The Search for the Great Pumpkin

With Halloween quickly approaching we began the search for the great pumpkin. We thought a good place to look would be in Moriarty, NM (don't know why, i guess we just thought that might be where he hides from Linus until Halloween night)

Got some pics of the pumpkin patch, but we didn't see him in there, so we went to a corn maze... thought maybe he got lost in there and we could run into him; but we just got lost instead. After finding our way out of the maze, we gave up and let the kids play a little before we headed home in defeat.

Hanna on the search through the pumpkin patch

Thats just Tommy, Not the great pumpkin...

Which way do we go???

Hanna lasso'd he steer after some practice.

Tommy burying and Hanna in the corn.

Getting on my Soapbox....

First of all, I know that Jim "hijacked" my Blog some time ago, and has been much better at updating it than I was, but I needed to vent....

There is an old saying... "The Measure of a Man is Determined by the Company that He Keeps." I believe that statement to be true; and I believe it to be very relevant now.

There are a number of reasons why I would not vote for Barack Obama, and this is certainly something that (in my opinion) should raise a few eyebrows. How many people with "questionable" morals and ethics, or organizations with "shady" practices (putting it very lightly) does this man have to be associated with before more Americans stand up and say - "Ya know, maybe this guy has no business being the leader of the Free World!" It seems like a legitimate question to ask.

And then there's this whole "Joe the Plumber" thing... did everyone miss the point?! The latest thing I heard is that the Plumbers Union came out and said that he isn't a plumber and he's giving plumbers a bad name, and the Union is going to have a Pro-Obama rally. The whole point is not whether he's a plumber or a roofer, or a waiter, or whatever... he is an Average Joe, he represents the average American citizen, an average person with some common sense. And he questioned Obama's tax plan - well heaven forbid he question "The One" - (we know who Oprah is voting for - but I thought Keanu Reeves was "The One"... ) Just a little Matrix humor for those who didn't get it... :)

The other day Hanna came home from school and said hat the kids on the bus were chanting "OBAMA". So she started yelling "MCCAIN! MCCAIN!" She asked the girl sitting next to her why she was for Obama, and the girl said, "because McCain will bring more war." Ok, first of all, he isn't going to make more, he is going to allow us to finish the ones we're in. And like Jim explained to Hanna, war itself isn't good, but it brings good things. The United States exists because of a war. The fact that an African American can run for President is because of a war. The reason the elementary school kids can ride the bus home yelling "Obama" or "McCain" is the result of war. And of course, the reason I can get on my blog and say whatever I want to say is, you guessed it, the result of war.

I think too many people in this country have taken for granted all the freedoms that we have and the reasons in which we have them.

October in NM = Balloons!!

So if you didn't know, October in New Mexico brings the Balloon Fiesta. I believe that this is the largest balloon festival in the world. This year there were over 600 hot air balloons that came from all over the world to fly. I thought that a bunch of balloons wouldn't be that exciting, but you can go down on the field and walk right among all of them as they inflate and take off.
This year we made it to the field for the special shapes assention, and the special shapes glow that evening. The special shapes are any balloon that is not your typical shape - we saw a pepsi can, a castle, a stork, monsters,... you name it it was there. Here are a few pics from the field.

The Wells Fargo (formerly known as a bank) Stagecoach

The two bees kissed in the air

"Twist of Fate" Owned and Flown by one of my co-workers. This is them flying during a competition where they had to drop a bean bag on a small target.... Doesn't sound to hard till you realize that you can't steer to the target. Takes alot of skill and knowing the wind currents!!

These are from the nightly glow and fireworks....

The landscape during an October night in Albuquerque

Felix the Cat

You can walk right up to them.

It's October, had to get a jack-o-lantern

The nightly fireworks show!