Collin and Katie's Halloween Party

Here is the group eating pizza, fishies and grapes and drinking a strange assortment of Jones soda: the Halloween versions. (The sodas were really gross - but some kids did drink them!)

Here are the "Littles" (younger siblings at the party): Austin - pirate princess, Sydnee - Dora (she had already taken her wig off by picture time), Malia - princess, Katie - spider and JP - fireman (he was not at the party yet).

Here are the "Bigs" - Jaylen - princess, Cole - baseball player, Micayla - princess, Collin - ghost, Gabe - Kung Fu Panda and AJ - policeman (not here yet)

Yes, friends and family...Matt and I were brave enough to let our children host a Halloween party. The invites had to be limited...and Collin (and Katie) had to plan it. So from 5-9 on Friday, this is what they did: played outside (and in), ate dinner, took pictures, played "Pin the nose on the pumpkin", played some more, watched a "scary" movie (It was Backyardigans Halloween for the Littles and Charlie Brown Halloween for the Bigs.) Collin and Katie were so excited to have their friends over and it was lots of fun.

Momma and Daddy...how did you do all those parties when Serena and I were little???

We made it home!

I realized I left our trip unfinished. We're home now. We got home LATE Saturday evening. And now I'm at my home computer and don't know how to post pictures. So I guess until I learn I will have to use Matt's laptop. I'm so happy that our family (and some friends too) have been able to keep up with us on this trip.

Albuquerque, NM

Today the kids and I went to the Albuquerque Biological Park. Paying only $5 for all of us to get in should have been a clue to me that this wasn't some grand aquarium. It probably would have taken us 20 minutes to walk through but we had 3 hours to kill so I read EVERY sign to them.
The "map" for the aquarium said this was a touch tank. But the sign on the touch tank said to not put your hands in the water. Hmmmm.
Outside is the Botanical gardens (included in the admission price). We walked around here for a while. These are grape vines. I've never seen real, live grape vines! Collin took this picture. You can see he forgot to count to 3 for us.
So after having lunch with Matt we found a Barnes and Noble and played at the train table for an hour. Then I found a mall nearby. They had a carousel for the kiddos to ride. We were the only ones riding probably because the people that live here don't pay $3.50 to ride a carousel!
We found the mall playground. Yippie! We spent another 45 minutes here.

Matt finally sent me a text message that said, "im bored pik up asap". This is hilarious to me because who wouldn't be bored after listening to such thrilling topics as "Genre Discontinuities: Allegorizing the Vietnam War in American Television and Film" OR "Imperial Formations and Manifest Destinies: Israel/Palestine and Circuits of Exceptionality". Yikes! I was really glad I spent the day at the small aquarium and gardens and spent $3.50 to ride a carousel.

Glad you are reading this Momma and Daddy! Sorry for the late post today.

White Sands National Park

Today we drove into Alamogordo, New Mexico to visit White Sands National Park.
Collin and Katie were so excited about going on all the hikes. This one was the first - a one mile hike up through the sand dunes.

Collin wrote all our names in the sand shortly before we said it was time to go. Collin and Katie both CRIED because they wanted to keep hiking. Well, maybe it was more of a whine with tears. I think they were so tired and cold...they didn't know what they wanted. Tomorrow we are headed to Albuquerque for Matt's conference.

Carlsbad, New Mexico

On the hike inside the caverns - this was the easiest hike but still took about an hour. Collin really liked it but Katie kept saying she was scared. Poor girl! She was cold, had no nap and we took her into a big hole in the ground.

The view from the Visitor Center at Carlsbad Caverns.

At the end of each day at Carlsbad you can hike to the natural entrance of the cave and watch the bats fly out for the night. The park rangers would not let us take pictures of the bats flying but WOW that was really neat and a little scary. For my ACU friends...it reminded me of the time the bats started flying during chapel at Moody Coliseum and one landed on someone's back.

We arrived at Carlsbad Caverns National Park just in time to take the last elevator down to the "Big Room". We opted NOT to make our kids (and ourselves) hike the 1 hour long "strenuous" hike to get to the same point as the elevator would take us in 60 seconds.

Again...I blogged backwards...I will get better.

Post, TX

This is the infamous driveway and lot. Every house we will ever have will have to be compared to this outdoor play space.


We traveled to Post, Tx on Saturday to visit Matt's parents and brother Colt before we headed on to New Mexico. For my friends back in Edmond, Houston, Tallahassee or Abilene...here is Matt's house where he has lived since he was 7.

I forgot that I needed to blog backwards. See...I'm still new at this. Now...on to Carlsbad, New Mexico!

Getting Ready for School

Here is Collin wearing his new CAT PACK courtesy of ACU Alumni Association!
Collin and Daddy walking to the gym for Information Day.

Collin and Katie in front of Charles Haskell Elementary School.