Happy Birthday Rachel

Rachel turned 1! I would just like to take a moment and tell you all how wonderful it is to have the fourth child with the birth date of 10-20-2010. It just rolls off the tongue. Like today while we were at her doctor's appointment.

Rachel's birthday was last Thursday. Jason was out of town. We were sad. But Monday night we had a quiet little celebration with cake and ice cream.
Her hat says First Birthday.
I love the look on her face as she was trying to figure out this little stuffed horse- which she absolutley loves by the way.
Her stats:
Height: 28 inches tall
Weight: 17 lbs 8oz

She isn't walking yet but will pull herself up on anything (including my legs while I am cooking dinner or washing dishes). She is definitely at the "remove things" stage- which can be good or bad. Like the dishwasher (you have to be fast) or the newly folded laundry (you have to be fast).
She still wakes up with owl feathers hair and in generally is a very happy baby. And we are so happy she is a part of our family.

Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch

A few more activities from our Balloon Fiesta (Candice and Ryan) weekend. Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch! A couple from Rio Rancho started up a summer youth horse experience that we hope to get our kids involved with next year. In the meantime, we had a great time at the pumpkin patch.





This is a corn pit Rachel is playing in (a huge hit with the kids)!


Duck Races!
The haystack maze- complete with monsters!


Horseback riding

Balloon Fiesta

Fall is our favorite time in Albuquerque. We had friends in town for the second week of Balloon Fiesta.
It was an unusually cold Fiesta this year. Friday before the mass ascension it rained all day and until about 3:30 am. Allie and the kids had been so excited. We went to the east side of the mountains Friday night and made hot chocolate in a campground shelter. It was SO cold. After we finished, we saw cars coming down from the peak with snow on top of them. We drove up the hill until we hit snow half way up at the ski area. The kids stuck their heads out of the window and tasted the first snow of the season. Snow made it down to about 7000' that night. Allie was so sad and prayed that it would stop raining. We didn't have as much faith as she did I guess. But she was right, it did stop and we made it the next morning:
Click on the photo above; sunrise on the snowy mountain with lenticular clouds flowing over them was spectacular.

Cold it was - we pulled out everything we could find:

The balloons launched a bit late and not all of them made it out to the soggy field. The clouds were thin however and it did eventually start to warm up.
After Frisbee practice we headed out. Ryan pushed the three boys back to the cars:



I hope you can join us next year...

Funeral

We found a dead hummingbird in our front yard today. We buried him in the flowerbed near Allie's fish. Luke said a little prayer:

...
please bless the hummingbird
and the fish's head
and that the hummingbird was so beautiful
and the fish was so yummy
...