A Family of Four

Our little bunch is about to become a little bigger! Most of you already know, but I guess it's time we make it official. We're expecting! This little one will come at the end of March. We're not sure yet of the gender, but we'll keep you posted. Oh, and sorry for the bad pic, I'm too lazy to scan it in, so it's a picture of a picture.

Fair Days

This was the "petting zoo" which was basically a collection of goats that kids were feeding with little cups of grains that they purchased at the entrance...or with the fruit leather that they were sucking on 2 minutes earlier.

These guys on stilts were pretty cool.

In case you can't read the labels, this was a shop that sold an assortment of everything fried (a.k.a. fair food). They had fried Snickers, Twinkies, Moon Pies, Oreos, cheesecake, etc. etc.

Yes, we ate that stuff- Oreos and Snickers. I'm not going to lie- they were good. Were they worth $4 good? Probably not.

I remember growing up in Griffin, GA, having to work the corn dog booth at our county fair for the Kiwanis Club. I always loved that time of year, not to mention endless free corn dogs (sounds gross, I know, but trust me, these were gooooood). Back then, at least in Griffin, the fair was considered cool and I have some good memories of hanging out with friends and riding the rides. Random side note: You know have you have songs associated with certain events in your life?? Well, the fair in my mind will always be associated with "Crossroads" by Bones, Thugs, and Harmony. Random. Anyway, so for the past 2 years here in Albuquerque, we have made a few appearances at the fair with one appearance at the fair rodeo (which I will proudly admit, I love). So, this past fair was no exception and we lived it up with some friends.

(Camp)fire

This is a catch-up post b/c I forgot that I had all these pictures. A few weekends ago, we went with some friends up a "canyon" outside of Albuquerque and had a campfire, reminiscent of our BYU days. It was a really fun night with good eats, treats, and s'mores (where my friend, Rachel introduced me to s'mores with Reese's cups- yum, yum)! Oliver, of course, wanted nothing to do with the food once he caught hold of the wide open range filled with a plethora of sticks and rocks.

Non-recommendation

These are two of the WORST books I have read in a long time, possibly ever. Especially the latter. Anti-climactic much? I think Stephenie Meyer has seen her day in the spotlight and it's all down hill from here on out. Sorry fans.

Sometimes...

Sometimes, a girl just needs some pure, unadulterated chocolate, albeit American:

So, after eating half the bag in no more than 3 days, I decided I better get rid of them. We were having some people over for dinner. For dessert, I added them to the mix of:
And, after only a few bites I came to a conclusion. Brownies are ONLY good when there are chocolate chunks in them, namely M&M's. Mmm, Mmm, good.

Palin

I really need to be better at responding to your comments, because I truly enjoy reading them and finding out what you think. So thank you for commenting, and I'm just going to respond in this new post in case some of you don't go back and check old posts for responses.

I too feel warmer toward Palin after having a teeny bit of exposure to her. I loved her convention speech. I walked away from that really liking her (emotionally) a lot. Sure she has a great speechwriter, but so do all the rest of them. And even with a great script, you need some skill for delivery. For example, her comedic timing for the "lipstick" joke was perfect. The way she paused for a second, pointed to her lips, and said the word quickly and with hard emphasis on the "K," all done with a serious expression on her face. That takes talent, and that's just one trivial example.

That said, here are my concerns:

I don't want to prematurely throw my full support behind a person because they give a good speech. Every politician at that level gives a good speech. Guiliani gave one of funniest, most forceful political speeches I've heard, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best presidential candidate. Don't forget, all you Obama haters, the primary thing that people love about Obama.

Also, I am a big fan of her ideology. But she has very minimal big-league experience (isn't that our problem with Obama?) and could very easily end up in the big chair before the next 4 years are over. And I think a bit too much is made of her record by conservative spinners. She's done a few cool things (taking on same party corruption, rejecting certain earmarks, selling the governor's jet, etc.) and while those things are important and necessary to good conservative leadership, they are largely symbolic, rather than methodically reformative. I want someone who has tackled and solved major problems. Like, say, oh, I don't know, maybe the Olympics or a Fortune company, or healthcare or just something like that. Jk, just about the last sentence, but not the preceding one. Don't get me wrong, I think symbolic actions are very important because they let you know where a person stands. They give you a glimpse into their character, courage, and worldview. But they are only the first level of leadership. The second, and exponentially more difficult, level is deep, thorough, large-scale action. Does the person have the intelligence, judgment, steel, objectivity, awareness, managerial talent, experience, and vision to turn crisis into opportunity and create positive, lasting change. Obama and Palin are full of the first, but neither have shown the second yet. It's not their fault, as they haven't really had the time or opportunity to do so. But that's the point. It's a huge gamble to put them in a position that requires what they haven't yet had the opportunity to produce, and simply hope they have what it takes.
Also, while it's easy to be excited about the entire ticket because we like Palin, but not McCain, I just don't think she'll have much say. VPs rarely do. The last two have had more than any others in history, but that is, by definition, rare, and no one's going to pull any strings on Ol' McCain (especially someone whose political ideology is 20 clicks to the right of the guy who has built his entire brand around being an independent, moderate "maverick"), like Cheney did with Bush. But I guess one can still be excited to have her set up for a presidential run in a term or two, even if she isn't effecting much as VP in the meantime.

I'm not trying to be a hater. I just see a lot of people getting caught up in this Palin fever (She kills moose! She has 5 kids! She's hot and sassy!), after a week of exposure, the same way people quickly became infected with the Obama bug (He's so articulate! He REALLY wants change! He's black!), through a lot of goose-pimpling hype but little substance. But I really do like her so far and hope she turns out to be all she's cracked up to be.

Tell me where you disagree.

Labor Day in Toas, NM

We decided to make the scenic 2-hour drive to Northern New Mexico to a little ski town called Taos. You wouldn't believe this place was actually in New Mexico with all the greenery! It really was a picturesque little town- not as ritzy as Park City, but with a very homey feeling.

I'm a huge B&B fan, so when we saw this little place, we had to stop and check it out. They had all sorts of farm animals and Oliver loved the goats.

We stopped in at this cute old fashioned ice cream parlor in the town square.

Just like Santa Fe, Taos is an artsy town and this was a cool sculpture outside a gallery.

Oliver with the Rocky Mountain Chocolate bear.

What you can't see is the saliva dripping out of this little guy's mouth...

A cute little alleyway in town.

We drove up to the Taos Ski Resort. Let's just say it leaves much to be desired. To make the trip worth it, Oliver and Christian stopped at this pretty stream and threw rocks while I took a cat nap in the car.
The owner of the B&B recommended this hole-in-the-wall, hippie place for dinner. It was supposed to be good New Mexican food (which is just Mexican food smothered in green chile). Christian made the mistake of ordering his tacos with "no green chile" and I guess this warranted a visit from the chef himself to our table. He all but said that not having green chile was not allowed. Christian relented and actually loved it (We're making progress here, people!).
It was a great and memorable Labor Day!