "contributing ideas" power but he has contributed a few this time around, and they are:  Grand Finale Gariety, or Caboose, or The End . . .  you get the picture.

It takes us forever to zero in on a name, so nobody will know until we bring this little guy home what we finally decide on.  In the meantime, feel free to add suggestions to our list.  We're excited to meet this new little Gariety in about 4 1/2 more months!

No Crying Over Spilt . . . Peaches

You know that saying it's no use crying over spilt milk?  Well, I'm pretty sure I've never cried over spilt milk.  But on Sunday when I was cleaning this up:

I cried.

(but first I took a picture because I knew I would probably need to vent about this in my blog.)

I cried as we cleaned up those broken bottles of peaches and applesauce because we were scraping days and days of my hard work off the garage floor into the trash can.  It was super lame.

We learned the hard way that the shelving we had for our bottled fruit was not strong enough, and finally after a month or two of over-stress, the shelving collapsed.  Poor Daphne was the first to discover it when she went to retrieve some brown sugar out of the garage.   When she opened the cupboard, all the bottles came crashing out.  I heard the crash from inside the house, followed by Daphne screaming.  Poor thing was scared to death, but otherwise unscathed.

After all was cleaned up and the undamaged bottles washed off and restocked on a stronger shelf, we figured we lost about 1/3 of what we preserved this summer.  Nice way to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon, right?  And half an hour after we got this mess taken care of, I got to lead ward choir practice.

And I guess I should say that while I had been wishing with every particle of my soul that I could call in sick for Ward Choir, and Stake Choir, and motherhood and home-ownership, and food storage . . . ownership, that after Ward Choir practice, as Arthur and I made dinner together, I was in a significantly better mood.   I even felt excitement (instead of dread) about going to direct another choir practice that evening in preparation for Stake Conference.  As I was thinking about that later, I felt like maybe that was an example of the blessings that come as a result of the songs of the of the heart.  (D&C 25:12)

September Quotes

Pottytraining

Mom: Let's sit here and see if any peepee comes out.

Sydney:  It's lost.  The peepee is lost.

Dallin's deep thoughts on a Disney movie:  I think "The Little Mermaid" sends the worst message to little girls because it tells them they should just break all their dad's rules and do whatever they want even if they're not supposed to, and then if everything ends up wrong, they'll expect their dad to lay down everything that's important and give it all up for them.

Hayden:  Policemen sneak up and catch people to put in jail.

Sean:  They don't sneak, they just wait and watch for people going to0 fast and then they drive faster to catch them.

Me:  So Hayden, this week we get to find out if our baby is a boy or a girl.  Do you want to come to the doctor with me when we find out?

Hayden:  Of courth!  I alwayth go to find out what baby we are having!

(that made me laugh because he's only been to one other such appointment and I'm pretty sure he was too little to remember.)

In her bedtime prayers, Sydney tells Heavenly Father all of her most heartfelt wishes:

"Pincess watch it, Beauty Beast watch it, 
Ariel watch it, Punzel watch it, Cinderella watch it . . . " etc.

(in case you're confused about her meaning, she's telling Heavenly Father all of the movies she wants to watch the next day.)

Sean:  What?  It's raining in the morning?!?

It's true--that is kind of rare here.  We get afternoon rains frequently enough, but it's not often that it's raining when we wake up.  I personally LOVE it, but for Sean it's just a pain because it messes up recess.

A conversation about moving . . .

Dad:  If we moved away from Albuquerque, where would you guys want to move?

Sean:  Disneyland!

Daphne:  Hawaii!

Hayden:   Let'th move to Georgia, nextht door to the Reed'th!

Dallin:  I want to stay.

and so the debate continues . . .

Swinging at the park

Hayden:  Mom!  I want an under-dog!

Sydney:  I want under-kitty-cat!

On the way home from church

Mom: Great job on the primary program today, you guys!  It was awesome!

Hayden:  Doeth that mean we never have to go to church again?