Wowza!

Can you believe I still have over three months to go? I don't know where this baby thinks she's going to grow, but my abdomen is nearly full to capacity.

Will the Real Sarah Palin Please Stand Up?

This one's for all those Republicans who don't like the Sarah Palin skits I've posted from SNL. Sarah Palin herself went on SNL and is in both these skits. All you Dems and Independents will enjoy them as well. Freaking high-larious!



Sarah totally should've rocked the crap outta that rap. She would've earned some mad props. Shoot a mutha-humpin' moose eight days a week!

Balloon Fiesta!

Last weekend Pete's parents made the trek out from Prescott to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta (and Pete's birthday!). For those of you who didn't know, the Balloon Fiesta is THE global hot air balloon get together of the year. People come from all over the globe to do a mass ascension with their hot air balloons. The festivities last for two weeks.

We rolled out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to make the first mass ascension. After some early-morning adventures with traffic, we finally parked and had just a few minutes before they started blowing up the balloons.

First, the rolled out the balloons on the ground and pointed an industrial fan into them to inflate them a bit with cool air.


Once they were filled up about half-way, the pilots blasted the burners to heat up the air so the balloons would float. They started with the basket on its side, and as the balloons inflated and rose, the team tipped the baskets up so the fire wouldn't touch the balloons themselves. It was neat!


There were seriously hundreds of balloons all inflating simultaneously. Sometimes they banged into each other and you could tell the pilots were irritated at how squished together they all were.

There were referees wandering around giving each balloon clearance to take off in an orderly fashion. Once they started taking off, we just wandered around watching the fun.





After we took off from the balloon fiesta, we went out to breakfast and then made a road trip up to Los Alamos. We took the scenic route, and stopped at this nifty waterfall right next to the road.

Once we got to Los Alamos, we went to check out the Atomic Museum and this wacky place called The Black Hole. The Black Hole is a Los Alamos Laboratory salvage yard that carries every piece of Dr. Strangelove equipment that your heart could desire.


The guy that owns the store, Ed Grothus, is this wacky ex-weapons manufacturer, now pacifist who is convinced the world will end in the year 2012. He owns this shop and collects the weirdest stuff including "doomsday stones" he built himself because he wants to leave a landmark behind for the aliens who will visit our planet after we destroy it. The store was pretty cool, and I could totally see the guys from Mythbusters getting supplies there. It was a disaster. Parts and wires and consoles and anything else you could imagine were just laying on top of each other to the ceiling. It was quasi-organized, but not really. There was also a bunch of weird artsy-hippie things outside like a giant daisy.


We took the road home through Santa Fe, and stopped at a restaurant that Pete and I had seen on Food Network. It was a hamburger joint called Bobcat Bite that had won Bon Appetit Magazine's distinction of "Best Burger in America". We had to go see if it was true. The burgers we flippin' enormous, and cooked to order. I haven't had every single burger in the country, but of the burgers I have had I would say this was the best. Except for Pete's of course!

New Ultrasound Pictures

Pete and I went in yesterday for our 20 week ultrasound at the Nurse-Midwifery Clinic. They did all the normal stuff like measuring the baby and checking to make sure her heart is working right, and all that jazz. She is in the 56th percentile for size. Apparently, her head and brain are large for her body, but that doesn't surprise me in the least. My brain is large and in charge, and Pete's head is ginormous. He's been told more than once that he looks like a bobble head when riding his scooter!

Anyways, we got some good profile pictures of the baby while we were there. In some of them, I think she has my goofy chin, but in others not so much. She has a really pointy nose, which I think she got from the milk man because Pete and I have pretty round noses. The first picture is a 2-D profile, and the next three are the same 3-D image from three different angles.




We got confirmation that yes, she is indeed a girl. We had a really amazing angle of the crotch shot too, so I'm feeling pretty confident in going out and getting girlie pink stuff for her room. I am completely set on girls clothes for about the first 9 months. Holy cow, my friend Rachel gave me a TON of stuff. Here are pictures of her closet and dresser so far. I can't even fit all her clothes in. I need to clean the toys and blankets out of two of the drawers, I just haven't had a chance to do it yet. There's nowhere to put it anyways until I get a changing table with some shelves!


On a completely different note, I was telling Pete about this kids show that I'd seen a few times with the kids. It's called Yo Gabba Gabba, and the first couple times I watched it I wasn't sure if I completely hated it, or completely loved it. It has this goofy DJ guy who plays with these weird alien looking dolls who come to life and hang out dancing and learning life lessons. After I saw all the rad guests they have on the show and the sweet songs they sing, I decided I loved it. Elijah Wood, Leslie and the Ly's, Biz Markee, The Aquabats, Jimmy Eat World, The Shins, and the Aggrolites are a few of the guests they've had on recently (two of which I've seen in concert). After torturing Pete and making him watch clips on YouTube, he decided that he loved Moonie, one of the weird doll things. So, when I was at Target and saw they had a Moonie doll I brought it home for Pete. It's his favorite thing in the nursery so far! Here's what Moonie looks like for those of you who don't tune in to the Sprout channel all that often.

And, here's a couple Yo Gabba Gabba clips if you're bored.