Drip Drip Drop Little October Showers

I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I started another round of the 8 week challenge that I did through Facebook. We had a two week break and then I decided to do it again. This time I got Ryan's siblings to do it with me... kind of. They didn't want to buy in, so we started our own group and I tried to be the leader and motivate them. They all did pretty good for the first couple of weeks. They at least each chose something to work on and made improvements in their lives which is a great thing! Ryan actually managed to lose 17 lbs in the first 3 weeks. It was awesome! 

This first picture was taken down on the Bosque trail. Ryan and I have now gone down a couple of times for date night to go for a run together. It is awesome to have him doing this with me. 

Also random, but here is a picture from our street taken of the last day of the Balloon Fiesta. Living in New Mexico has some awesome perks. 

One Sunday we decided to go for a family walk. We headed out the door, but only made it partly down the street before we got caught in a storm. So we headed home to wait it out. These storms are usually pretty intense, but over very quickly. This one even included hail. As Pierscen peddled into the garage he yelled "It's raining ice!" 

In the mean time, the kids got to play in the puddles. 

After a few minutes, the rain stopped and we headed out for another try. This time we made it to the arroyo. I was nervous about being there because even though the storm had stopped, we've been warned the one place you don't want to be during a storm is the arroyo. It floods really quick and can be super dangerous. As we were walking, Ryan looked over at me and started laughing. He said, "Your hair is crazy!" I asked him what he meant and he said it was sticking up all over. I totally freaked because if my hair was standing on end, that meant there was tons of static electricity in the air... which means lightning. Ah! This picture was taken after I actually pushed my hair back down. 

So we headed home once again. There was a huge full rainbow and a partial double rainbow. Absolutely beautiful. 

When we got home I walked in the backyard and snapped these incredible pictures of the sunset. No filter. Just raw, amazing beauty. 

God's creations are incredible. There is no shortage to His wonders. 

Even though our family walk was thwarted not once, but twice, I'm grateful for our little adventures together. 

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

During the first part of October, Pierscen was able to go on his first ever field trip with his school. He was equal parts excited and disappointed - only because he has watched so much Magic School Bus that he was absolutely certain he would get to go on a bus and that, well, magical things would happen. Unfortunately, there is no bus for preschool - just mom's boring car. That being said, he had a blast!

We went to the Galloping Grace Youth Ranch Pumpkin Patch. With each admission you get a cup of food for the animals and a pumpkin. Pierscen was too nervous to feed the animals by hand, so he opted to let them just eat straight from the cup. Devry on the other hand thought it was hilarious to let them lick the food right off of her fingers. 

There was so much to do at this pumpkin patch. These little tractors were kind of hard to maneuver, but they were fun. 

Devry was so excited to pet these cute piggies! 

How incredible is this?! The mural behind the truck is done completely on hay bales and it was done by Pierscen's preschool teacher/director Mrs. Lindsey. She did all of the art work at the pumpkin patch. She is so talented!

P probably would have happily spent the entire time in the corn pit, but Devry did NOT like it. 

So while Pierscen played, we walked around the animal pens and found pieces of food that had been dropped and Devry giggled like crazy as she fed them. 

This picture on the right makes me laugh a lot. I don't know what this facial expression is, but it is hilarious. 

The duck races were Pierscen's favorite. He spent the entire time with his "Buddy" with the blue hair. For the life of them neither of them could remember the other's name. They just called each other "Buddy." They have since learned each other's names and even had an impromptu play date. It was cute to watch them, though a tiny bit frustrating. Both G's mom and myself kept telling them that we needed to go, but they just wanted to play and play. 

I would say the first field trip was a success, despite no magical school bus. ;)