New Mexico Vacation

I DREAMED OF THIS...

I got so EXCITED to see this

...and I even saw a GLIMPSE of this every morning when we came out of breakfast each morning, but paid it no mind because I knew we were going to see it UP CLOSE the last day of our vacation during MASS ASCENTION....
and then..... it RAINED all night long the night before we left so even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky when we went down to the Balloon Fiesta Launch park all we saw was ONE lone balloon in the sky. It was like showing up for a concert & the band got sick & didn't play... or showing up for a rocket to launch & the astronaunt ate something bad for breakfast & didn't launch... wouldn't you sit there thinking they have to make it up to you anyway cuz you flew thousands of miles to see it & they wouldn't want to disappoint a paying crowd.... NOPE, nobody seemed to mind that it was a BEAUTIFUL DAY & NO beautiful BALLOONS in the air!!!!

...pathetically I was SO dissapointed & just couldn't get over it so we took a balloon ride to make up for it.

...Well in the museum anyway! :) An actually ride was $600 so we passed this time around!
I just had to get a picture of me & a balloon so this one in the museum will have to do.

One of the days we went to Albuquerque's botanical gardens/zoo/aquarium package & we were not disappointed. The place was amazing! Every corner we turned was picture worthy. (Lucky Vic!) I wish I could've gotten married in some romantic place like this:

My gorgeous boys.

I thought these cactus were really cool so I had to share.

The aquarium was small, but every tank was just CHUCK FULL of fish!

..and they had an amazing variety of fun things like this cute sea turtle that loved getting attention through the glass.

By the time we got to the zoo it was POURING rain. We knew we probably won't go back so we trooped through the zoo anyway & it was pretty cool because all of the big cats & bears were out being active.

AND we had the zoo all to ourselves!!! Haha, no other troopers out there crazy as us. I'm surprised the workers didn't kick us out so they could go home.

We decided to ride the tram to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city & eat at the restaurant at the top. It was really good expensive food paid for by Vic's company so we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience! At the top of the mountain it was WINDY so check out my LION hair-do :)

Now trying to go with the wind for the beautiful wind blown model look, haha!

Our first FAMILY airplane trip together! (we'd flown seperate before, but this way was much better!)

LOL, I can't even type about this next picture without laughing. I held up the camera & told Tommy to say cheese & this is literally the first time he said cheese for the camera. The flight attendant was laughing like crazy cuz she could see his face & Vic & I couldn't. He was being really cute so I figured I'd get a good one, but instead found a bunch of SUPER cheeses like this one!!

This kid cracks me up DAILY. He is hilarious & one of the things I love most about him is that he is already his mama's boy... he does something he thinks is funny & then throws his head back laughing at himself cuz he thinks he's so funny. Lucky Vic gets 2 of the funniest people in the world living in his house! :) :)

P.S. This funny girl won't be so funny tomorrow after 5 hours of sleep, but 2am seems to be the only time I have to get on the internet & read & do updates!!

Halloween Weekend

What could be cuter than a laughing monkey?!?

maybe a monkey eating a banana?!

Actually.... 3 monkeys is cutest of all!!! (Vic doesn't need a costume to be a monkey, tee hee :)

We drove to Seattle to visit my brother's family for Halloween weekend. It was really beautiful this time of year. It was funny to see Tommy & his 2 cousins at every door overwhelming the homeowner by squeezing into their door frame!

We had so much fun watching Tommy trick or treat for the first time. He was so happy that he would be walking down the street & every time he looked down at his bucket he'd start laughing right out loud... cutest thing ever. Every day I've let him pick out one treat out of the bucket after dinner and he gets so excited he does the happy dance.

I loved the houses where people made a little extra effort to make it fun for the kids, but I especially loved this house as they went all out!
Here is Kiersten, Kara, & Tommy making some spooky faces in front of the scary house!
Earlier in the weekend we wen to a Halloween party. Here is our family picture there. Tommy was actually supposed to be a cop & we were to jail birds, but his costume didn't fit!!
He had a ball at the party w/ cake pops, his own mini waterbottle, & treats, but his favorite part was the bounce house. He couldn't leave the thing alone!
One of the days we did some major crafting in the kitchen! We made a ginger halloween house, suckers, and treats. Here is the madness! (my sister-in-law, the brain behind all the fun crafts)

Tommy helped by taste testing all the treats as we went. :)

Here is a picture of our finished mini cakes:

Here is a picture of some of the clever treats we made:

and then we had a lovely Halloween tea party to eat all of our work! Girls are fun that way. Can't wait for Whitney to get older & get excited about making place cards, decorating, etc. You can sure bet I'll train her good!!! :)