Dear Family: I think Tim and I are writing this one together. I shall begin. Well, as many of you have discovered I’m the new blog writer reminder. However, I think I should have had someone remind me that it was our week. Several times I almost forgot…. Life is much quieter at 408 E 13th now with both Kate and Chris gone. However, we are not alone as the pets are alive and well. For all of you wondering, Tommy can and does get through the corner of the fence to go in and out of the backyard. It was a point of discussion earlier in the summer how he was doing this and then lo and behold Chris and I have seen it done. He must turn his head sideways and then he kind of pops his hips through. It is an interesting thing to see. Now the poor boy has a skin condition and is rather bald on his tummy, and head. It isn’t a pretty sight.

. Miss Shona misses her master and some evenings just seems to mope around the house. Other times she is being very ornery. We now have a couple of holes in the backyard, she carries rocks around and dumps them in various places and earlier took it upon herself to pull out the water plants from the water garden. Amelia is alive and getting around pretty good. Connor is still the worry wart, although he is being pretty friendly with Shona. Noel, aka pretty girl, misses Chris terribly. Tim and I just don’t pet her the same. She hasn’t learned to fully appreciate Shona at all. We seem to have acquired a flock of cardinals. There have been up to 10 males at the feeders this Fall. It is fun to watch them and woe unto any pet that catches one.

My work has been rather slow. My co-workers have provided some entertainment though. A couple weeks ago they were experimenting with a new explosion in Dr Goddard’s lab. Basically, they ended up making a pipe bomb, putting a hole in the plexi glass and sending one of them to the ear doctor for possible hearing damage. The ears were okay but we have had a good time teasing them about it. Last week, I managed to drop my keys down the bathroom sink (attached to a lanyard) and get them stuck at work. I wasn’t too worried until I went to pull them out and they stuck. I grabbed them with my fingers and pulled again only to have the lanyard come off. Now I’m stuck in the bathroom holding onto the keys with one hand and wondering what to do. I know if I let go they will go down the drain and possibly clog it. I was thinking of yelling for the guys in the office but wasn’t sure if they would come into the women’s bathroom to rescue me. I had just decided I would use my cell phone to call someone when the keys gave and popped out of the drain. Good grief only to me would this happen. We have both taken trips this Fall. I went to Indianapolis to spend time with Jeni and her family. Jeni and I have been best friends for 37 years. We toured Indy, went to Jeni’s Bible Study, Rusty’s (Jeni’s son) cross country meet, watched movies and just had a relaxing time.

Oh, I did get my first pedicure and rather enjoyed it. A trip to the Half Price Bookstore was great. I would recommend it if you have one in your area. One night we watched Jeni’s favorite movie which is “Tea with Mussolini” and the next night we watched Art’s which was “Beautiful Mind”. Both were good and if you haven’t seen them you might give them a try. As Rusty said “Jeni’s movie is about feminists and that should be no surprise” Enough of my adventures…I’ll let Tim share about his trip to New Mexico and Nevada.

Early in October I flew to Denver to take my Mom on one of her bucket trips. It was kind of a two at one time type trip as we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and to Las Vegas NV to visit her college roommate who is in a nursing home. We drove to Albuquerque on Sunday (stopping briefly in Santa Fe—neat place, gotta take Laurie there some time!) and then Monday we went to the Balloon Festival. This was one of their “slow” days, only launched 150 or so balloons that morning! We got their pretty early, about 6:30, shortly before sunrise and watched them inflate and fly the balloons. You can walk right into the area that they are launching the balloons. You can relax, sit on benches and watch the balloons fly around northern Albuquerque. The reason they like Albuquerque is that the winds there allow them to fly in a box so they land back where they started.

There are balloons of all shapes; traditional tear shaped and lots of specialty balloons in different shapes. My favorite specialty balloon was Darth Vader but the cow balloon was pretty cool too. The festival is like the Kansas State Fair going through two weekends with the best launches on the weekends. I gather they were launching over 800 on the weekend before. They had to launch in shifts as there was not enough room at the park—which is huge. On Thursdays they launch only the specialty balloons and have a “rodeo”.

The balloon festival is an amazing sight and I highly recommend going if you ever have a chance.

We were done by 10:30 that morning, so we took a ride up the tram at Sandia Peak above Albuquerqu. It is quite impressive to go up about 4,000 feet above the city and be able to look out over the Rio Grande Valley. On the back side of the peak is a ski resort. I guess a lot of people ride up to ski for the day then ride the tram back down in the evening. I would like that.

On Tuesday Mom and I drove to Las Vegas via a short stop at the Grand Canyon. That was a long trip but really neat. Mom had never been to the Grand Canyon before so that was special since it was her 80^th birthday. We also stopped in western Arizona and looked at the stars. It was a beautiful moonless night and we could see the Milky Way very clearly. Very very awe inspiring. God has certainly made a beautiful place for us to live in.

On Wednesday Mom visited with her roommate, Helen, who lives in a nursing home. I went to the Hoover Dam and explored it and the new Pat Tilman Memorial Bridge which opened a week later. I had fun sending picture e-mail to Chris and Laurie showing them where I was at. Mom and I never did do any gambling in Vegas even though we stayed in a casino and Mom had a role of quarters in her purse. Just never had time to sit down at a slot machine as we were both tired that night.

Thursday we drove to Salt Lake City and were able to visit Kate for a couple of hours. We had not originally planned on stopping to see Kate but the Center for Change had said it was ok to visit. Kate really enjoyed our visit and we were pleased to be able to see her.

Friday morning Mom was anxious to get home so we were up and moving at 5:00 AM. We drove through snow and rain into Wyoming and into Denver into rush hour traffic. Mom was glad to be home. We drove just a few miles short of 2300 miles in six days. We saw lots of pretty scenery and friends and family. Mom can now cross three bucket list items off her list.

The traveling has been fun, but home is still the best.