Happy Fall

This post is written about a month late but I guess better late than never. Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. Living in the mountain we get to truly enjoy all of the changing colors. It's beautiful to drive from our house into Charlottesville.

This year for Halloween we, Landon and I were able to make a visit to Knoxville. Travis had a work trip to Florida and after that was working long hours along with everyone else he works with. Though we don't make a huge deal out of Halloween we did go to boo at the zoo with my friend Melani and her little girl, my mom, and sister. Landon's costume was a little skunk. It's amazing what you can dress your kids up as before they are old enough to know better. It was a nice day and we were even able to ride a camel. The best part was the Crispy Cream Donut at the end...YUM YUM!!



On Halloween morning Landon and I carved a pumpkin. This was the first year we tried it. I was interested in seeing if he would be willing to play with the guts and stick his hand inside. After a little "encouragement" he touched the seeds and at least half way put his hand inside. He was more interested in the fact that the pumpkin ended up with eyes, nose, and mouth. He loved putting his fingers in the eyes and mouth.



On Halloween night we went to our friends Jill and Ken Shinlever's to help pass out candy. It is just crazy how many kids that come into their neighborhood for candy. Ken and Jill had 5 gallon tubs to keep the candy in to hand out, now that's a lot of candy. It really is a fun time just to hang out with old friends and have a little fun.

This is Landon and Anna, Ken and Jill's little girl.





















Gayla and Landon

Balloon Fiesta #1

First, let me apologize for taking so long to blog about our vacation. I have a couple of not so good excuses. The first being: I'm tired! it's hard to catch up the 2 hours I lost and try to keep up with Landon at the same time. The second reason is that while we were gone our camera broke so most of the pictures we took were with mom's camera and she is mailing me the pictures, there are a lot, tomorrow.






I was concerned about the flight but Landon did great...even better than great. We read books, played with play-dough, ate and ate and ate, and best of all we looked out the window. During our layover we let him stay out of his stroller as much as possible. As you can see Travis and Landon had fun on the moving walkway.




Our first day at the balloon fiesta started very early. We were there by 5:30 a.m. The dawn patrol went up at 5:45 to check the wind conditions before the o.k. was given to the other balloons to take off. I'll tell you a sad but interesting story about the pyramid shaped balloon in this picture a little later in the blog. The dawn patrol was beautiful. It was still dark outside when they took off so they glowed like Christmas lights. Only about 12 balloons were involved.


At about 7:00 the Mass Ascension began. That is when all of the other balloons began blowing up and taking off. There were about 650 of them. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. There were so many of them it took almost 1 1/2 hours from them all to blow up and take off. Landon couldn't decide what to look at. The best view was from Travis' shoulders. It was as much fun watching him watch the balloons as it was to watch the balloons themselves. We taught Landon how to sign "balloon" on the plane trip to New Mexico. The following video is of Landon signing balloon during the mass ascension.





Now for the story about the pyramid shaped balloon. Toward the end of our first morning there we meet the people who fly that balloon. They have a basket that attaches to the balloon as well as a seat. They let Landon sit in the seat so we could take his picture. They were very kind and let Landon play with their ropes and bags that contained the envelope, which is the balloon its self. In the picture are two of the guys who work with that balloon. Friday after we arrived home we heard about a balloon accident which killed on man and injured another. It happened to be that balloon and we are still unsure if the men in the picture are the ones who were in the balloon at the time of the accident. Here is a link to the information we have so far:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/balloon-fiesta-accidentother-media-source/72155807

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/man-killed-new-mexico-balloon-fiesta-accident

We pray for the man that survived and both of their families.

Well, That is going to be all for now. I will tell more of our adventures in a day or so. We saw more than just the balloon fiesta and recommend this trip to anyone who needs a vacation.

Fun Times

This was suppose to be sent out before we left but I forgot to send it. I'm quite busy right now trying to get things unpacked but I will try to post again today or tomorrow about our trip to the balloon fiesta. We had a great time and I can't wait to share it with you.

I hope you enjoy this short video of Landon having fun with Mommy's sandals. It was taken the day before we left.