Taos Festivities

Taos really does have some cool stuff. Last weekend was the annual hot air balloon rally. These are pictures taken from our front yard during the Saturday morning mass ascension. We all were fascinated, especially Sage. We went to see the balloon shine that night, but it was cancelled because of the wind. Sage did get to meet one of the balloon pilots, though, and he gave her a card with a picture of balloons on it. She says she “will never lose it.” Too fun.

My family came to visit this week and to go to the Taos Storytelling Festival. The performers were very entertaining. My dad (Tim the Tool Man) decided to put in a new back door. He slaved over it for three days straight and made several trips to the hardware store. He loves that. Keiger spent most of his time in with the power tools. He really likes to play with the hammer. Anyway, the door looks great. We’re going to paint it turquoise to match the front door. (-:
Halloween here in Taos turned out to be so fun. Sage decided to wear her Snow White dress, and Keiger wore a Frankenstein shirt. That was costume enough for me. During the afternoon, we were able to trick-or-treat at the historic downtown plaza. One particular street of shops was decorated with huge spider webs and hanging orange globes that looked like pumpkins. And so many people dressed in fun costumes. It really was charming. Sage, of course, had a ball. Her Elmo bucket was so full of candy, she was too tired to carry it. We did convince her to stuff all her candy under her bed on Halloween night so the “Candy Fairy” could pick it up in exchange for a special surprise. In her case, a new Care Bear, which she adores. On Halloween night, we had a party for some of her little friends and the nursery kids in the ward. We had hot cider and made way too many donuts. Thankfully, Mom and Mackenzie were there to man the stove. The kids made balloon ghosts. It was pretty short and simple, but way fun. We made the milk jug ghosts from the Family Fun October issue. They looked so cool glowing on our front walkway.

I’m glad my family was here so my kids were so entertained because I have been pretty absorbed in the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer. I know it sounds cheesy, but for books about vampires, these are actually very engaging.