Holdyn, "This is the BEST day EVER!"

Saturday was a special day!!  Daddy was home and it started off AWESOME!

I had been up with Cody numerous times during the night, so when the sun peeked over the Sandia's to our East, I was in no mood to get out of bed for the day.  However, if any of you know Ben, he is a morning person!  He grabbed little Cody as he made his first peep of the morning, and grabbed the girls from their sleep out on the 'couch bed' and snuck them in the car, in jammies and all. 

 Let me preface this adventure with a daily morning experience that the kids and I have.  Each morning as we rush around getting ready for school...we eventually hop in the car about 7:30am.  As I back the car out of the garage, both girls have their noses to the windows looking for hot air balloons.  We see an average of 5-10 hovering around the city each morning as I drive them to their different schools.

They LOVE hot air balloons and apparently Albuquerque is one of the best places to see them. 

 Back to Saturday morning, Ben easily persuaded the girls into the car with a bribe of donuts. 

He said he took them into the donut shop...jammies and all... to get their morning treat.

Next on the agenda....become balloon chasers!  They picked this one from the few in the sky and followed it until it landed.  The girls had a BLAST!!!  They both want to ride in one someday!

 They also ask everyday when the Balloon Fiesta is....just 11 more days and Grandma and Grandpa will be here for an up close look as hundreds of balloons launch into the brisk early morning air!

We are so excited! (The festival goes over a week...each morning hundreds of balloons will launch into the skies of Albuquerque!  Those are going to be fun mornings to drive to school!  I hope I can keep my eyes on the road and not watch the balloons.)

 Ben was home for the day and we wanted to do something special as a family.

I'd heard about Wagner Farms from some friends and we decided to give it a go.

 Holdyn was our noble leader through the corn maze.  We only made it to one of the 12 checkpoints and then it took everything we had to get out after that!  It was quite the maze!  We had fun in it for awhile, but it didn't take long for us to want to get out ;)

 Cody and Daddy!  We've got to get this poor boy a hat!

 Yep, Holdyn has the Diet Coke....it is what kept us going through the maze ;)

Here is our family, just before we started getting grouchy and needed to find the way out!

 Holdyn was in heaven as she got to ride Casper the horse!!

 The girls loved petting the animals!

 They said their favorite part was this mound of dirt with the tubes/slides.

They played and played and played on them!  

 They also loved the carriage ride!!

 Kimber and Holdyn don't like to leave home for an outside adventure without the camelpak.

They filled it up with ice and water before we left home.  They love to wear it on their backs drink out of the blue straw.

 Couldn't pass up the opportunity to play on a John Deere mower.

 We had a great time running through the pumpkin patch.  The kids each picked out their pumpkin for this year's Halloween Carvings!

 Cody was excited too!

 Last, but certainly not least, the girls played in this box of.....CORN!

It is all dried corn. They had soo much fun in it and said it felt great on their toesies!

The only problem I found was that Kimber had little kernels of Corn that snuck down the back of her pants.  They were sneaking their way out of her panties the rest of the day! It was well worth the fun!

The day continued as we went home and it was still warm enough to get the pool back out and they played in the water in the back yard.  

As the evening winded down Holdyn was all smiles and she said to Ben and I,  "This was the BEST DAY EVER!!!"