Christmas 2014

 Happy Holiday from the BrandenBurdetts

We completely value the Christmas 'card' (i.e.delivered through the postal system). Sent to us from many wonderful family and friends, we religiously compile them on the mantel this time of year. It is also really fun to open a Christmas card! That is why this is a little less anticlimactic, however, here is our "Christmas/Celebration of a New Year" card to you and your families:

It has been a wonderful year for us, and while we don' t post on the blog regularly enough, a lot of wonderful people, places, and experiences have filled our 2014 (explore our blog to see what we have been doing).

Ayesha, Paloma, Imogen, myself, and even Semilla, wish you, and the people you love, a very bright, a very healthy and a very lively New Year - 2015!  

What can we say, we love our children.....and we love you! Merry Christmas.

A look back at 2014

We thought it would be fun to take a look back through 2014 and see what has been keeping the Brandenburdetts busy.

Dragoons

This year for Thanksgiving, we made grand plans to go to Big Bend, TX. I don't know where the idea came from, and why we decided that this year was the year to do it, but we did. We spent weeks planning the trip - menus, camping gear, best locations for camping, dog-friendly hotels on the way... The night before we left, I packed the food and Howard packed up the truck. By 10pm, we were loaded and ready to go!

We thought we should check and see if we needed to take wag bags for primitive camping, so Howard jumped online and looked up information about the National Park. There was no mention of wag bags, but there was something about keeping dogs on leash... and off trails... and out of rivers... and not letting them anywhere, really.

This was a glitch.

We couldn't leave Semilla behind, and we couldn't take her with us.

Without missing a beat, we changed our minds and decided instead to go to Cochise Stronghold, AZ. We bought an Arizona road atlas at a gas station along the way, and we were organised.

Semilla was very glad to be with us. 

We stopped along the way for some snacks, and to consider our route...

Here's a little friend we met. Such a big, shiny abdomen! We have been learning all about black widows (same family as red-back spiders) and how spiders are cool, but not good to touch. 

We camped on the west side of the Dragoons. This is the view, a short hike from our camp. 

Looking west over the Arizonan plains.... Is that Tucson in the distance?

The vegetation here was a little bit different to what we are used to seeing. I'm not sure if this is still Chihuahuan Desert this far west?

Ocotillo!

We all had a great time, running around in the desert air (and bike-riding and hiking and climbing rocks). 

The sunset was spectacular!

On the road - a break from our unexpectedly long bike ride. Imogen has a seat behind Ayesha and Paloma has a bike-trailer behind Howard. We can really get going - much faster than ever before!
And Semilla is wonderfully tired by the end of the day - she had to drag herself out of the tent at marshmallow-cooking time....

Lots of interesting things to see... 

Century plant! They were everywhere, and made great sticks for Semilla to chase and Paloma to ... create elaborate imaginations and games about witches (with Imogen in tow). 

What's over there?

The highly toxic native coral bean!

More gorgeous views.... 

Our little home away from home for four lovely nights...

There were some lovely little creeks too - we discovered this one on our circuitous way out (I'm sure we could have found a short-cut, if only we had a map...)

Oh, and by the way: Paloma is awesome.

camping

Brandenburg's turn.....

About once a year I have a hand at this blog, this time around I thought I would post some photos of our latest and greatest camping adventures....isn't that what I usually post on these blogs??? in the words of Ayesha, "anyhoo"

One such grand trip was our canoe trip UP the Rio Grande from Cochiti Reservoir. Needless to say when one attempts to paddle upstream it takes a lot of rowing and a lot of pulling the boat upstream. That is what Ayesha and I did to get our H.A.P.I family to a very beautiful and remote portion of the Rio Grande.

We were all muddy, wet from rain, and tired as we set up camp..err at least Ayesha and I were.

Some views surrounding our temporary home.

The morning brought warm sun

I had never seem so many signs of bear, we even heard one at night in the river .

The girls climbed

hung out with their Papa

Collected rocks...we brought back pockets full of rocks.

We sat around camp and told stories and snacked

The girls explored and found faeries too!

The paddle out was lovely...downstream, sun, and happiness. Every one was worn out from all the exploring and play, what a life.

We got back to the truck just in time before the next storm rolled in

more adventures to follow....

a belated October....

Happy Halloween!

Yep, I know it's December, but here's a quick recap...

Paloma decided that she wouldn't be Snow White (again). This year, she wanted to be a robot!

In the meantime, Imogen decided that she wanted to be Imogen..... (This photo says so very much about her personality!)

After making costumes, the girls needed to limber up a bit with some yoga. 

And then it was on to more serious business...

Back in the costume department (i.e. Howard's studio): Imogen became a dead cockroach. 

She was pretty happy about it!

Our girls are getting along pretty well!

As part of the autumnal celebrations, we headed out to the maize maze (which is actually a sorghum maze, but no matter). 

We had to search for fractals in the maze. Is there one over there?

And then we pounded the pavement, trick-or-treating in our street:

Trick or treat

Smell my feet

Give me something 

Good to eat!

We still have Halloween candy left over....

Halloween comes early

In preparation for Halloween, Paloma and Imogen delved into the dress-up box last night - and look what they found!

The infamous spider girl dress that everyone loves:



Do you like it better with blue sunglasses? And how about some dance moves?



A Halloween costume is nothing without a wig....



Have you ever heard a witch cackle?

Have you ever heard a princess giggle?

Australia 2014 :: Hopkins River

While we were in Australia, we also spent a fair bit of time at the river.

Howard desperately wanted to find more fish, and he religiously checked and re-checked his minnow traps every day.

After much checking and rechecking and checking again, he struck gold: a flathead gudgeon.

And while we were there, we found some other interesting creatures....

Like this tiny snail...

And this little freshwater shrimp....

And a tiny little crab!

The Hopkins is teeming with life!

We completed our science nerdery with some water quality testing thanks to Mum's old test kit. We are happy to report that everything looked pretty normal (apart from Howard swimming in the river).