Happy Halloween!

Earlier this week we bought a pumpkin, carved it and cooked the pumpkins seeds. Buzz had the honors of drawing the pumpkin's face and cutting it.

Drum roll........the final product!

Plus, we can't forget the pumpkin seeds. Per Mom's recipe, we boiled the seeds first (to keep them from drying out once baked), and then baked the seeds with lots of salt until they were nice and golden.

On Halloween night, we carved one more pumpkin, and placed both outside with our new fall wreath. Thanks, Grandma! It looked great on our porch.


We can't forget Dr. Rod with Abu Dobby (Dr. Rod is in the back).

We didn't have a lot of trick or treaters, but we had a good handful. Plus with the freshly carved lit pumpkins on our front porch, the front of the house smelled like pumpkin cookies. That was a treat in and of itself.

Moving back

As of this past weekend, we are no longer living in two places. Yeah us! Last Thursday all of Buzz's coworkers decided to give him a grand going away party. Everyone brought something for lunch and the whole group enjoyed a large pot luck. After work, we all headed to the local pub for dinner, drinks and pool.

On Friday, we got our U-haul and loaded up all of our things. And boy did we have tons of stuff! Plus we took a few last pictures of us at our apartment. Here is Kitty on her favorite perch....

Buzz ready to hit the road on Saturday morning.

The sunrise just behind our apartments.

All packed up and ready to go. We made a quick trip by Micky D's to grab breakfast and then we headed towards home.

When we arrived home, there was tons of wonderful food. Glenn had made chicken kabobs, pulled pork with corn and caramel apples.

A trip to Ruidoso

Saturday Buzz and I drove to Ruidoso. We went to a Billy the Kid museum and then to the Hubbard Museum of the American West. At the entrance to the second museum is a small park filled with bronze horses featuring seven different breeds. Each statue is one and one half times life size. When you walk into the museum, you see items from the early American West and life in the early 1900s.

After that we headed to Oktoberfest at the convention center. It was a lot of fun. Part of the center was set aside for a craft fair and the other part was dedicated to the Oktoberfest. Local groups set out German food...there were five or six booths with different food and of course German beer. Plus there was entertainment...their was a different singing or dancing group every hour. We watched two singing groups and two dancing groups.

Sunset Walk

This past Friday Buzz and I did the Sunset Nature Walk across White Sands. It was an hour guided walk through the gypsum dune fields to look at geology, plants and animals. We learned a little bit about the geology of the area. For example, the white streaks across the surrounding mountains are solid gypsum and the grass in the area grows off of bacteria in the sand. Also, we saw lots of plants, but no animals. However, there were tons of animal tracks all over the dunes. We had fun tracing the tracks through the sand. The walk is timed to end at sunset...hence the great sunset pictures!

Our New Neighbor

A few weeks ago while walking back to the apartment, we met our new neighbor...a tarantula spider. Though they are suppose to live all over the complex, I hadn't seen one yet. I suspect this one decided to take a stroll after the construction began behind the apartments.

Day Two in Albuquerque

Saturday, we woke up and were served a wonderful breakfast at our B&B. And just so you get to see our room, here's a picture of our room. Across from the bed, we had a bench with a fireplace.
For breakfast, we joined the other guests on the outside patio for pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Also, on the table was sausage, cherry cider, and fresh peaches-some grown in the backyard of the B&B.

And meet our new friend made at the B&B.

Once we finished breakfast, we headed to Old Town, Albuquerque's original town site. The narrow streets are lined with adobe buildings and bright colors of turquoise and magenta. Most of the historic homes are still standing. They have now been renovated into shops, galleries and restaurants.


Our first stop was the central plaza to grab a map and plan our day. Not a minute after we sat down with our map, I was attacked by a wasp. We headed back to edge of Old Town where Walgreens stood to buy Benadryl and Ibuprofen. As we walked the streets during the afternoon, I constantly had a bag of ice with me to help with the swelling. But despite our set back, we still had fun.

