October Part 2 - The Zoo, Gardens, Hiking and Candy

Though there was a lot of busy stuff going on with the house, the rest of October was filled with a lot of fun and exploration. This is primarily a picture post, which let's admit it, everyone loves the most anyway. :)

Crazy hair post bath baby: 

Family hike up the mountain:

We passed a number of vehicles on the side of the road and spotted people trudging up the mountain side with buckets or bags. We finally asked someone and learned that it was pinenut season. Or rather, the end of it because most everything was picked over. However, my two mountain goat men did scramble up higher than I wanted to go holding the baby and they found a few nuts to share. 

There are a few hiking paths in the Placitas area and we made sure to go explore them a few times. Pierscen loved pointing out all the cactus and did his best to count them, but we are vastly outnumbered. 

Perhaps the best decision we made was to purchase the family pass to the Zoo/Botanical Garden/Aquarium. We visited the zoo first. Here is P consulting the map. We have since been many, MANY times and he always requests a map so he can determine which way we should go. 

The zoo is awesome. It's a really great size and has a wide variety of animals. That alone would have been worth the cost of the pass for me (around $80). 

As an added bonus they have a great play area with shooting fountains. P loved launching his hat, though he wasn't thrilled with getting wet himself. He has since changed his tune quite a bit as the last time we went he got drenched. 

We spent more beautiful fall afternoons at the second park by our house. This one is next to the pool and is also within walking distance, though just a bit farther than the first. 

As promised, here is yet another fun critter we encountered. This poor guy got himself stuck in a rat trap in Sharon's garage. It was still alive, but there was absolutely no way to free it without ripping it apart. Gross, but true. We also weren't sure if it was a baby rattle snake or a gopher snake, which is harmless and good to have around. Ryan put it out of it's misery, then we did some research and found that it was a gopher snake after all. Not that most people have the chance to study their eyes, but gopher snakes have round pupils and rattle snakes have slits. 

Here is another bobcat sighting. I saw something chase a dog across the street. I thought it was just another dog, but when I pulled up beside it, it was a bobcat! You can see it sitting to the left of the tree in the background. Pretty cool. 

For our next outing, we decided to visit the aquarium. It is super tiny. You can make it through it in 5-10 minutes. But it's still really neat. I love watching the stingrays. They are amazing. 

I am also a huge fan of tunnel tanks. They are so relaxing and magical! Devry thought so too. 

Pierscen was mesmerized by the jelly tank. 

As we left the aquarium, we learned that the botanical gardens are attached to the aquarium. I told Ryan we might as well go explore since we were already there and the aquarium was so small. He was reluctant at first, but wow! Those gardens are amazing! First off, it is huge. Secondly, they are gorgeous. Ryan even admitted that he really enjoyed going. 

The Japanese gardens are my favorite. The koi are a lot of fun to feed too. 

Something funny/sad about moving here is that shortly before finding out we were moving, we checked out a book from the library entitled The Seed and the Giant Saguaro. In it there is obviously a saguaro, but also a roadrunner. He really liked the book, so it was really fun to find out that hey - we are moving to New Mexico where the state bird is the roadrunner and it is a desert, so maybe there will be saguaros! Well, those of you that know your geography better than I did know that saguaros don't grow in New Mexico. Pierscen was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn this. I'm not exaggerating here guys. In fact, I need to plan a trip to Arizona some time just so the boy can see a real saguaro. (And me too. After reading that book and learning about them, I find them super fascinating too!)

So, imagine Pierscen's excitement when we found a REAL saguaro growing in the botanical gardens! It is too young to have arms, so Pierscen was posing with arms for it. Each time we have gone back he checks in to see if it has sprouted arms. (They don't start growing arms until they are close to 70 though and I don't know how old this one is. So it might be a while. Haha)

When conference rolls around, we normally have our own traditional foods we make, but Sharon had quite an amazing spread, so we ended up postponing ours. I don't remember if there was a special occasion or not, but here is a fun picture of our bbq little smokies. Pierscen devours them. 

Lastly... Halloween! Pierscen wanted to be the most simple thing on earth: a ghost. And trust me, I managed to make it entirely too difficult. I tried cutting holes it in, as you can see in the picture below, but he hated it, and ended taking it up right after these pictures. Thankfully after this event, I finally got smart about it and just cut a hole for his whole head. Doi. 

Originally we were in charge of some sort of carnival game for our ward party, (I made the ghost for a marshmallow toss) but they ended up with too many games, so Mr. Ghost got put aside. I dressed Devry up as a darling little duck. No real reason. I just found the costume at the Once Upon a Child in Casper for super cheap and loved it. 

Now the costumes I made for Ryan and I, I am extremely proud of. One hundred percent construction paper, markers, scissors, glue, and a LOT of time. I made PERFECT replicas of the Jif and Smuckers Jars. I do not consider myself very talented in the art world, but these. Dang. Sometimes I amaze myself. Hahaha!

Digging in corner for treasure. 

The ward party was a lot of fun. 

The picture below is included because I told Pierscen to get dressed and he accidentally put on his sister's pants. He was too embarrassed to smile for the picture, but I thought it was hilarious that he could actually hit in them, even if it did make them capris. 

Smiling baby standing more and more:

On the day of Halloween, Pierscen wanted to go to the zoo. They did an actual event where everyone dressed up and they got candy, but we skipped that (to avoid the masses) and just went for the last hour they were open to enjoy some family time. Afterward, we drove to our new neighborhood to scope out the trick or treating. At first the area was pretty dead and I was a little worried. But then we talked to one of our neighbors who said there are lots of kids. They just start a little bit later. So we killed some time until more people started coming out.

Pierscen only wanted to do our street and then called it good. There were lots of people out and we had a great time. It will be a wonderful neighborhood to grow up in. 

Following trick or treating we headed to Pizza Hut for dinner, then back to Sharon's to call it a night. 

Another successful month!