October fun for the Christisons

Our top story this week - okay, maybe it's hard to pick a top story. But one of our top stories is that Mattie got a new haircut. Unfortunately, she doesn't love having bangs.  I took these when we were waiting for some other photo session, so I could show her just how cute her hair is.  She is only semi-convinced - she thinks bangs on her forehead are "uncomfortable" and she doesn't like when they "poof out".  I forsee a lot of headbands and some bangs-growing out in our future.  That said, I think she looks beautiful!




I was trying to get her to keep a straight face, and she just couldn't quite do it. :)






Next child - Pierce turned 8 years old!  I have some fun pictures from his actual birthday, but these are the pictures we just took today, in his new suit, for a baptism invitation for his friends at school and some teachers.  Doesn't he look nice in his suit? :)  He was so sweet and happy.  And resigned to dressing nice at church now - luckily I've been warning him for a long time that this was coming.  Another great thing about Pierce is that we told him he needed to pray about being baptized so he could have his own testimony that it was the right thing to do.  With a little encouragement he did this and feels great about the ceremony this next Saturday.  I love it when he gets answers to his prayers.






He picked the scripture at the bottom.  I think I'll write a little bit about baptism on the back of the card (who am I kidding, I will obviously TYPE it, not write it) and he plans to give it to some teachers, friends, and his soccer team.  Then he will pray for torrential flooding so that his team can't play their game - which is at the same time as his baptism - and they will come to that instead. :)


And I will finish off with a lot of Balloon Fiesta pictures. Don't worry, I have more! The kids always want pictures of the special shaped balloons, so my collection leans heavily toward those.

We picked the PERFECT day to go this year - it was warm and we went with friends who had VIP passes.  I'll tell  you what, that nice hot catered breakfast was a big hit.  We ate where it was sort of warm, watched the balloons go overhead, and by the time we were done it had warmed up out and we walked down through the balloons (and bought our favorite small fresh donuts, yum).  The balloonists had "the box" going - it's where the wind goes south at lower altitudes and north when they go up higher.  So they go south over the field when they take off, then go up higher and go back over the field again going north.  You get to see them all twice and they like it because they get to land pretty close.  It was perfect.  We loved it!

Labor day trip - Pecos and Jemez Falls

This year on Labor Day we wanted to get out of town!  We went on a little trip with some good friends, and we had a great time!  We didn't want to camp, because honestly it's so much trouble, not to mention our tent poles are broken and we haven't fixed them yet.  So there were some places we had been wanting to visit, and one of them was this hike I'd heard of where a waterfall goes through a cave.  It was a long hike - at least 2 miles one way - but it was really beautiful.  Way greener than we're used to here in New Mexico. 



It was kind of funny, we just kept hiking and went right past the caves, but luckily there was someone down there who told one of us that we should check them out.  They were SO COOL!  Big enough to walk around in, and fortunately we brought some great flashlights so we could explore.













Pierce and Parker decided to do some chopping while they waited.


We decided to stay the night in a hotel in Santa Fe, which was also fun.  There was a swimming pool and hot tub - and sauna - and the kids loved that.  The dads sat in the hot tub and the moms sat and chatted while the kids ran around and splashed. The next day we went to Jemez Falls, a really nice waterfall that we'd been to before but not when we had a lot of time, so we wanted some extra time for wading and splashing.  When we got there we were unpleasantly surprised to find that the waterfall base was covered with thick, chocolate-pudding-looking goo.  It was a lot like quicksand.  Parker right away lost his shoe way deep in the muck (he got it back, I'm not sure if it is wearable any more though).  Another guy there said it is ash from the huge forest fire we had.  Whatever it was, it was terribly terribly messy, but the kids loved it very much.


Mattie was prepared and brought a swim suit to change into.  (Mattie is almost always prepared.)


Zoe told me "Mommy, at first I was scared to go in the mud, but now I'm dancing around and it's FUN!"








The boys were so determined to make it across the quicksand/water.  The mud was so deep but maybe they were light enough to get past it all. 


I got a new fisheye lens that's kind of tricky to use, but fun.


It did rinse off pretty well, fortunately.  Such a happy little face. :)






"But I don't want to go home!  Waaaaah!" (This as a huge storm had just arrived overhead.)


It was such a fun trip! We were really glad to get out in nature and do something kind of different.