Festival of the Cranes

I headed down to Bosque del Apache last week for the Festival of the Cranes. I had a great morning at Research Day, talking to scientists about what has been happening on the Refuge. (Yes, really, I was there for work!)

And then I headed out for lunch in the sunshine.

Most of the cranes had already flown off in the early morning, but I did get to meet some birds and enjoy the view.

Ducks and geese...

Wetland and mountain...

Cranes!

Four more years

We watched the President's Victory Speech together. Paloma seemed to be really interested.

About two-thirds of the way through she sighed and said, "Gee, I sure hope Elmo turns up soon."

Happy Halloween!

Jack o Lantern by Paloma

Candy Corn by Paloma

Candy Corn by Imogen (cute toes!)

This was the first year that we took Paloma trick-or-treating.

Here we go!
[Thanks to Steve P. for the dress.]

We dropped in on a couple of neighbours that we know well, to say hello and surprise them with a visit from Snow White.

Knock! Knock! Hello Judy!

Showing off her Halloween stash. 

 And then it was back home to finish up the pumpkins.

This isn't a particularly interesting photo but
doesn't Paloma look like a little mini-me?

Time to instruct Papa about exactly where the pumpkin should be placed. 

Imogen likes pumpkins* too!
[Thanks for the vest, Aussie Grandma!]
*actually, she prefers sweet potato.

Carefully lighting the Jack o Lantern
and replacing the lid...

This Halloweening is serious business....

Happy birthday Paloma!

Paloma turned three last week. Three already. It feels like we just celebrated her second birthday.

My, how time flies.

Her birthday was on a Thursday, so we opened a couple of presents before school. She seemed pretty happy to get a new bunny ears jacket.

Modeling her new jacket

Ears to keep her ears warm in the winter

At school, she shared some hedgehog slice with her friends and everyone sang happy birthday.


When we got home, Howard artfully hid her next present in the backyard.

Although she seemed a little distracted, we eventually got her to try out her new trike.

And away she goes!!!

After a trial run in the backyard, we decided to take it to the streets.

She talks a lot, doesn't she?

The next night, Grandmommy and Grandaddy came to visit and she dressed up for the occasion.

Thanks for the hat, Aunt Shari!

Then on Saturday morning, we celebrated AGAIN! (Three parties: what a lucky girl!)

We had a bunch of friends around and they had a grand old time with paint and a blank wall.

Of course, no party is complete without birthday cake. Paloma had requested purple cake with pink frosting and I did my best to oblige (despite some technical difficulties).

Proud as punch!

Mia, Caroline, Paloma, Finn, Liam, James

One, two, three blow!

Thanks to Sarah for capturing Paloma blowing out the candles. Apparently, I missed the first attempt:

In the meantime, Imogen just soaked up the atmosphere...

"Yeah, I'm cool. No big deal."

And now we have a beautiful mural in our backyard!

[Thanks to everyone who came and painted with us![

There's still room to add more!

I wonder what will happen when (if) it snows?

Dreaming of camping

  Rolling the hands of time back, back to the warmer months of August, at a time when the Brandenburdetts went to explore Heron Lake. Yes, it takes me this long to get my act together to post a blog entry.

 While Paloma rigs the raft I attempt to wear Semilla down with perpetual stick throwing in the lake.

We journeyed across the lake to a road-less area so we could escape the weekend crowds and have a portion of the lake all to ourselves. The motion of the boat and the repetitive sounds of the oars has a relaxing quality to it as evident by the passengers. 

 At last we arrived and set up our little camp. This was to be our home for the next three days.

 Paloma set to work building a fire pit and gathering wood.

 Our evening were calm and peaceful...

 ...and our mornings were cozy all piled into the tent.

 We spent the days puttering around the lake,

relaxing,

 exploring the lake side,

 hiking to interesting destinations,

 (did I mention the rocking of the boat had relaxing qualities to it?)

 We organizing sticks and logs to resemble houses which we could all occupy.

 oh, and swimming too,

 and flying kites!

 The whole adventure tuckered Paloma out...or maybe it was just the motion of the boat on the water.

Flying solo

Last week, Howard was out of town for work, surveying sfishes on the Delaware River. He caught a huge gar and had a pretty good time (apart from missing us, of course). 

I had my hands full with three girls (Semilla, Paloma and Imogen) but we all survived. I have found the key is to keep the meals simple and give each of them some attention. Including Semilla. 

You may have noticed that Paloma doesn't like to wear shoes. She loves to walk barefoot in our pokey backyard. But you may have also noticed that she's wearing one pink sock and one purple sock. 

Odd socks!

Apparently, there was a little communication problem before Howard left. He had a different understanding of what it means to do a load of washing for everyone. Paloma seemed to miss out.

Paloma's full laundry hamper. 

You may also wonder what Imogen is doing while I'm tossing the ball for Semilla and watching Paloma rake.

She's part of the fun too, but she's behind the camera. Kind of.

Along for the ride. 

She's got my back.

Up close and personal. 

Curiosity

At the Natural History Museum, there is a life-size replica of the Mars Rover, sitting in front of the Planetarium. In fact, when I first arrived at the Museum I was able to watch one of the research scientists planning the movements of the Rover. It was pretty amazing! The Rover is about the size of a VW Beetle and moves as fast as a Galapagos tortoise, so they plan for a week of movements.

As you may have heard, there is a new robot exploring Mars - Curiosity. It's pretty amazing to watch it crawling across the Martian landscape.



In the meantime, we have our own little explorer venturing out on a mission to discover new lands: