New Mexico State Fair

I decided I better hurry and post all of my Fall "to-be-posted" posts quickly before Christmas sneaks up on me and then I'll be behind on those too! I previously posted about our trip to Albuquerque, NM for the New Mexico State Fair last month, and shortly after that is our local New Mexico State Fair, which is another of our favorite Fall family activities! It's become a trend that we go to our local fair twice while it's going on, and this year was no different! We went the first time with some friends and their kids, and Aunt Melissa (and baby Landon to-be). Then we went again with my mom, dad, sister, and cousin Aubrey! (And unfortunately, all I had with me both times was the camera on my phone :(. And for the second time around, my phone was dying, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have hoped, but these are some of my favorites).

NM Fair, here we come! Jaden's was super excited, and clearly Elijah was just as enthused!

Jaden got to ride on a select few of the carnival rides. This kiddy train was his favorite, along with his friends Abbey and AJ.

Elijah was thrilled looking at all of the different projects that the local school kids created...

...and was much less excited looking at (and listening to) all of the show animals! My little Mr. Independent was suddenly clinging to Aunt Melissa as if his life depended on it!

The goats were so friendly and the kids loved feeding them.

State Fair, Take 2

This time, Daddy and Aunt Angie were the lucky riding buddies.

Those goats have got to be pretty full by now.
Jaden was shocked to actually hear the cows "mooing" up close and personal!
You just can't go to the State Fair and not go on a pony ride!

Amigo Airsho

The Amigo Airsho is one of our favorite October events here, especially having two little guys who absolutely love airplanes! The shows that the different airplanes put on are absolutely mesmerizing and have a way of making us feel overwhelmingly prideful of this amazing country we live in! In addition to all of the airplanes, Jaden was definitely in awe of all of the soldiers that he saw and must have pointed out every single one.

At last year's show, we got to see the stealth bomber fly, which was amazing, and amazingly loud! Jaden liked it from a distance but was terrified by the noise. This year, he kept reminding me that he's bigger now ("I'm four now," he kept telling me - Even though he knows he's still 3 for a little bit longer, he's insistent that we should just say he's 4 already). And along with being "4" comes an immunity to insanely loud airplanes. So since I didn't have to worry about Jaden, I tried to get Elijah to keep earplugs in his ears before the Thunderbird's show began. He wasn't having it, so I left him unplugged and figured that the Thunderbirds probably wouldn't be too loud. Boy was I wrong! My mom and I jumped out of our skin when we heard the loud rumble of the jets as they flew by, but not Elijah. When he heard the jets, he started... dancing! Now I know there isn't a noise that little boy won't dance to! Both boys loved the show and I enjoyed the time together with family.


Jaden had to take every plane he owns with him to the Airsho and whenever we saw a plane flying, he'd fumble through his bag to find a plane that resembled it the closest, and then imitated the airplanes actions with his own plane.

The Thunderbirds Show

The boys got to take a picture with one of the paratroopers. You can imagine that was the highlight of Jaden's day. Elijah was just happy to have his socks and shoes off!

Airplanes up close!

These two cuties had so much fun!

Here are a couple of videos I took at the Airsho. (Too bad I didn't get Elijah dancing).

Our Trip to the "Jungle"

My blog has been seriously neglected lately. It's not that I don't have any new blogging material; it's the exact oopposite, actually. I've got a waiting list of blog entries to post that I just haven't had the time to work on because we are so busy making new memories that will also eventually have to be added to this "virtual scrapbook" of mine, which then adds to my ever-growing list of blogs to be written/posted! It's an endless cycle. Here's a perfect example of my extra emphasis on "eventually" - Here is a blog post that has been awaiting it's debut since back in July!

It's our trip to the El Paso Zoo! It was so much fun, although you can't tell by looking at Elijah's face in the first picture. That is what we experienced from the second I put him in his carseat until the second I got him out! In our efforts to save gas and only take one car, the poor guy was surrounded by carseats and a row of people in front of him. Needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled about the seating arrangements. But the only way to get three carseats into one vehicle was to take Sam's truck, and it we were cozy! Fortunately for Elijah, there was plenty of excitement and animals awaiting his arrival on the other end of the torturous ride to get there. It didn't take long to cheer him right up!

The El Paso Zoo has grown and changed so much in recent years, and as close as it is, we don't get out there nearly enough. We were excited to see their new Africa exhibit, which is where we spent most of our time. Plus we caught a sea lion show, which the kiddos loved!! And a trip to the gift shop ended with a large stuffed giraffe for Elijah to ride home with, made for a much more peaceful (and crowded) drive!

A few weeks after our trip to the zoo, Jaden asked me if we could go to the jungle again. At first I had no clue what he was talking about, but I didn't want to make him feel bad by seeming so clueless, so I played along with what I thought was an imaginary trip to the jungle. I imagined we were in full safari gear, binoculars in hand, checking out all of the jungle animals. Then I realized we were living two separate jungle experiences when I asked him, "How will we get to the jungle?" He gave me the "You've GOT to be kidding me" look and said, "Mooooomm..." (you know, the long drawn out "mom," which I'm sure in a few years will be accompanied by a rolling of the eyes), "...the same way as when we went with Nana, Aunt Angie, and Aubrey!" That's when it hit me - what I thought was an average everyday trip to the zoo, Jaden thought was his first official trip to the jungle.

Here are some pictures of our jungle adventure!