The Rodeo, A Special Visitor, & Another Park…

I know I blog a lot, probably too much, but this is my life journal as a stay at home mom so I like to blog. It’s a fun way to look back and see what we were up to. So anyway, pardon my blogging, but I am basically publically journaling.

Friday night, Brandon and I were invited by some of our good friends to go to the New Mexico State Fair to go see the Rodeo. Well, I have never been to a Rodeo and Brandon hadn’t been since he was a teenager so we decided it would be a fun and a different date night then the usual dinner and movie. We called on our very awesome babysitter McKenzie and got the night all set up. It was fun to experience what a Rodeo is all about. My very favorite part was the Mutton Bustin, which is 5-7 year old little boys who ride sheep’s until they fall off. It was so stinking adorable to watch. I took my small, crappy camera, so my pictures did not come out very good but here is a glimpse of our night.

Ready to go see the Rodeo.

Here is the Mutton Bustin. The little boys are all lined up waiting for their turn to ride the sheep.

Cowgirl Barrel Racing. These little girls were about 8-11 years old. It was so cute and they were really good.

The crazy Bull Riders. I don’t know how they do it. Their backs must be seriously messed up!

 

Sunday afternoon we had a very special visitor. One of my very Best Friends, Candie, was in town visiting for the weekend. Candie and I have been BFFs since we were 15, so 12 years now. Unfortunately after I got married she moved to Denver, lived there for a couple years and now she is living in Nevada. I say unfortunately because that means I rarely ever get to see her. I haven’t seen her since I was about 7 months pregnant with Autumn so that was about 16 months ago, way way way too long. Well, she was in town for the weekend visiting her family so she set aside a time to come visit me and the kids and then Brandon offered to stay home with the kids so we could go grab a nice dinner together. Well, the visit was awesome but as always it came and went way too fast. My kids adored her and Autumn threw a fit when we were leaving for dinner because she had not had enough time with her. Owen talked her poor little ears off and he loved that she played Legos with him, the best way to his heart. Thanks again to my amazing wonderful husband for being Mr. Mom while I had a nice night out with my dearest friend. Can’t wait to see her in another month for the Balloon Fiesta. Yay!!!!! Love you Candie!!!!

Me and My Candie Apple. Haha, that’s what I called her in High School. Love you so much and thanks a million for coming to play with the kiddos.

  And here was our best attempt at getting a picture with the kids. Owen is not sad here he just wasn’t looking up at the camera. Lol. Impossible to get pics these days.

O yeah. Yesterday was also Game Day! Go Broncos. I would be way more proud of them if they didn’t make me so darn nervous at the end as they almost gave up the game, but they managed to pull out a win at the end. Cincinnati 22, Broncos 24! Being a football fan gets really stressful. So proud of the team even though it was a super close game. The kids crack me up, I wanted to watch the game and Autumn had a blast watching it along with me. She sat on the couch and watched the game with me for almost an hour strait. Meanwhile, my little boy wanted nothing to do with watching the game. He is so into doing puzzles these days so he did his puzzles in the dinning room while Autumn and I watched the game. Lol. Cracks me up how different they are.

Here is Autumn cheering the team on with me. You better watch out Denver Broncos Cheerleaders!

I am not disappointed one bit that Owen wasn’t interested in the game. His little mind is so busy and he loves to learn new things which means sitting and watching TV just isn’t an option for him. I am so impressed with his ability to do puzzles at just 3 years old with no help at all. He got this spider man puzzle as a party favor at a Birthday party he went to and he just loves putting it together. Brandon and I helped him a couple times with it and now he can do it all by himself. He sat for 2 hours strait doing puzzles yesterday. This is huge as he usually NEVER sits still for anything. He is so smart and loves figuring out things “all by himself”.

It’s a 25 piece puzzle. Not sure about you but I think that is really impressive for a 3 year old. He does all the edges first and then fills in the other pieces by looking at the picture on the box. What a little smarty pants.

He also has a 24 piece Little Mermaid puzzle and A Mickey Mouse puzzle that he enjoys doing. The little mermaid one is actually Autumn’s but she obviously can’t do it yet so Owen gets to play with it. I love how much joy it brings him to complete the puzzle.

 

Another Park. So it is now mine and the kids new hobby to drive around to all different neighborhoods, new & old, in Rio Rancho to discover new parks to go play at. It is so much fun to discover new areas and different play grounds for the kids to enjoy. Well, today we went to the Vista Hills park in an older neighborhood in Rio Rancho. Wow is all I have to say. I believe it is by far our new favorite. It is about a 15 minute drive and well worth it. It has a huge grassy area for the kids to run around, a Frisbee disc golf course, and a huge play ground with sand not woodchips and lots of slides. This is perfect as Autumn always wants to eat the woodchips and both my kids LOVE slides. Here are some pictures of our time at our new favorite park!

Here is a picture of the Awesome playground at the park. There are 2 separate areas, one is geared for 2-5 year olds and the other is geared for 5-12 year olds. The smaller one is just perfect for Autumn as she can do everything all by herself which really helps with her independence meltdowns that are at an all time high and the bigger one is all Owens, he loved it. They have two big tunnel slides that are twisty and really fast that he just couldn’t get enough of.

Here is Owen encouraging Autumn along on the bigger equipment. He is so sweet and loves to cheer her on and she just loves it.

Owen even made a little friend Devon at the park. He is so cute. He went right over to the little boy and said, “Hi, I’m Owen what your name is?” The little boy responded, “I’m Devon and I just turned 3.” Owen was stoked as he is 3 too. They were inseparable from that point on and even played a game of Hide and Seek together.

And this little girl had fun just crawling around and walking all over the place. She is so so very independent these days and went down al the slide by herself.

And here is Owen jumping on this bridge to make it bounce for Autumn. She loved it and wasn’t even the tiniest bit scared. I just adore these kids. They are so much fun!!!!