Once we were back in the middle of Old Town, we wondered the streets, stopping at a few stores to shop. We ate at a great restaurant for lunch where Buzz had green chili stew, a New Mexico favorite.
We even picked up a new toy for Pagan which she has greatly enjoyed!

We also stopped at a few museums. One of the museums we went to was the American International Rattlesnake Museum, the world's largest collection of poisonous snakes. Check out the horns on this snake!

The highlight of our tour was watching a boa eat his weekly meal. We were also presented with "Certificate of Bravery" for making it through the museum.

Across from the Plaza we checked out San Felipe de Neri Church, originally built in 1706. We weren't able to enter into the chapel due to a wedding, but we wandered through their gardens and into their small museum before we left.

Once we finished with Old Town, we headed back to the B&B for a little R&R. For dinner we headed to the 66 Diner off of, you guested it, Route 66. The food, service and decor were exactly what you would expect if you had eaten there in the 50s. After dinner, we headed to downtown Albuquerque. We walked around, checked out a few places, and wound up sitting at a local pub watching the crowds.

On Sunday we got up and headed back home after a great weekend. And just to remember our honeymoon, we had the chance to drive through San Antonio...not quite what we experienced last year.

Our First Anniversary

This past weekend Buzz and I drove to Albuquerque to celebrate our first anniversary. We had a blast and filled the weekend with the sites of Alb.

Friday morning we got up and hit the road, stopping at the local waffle house for a big breakfast. When we arrived in Alb., we headed to the Alb. Biological Park where we went to the Aquarium and the Rio Grande Botanic Garden.

Our first stop was the Aquarium. Buzz loves aquariums and this one turned out to be a really good one.

When you first walk into the building, you walk through tanks filled with fish found in the Rio Grande. There were some very colorful fish! I especially liked some of the bright purple fish.

Next, you walk outside to see the shrimp boat (we actually missed that stop on our first trip through so we double backed to see it). Then, you head to the shallows and shores, surf zone and coral reef. A lot of the exhibits are 'underground' in huge tanks that surround you from all sides, including the ceiling.

There were tons of eels in Eels Cave...and it did feel like a cave. The eels and various other sea life swam on both sides of you and above you. With all the eels, I kept thinking of "The Little Mermaid."


The jellyfish were very neat. It took us a while to get a really good picture, but Buzz got one awesome shot!


Once we finished out self-guided tour through the Aquarium, we walked across the courtyard into the Botanical Gardens. In all, there were 47 gardens! The following picture is the Jardin Redondo.

And here is Buzz in the Pollinator Garden...thankfully, we didn't run into any bees or wasps.

Also, in the Botanical Garden, they had the Heritage Farm. There were rows and rows of fall vegetables, plus a vineyard. During certain times of the year, they open the Cider Barn where you can sample freshly made cider! All the vegetables grown are given to the zoo...the animals get a pretty good diet!

After the Heritage Farm, we walked through the Japanese Gardens. We had came at the perfect time. These gardens had just opened!


And Buzz at the "wisdom tree." We named the tree ourselves.

Below is the Railroad Garden that was opened in 1999. If I remember right, four trains ran through the little towns.


And our last stop was the Children's Garden...this was one of my favorite gardens.


And below you will find the giant bee that scared me to death. As you walk under it, it begins to buzz loudly. I was sure that I was being attacked by killer bees. And of course, my loving husband stood behind me rolling on the ground with laughter. I do have to admit that once I realized that the bee was not real I laughed too.


And the giant vegetables. There was also a giant pumpkin that you could walk through. It really was amazing...the pumpkin seeds looked real.


Afterwards, we headed to our B&B to check in for the weekend. Our B&B was wonderful...we had a king size bed...an upgrade from the bed in our apartment and at the house. Plus the bathroom had a jacuzzi tub! Who wouldn't have enjoyed that room!

For dinner on Friday we headed to a local brew pub close to the university. Buzz got to try several knew brews; all of which he enjoyed. And we enjoyed the food and had fun watching the crowd.

Day two we spent in Old Town, but I'll save those pictures for the next post.