Brandenburdett

Thursday, December 11, 2014

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....

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

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....

Thursday, October 9, 2014

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?

Sunday, September 21, 2014

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).

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Australia 2014 :: farm life

We got back to Albuquerque a few weeks ago after three very wonderful weeks in Australia. People keep asking me what we did and we did so much and so very little.

The first couple of weeks were spent on the farm, just hanging out and enjoying the cool weather.

Here's a little bit about what we did there...

Paloma and Imogen enjoyed riding around on the 4-wheeler.