Panera's in NM and Denver is in CO

A few days before heading to Denver, a co-worker asked my dad whether he would be hitting the Panera.  My dad said, "No need!"  My beautiful momma had made all the Panera anyone could possibly require.  Can you say home-made bread bowl!?!

My brother JC asked to save his for breakfast in the morning.  Amazingly, in the LOE's dry air, his bowl becomes more permanent by the day.  Perhaps in a month it will be dishwasher safe?  That is another story, though.  The trip to Denver commenced on a Thursday, but the most interesting part was the free museum night on Saturday.  The museum had dinosaurs you could touch...

Mummies...

and dioramas.  This one had llamas in it.  My beautiful momma asked us to look like llamas caught in the headlights of a Peruvian automobile.  How did we do?

The weekend was great - even if you couldn't tell by our appreciable lack of encouraging photos.

This time, it's actually Halloween

The week of Halloween is still going...strong!  On Halloween day, I had a parade at my school.  Here I am with my sixth grade buddy.

Then we did the trunk or treat.  This witch made me nervous - Where is the good witch?

Then we walked around the neighborhood trick or treating. 

We got a lot of candy.  Here is my brother with his - notice the movie box of Reese's and the two full size candy bars.  That's a lot of pirate booty!

And here I am with mine.  Can anyone guess who sorted all the candy?  The hint I will give you is that it wasn't SM!

Halloween!!

Here in the wilderness of the northern LOE, we start celebrating Halloween a week early.  Why?  Because it is the northern LOE and we need to stretch our holidays out!  Word!  Here is a picture of the pumpkin patch.  Sadly, our pumpkins were not purchased at the patch because they were expensive Texas pumpkins.

It was discovered that little SM has a strong dislike for pumpkins.  Look when we started to cut our pumpkins!

The rest of us had more fun cutting the ... pumpkins.

JC was more pensive, but finally stuck his hand in.  His overjoyed response, "it feels like slimy!"

Here is our finished product.  We only lost two fingers between us!

Next it was Trick or Treat on Main Street.  It was our second one!  Look at our wonderful costumes!

Judy Garland just looked at my Toto carrying purse and got a bit jealous.  Here we are on the town.

SM went as a cold, hungry baby.  Actually, under all that garb - she was Little Miss-chevious!

Happy Pre-Halloween!

Lamest Balloon Fiesta, Ever!

Ah yes!  The LOE has a famous balloon festival.  So famous that they advertise it on one of their two license plates.  My dad even witnessed hundreds of hot air balloons floating over the city on his way to Albuquerque on the Monday of Balloon week .  He even witnessed one crash just off to the side of the interstate.  Buoyed by his wonderful experience, we headed down the 25 for Thursday's Glowdeo.  While we waited for the weather to clear, I became a balloon pilot.

Check back in ten years and my beautiful momma will be making the same face in the passenger seat of the car. 
Oh no!  The Glow-deo was cancelled!  Good thing we are spending the night in the ABQ.  We can see the ascension tomorrow!  They did inflate one balloon for us - well almost.

In the time it took us to walk closer...

After a not-so-refreshing night that involved all of us kids having some sort of bowel problem we awoke and headed towards the festival grounds.  Everything looked great.  Visible are several inflated balloons.

Wait....did you hear that?  Are those gray clouds?

There goes the neighborhood.  :(

That lasted all of ten minutes. 

The next morning back at the 'Rock' we witnessed the balloons taking off in HD .  The weatherman said "it's beautiful here, come on down to the festival grounds."  He was cut off when my beautiful momma threw the tv through the window!

Maybe next year...

Homecoming

Guess what?  Here in the LOE, they still celebrate Homecoming.  It's a big deal as they shut down main street and throw a parade.  Here am I, M, and my brother/old-man-from-Florida JC.  We got front row seats.

Here comes the floats!

After the parade, our bags felt heavier....

That's because we got more candy than Halloween!

JC ate so much candy his face became stuck.  See the sad results below!

Have you ever seen eating like that before?

"By jove, that looks uncivilized!"

"Goodness, me.  That's not how you're supposed to eat!"

"Hey guys if you think eating like this is weird..."

"Look at me!
  Look at me!
  Look at me now!"

"Hrumph!  Dreadful.  That's what I call it.  Back to my nuts and I only read Flaubert and only listen to Wincenty z Kielczy.  Gaude Mater Polonia!"

Note to readers:  The animals in the pictures are talking.  SM quotes Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" and then conducts Beethoven with her feet.  The fussy English squirrel thinks her eating style, her taste in literature, and her taste in music is bad.  He states that her eating style is dreadful.  He only reads Gustave Flaubert who wrote Madame Bovary.  Flaubert is famous for "le mot juste" and writing in sullen solitude.  Finally, the querolous squirrel only listens to Polish composers with Wincenty z Kielczy, or Vincent of Kielcz, a Dominican priest from the 12th century, topping his list.  Gaude Mater Polonia is Vincent's big hit and is the most popular Polish anthem.  It was often played after victories, although Poles won few battles.  The Battle of Grunwald in 1410 probably being the most famous Pole victory.  Grunwald was famous for the oak trees and their abundant acorns which squirrels, including the one in this post, love.  It's circular baby. 
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Hidden Falls of Battleship Rock

I think that title sounds like the third movie in the National Treasure series.  If Nick Cage can keep the home invaders with fudgesicles away, the third one should be on its way soon. There is our target - a little over threescore furlongs (12 km) away.

How did we make it so far you might ask?  There is a reason orangutans give birth only once every eight years because alot of the "hiking" looked like this:

Baby SM rode the whole way like this.  Here is a picture with her beautiful momma less than 200 feet from the falls.

We made it!  SM asks can you hear the water falling?  You have to love the LOE when water like this becomes a landmark.  You can't make this stuff up - The historical marker said that this and McCauley Springs (17 kms away) provided the two primary bathing locations for the Jemez in the 1800s.

Don't you love it when the kids find out that they have to walk back?

 

 We sure had a great time.  We chased the hike away by eating an extra-large pizza at Dion's --- can you say mmmm- Bop?