New Mexico State Fair 2015

It is that time of year again.

The New Mexico State Fair.

A friend of our family's won The Best Of show.

Yoland Fastle.

This was in the Manuel Lujan Building.

Yolanda modeling her dress.

Also, A friend and co-worker of Ma's entered his photo.

We were able to see it as well.

Nice Work Gary Chavez.

We had to make certain to visit

one of Orion's favorite places to go.

The Rail Road exhibit.

Then we went to the gift shop.

Look what we found.

This is Mom's kind of chili mix....

the one for Gringos.

This one is for the Natives of New Mexico.

It is the medium.

This one is for the crazies.

It is very hot.

We love to visit the Indian Village

where they have indian food

and dancing.

We saw the American Eagle
carved from a tree
posted by a Tee Pee

We saw a couple of squirrels.
Can you see him?

A carved bear by the Wigwam.

This little girl was about 3 years old.

This is how the family teaches the children.

The children participate, and watch, and 

copy what the adults are doing.

She was very good.

While we watched the dances, 

Orion ate his traditional 

Fry bread.

You can eat it plain, or add honey.

Orion ate his with honey.

We were there at 4:00 PM

so we saw the Seasonal Dancers.

______________________________

Orion had fun at the

 Natural Resources Building 

this year.

Forest Ranger

roasting marshmallows

at a camp fire

water fun

a butterfly

Dinosaurs

One of the highlights of visiting the

Natural Resources Building

is that Orion got a comic book.

It is the true story of

Smokey the Bear.

Orion went home and immediately read

the entire thing.

After that...........

Orion got to go on the zip liner

And then after that.....

This is the jumping trampoline 

with a harness.

Orion got the hang of it,

and was able to jump sky high.

This was our visit to the 2015 New Mexico State Fair.

Not bad since we were limit on time this year.

We got to see and do all this in 3 hours.

We look forward to 2016

APS Retirement dinner and recognition

On September 3, 2015 we attended a special

APS retiree recognition dinner.

First, we listened to all the representatives

from each district give a short speech.

Second, all the retirees that have retired

between January 1 to December 31 of 2014

received a special award.

Michael shaking the hands of all

the representitives from each district.

Michael receiving his special award

of crystal Nombe ware.

After that, we were seated to a special banquet.

It was catered by APS catering.

The meal consisted of a lot of hors d'oeuvres. 

There was also a fruit and vegetable tray.

We also enjoyed a dessert table.

We also had live music that played jazz.

It was fun, and I am glad we went.

I am also glad that Michael was honored

for his teaching career.

Thanksgiving 2014

Addison and Payson helped Pa with the garden

this year.  They wanted to grow a pumpkin

and some watermelons.  This is our reward.

Ma had to take this photo through the outside window.

Payson is on the left, Addison in the middle, and then Pa.

They are washing and cutting the pumpkin to make pie.

They boiled the cut up pieces and then smashed them.

They followed the pumpkin pie recipe and baked it.

It looks so yummy. and it was.

Ma took a photo of our stuffed animals, and said that

our family all made it here for Thanksgiving dinner.

 This was our fancy table.  We had 14 people all together.

Shatzi, Dave, Bria, Max and Logan came this year.

Addison and Payson were here,

Michelle, Christian and Desiree (his girl friend)

and Bubba (Jerry) Michelle, and 

Pa, Ma and Orion.

Karel Kipp also came.

Easter 2014

Orion is a thirteen year old boy this year.

He still loves  Easter however.

Orion gets so excited about

Easter baskets,

Easter treats,

finding Easter eggs,

and dying Easter eggs.

Easter has always been a good time.  It brings

back good memories.

This year, we did something "new" with

dying Easter eggs.  It is a really old

idea, but it is something Orion has

never heard of or done before.

We colored the eggs with a crayon.

We put the eggs in this "spill-proof" container

after we colored our designs.

We waited for a few moments.......

and voila!!  The dye covers the egg, but not

where there is crayon.

It was fun doing something new this year.

 

Another thing we did new this year

was to make Easter egg cakes.

We made these from scratch.

It was fun to come up with interesting designs.

Orion loves the cakes.

 

Orion found his Easter basket on Easter morning.

 

This year for Easter, because

Orion is getting older,

the Easter Bunny had a difficult time

deciding what to get for Orion

Most of the Easter things sold at stores are for little children.

The Easter Bunny had a great idea this year though.

It is something Orion loves to do

The Easter Bunny brought a kite.

It is an Eagle kite.  Eagles are one of Bubba's

(Jerry) favorite things.  Bubba and Orion

have been having gun flying kites

this spring.  This it a special kite for them.

Orion opening his Easter Basket from the

Easter Bunny. 

Inside it are Superman headphones,

a bag to put the headphones in to store,

and a box.  It is very cool.

Orion holding his Eagle kite.

 

Science Fair Project

For Orion's Science Fair project, he chose the assignment of what

an egg would do if placed in different liquids.

He took a raw egg and placed it in two cups of

oil

 

 

 

 

and then water,

 

 

 

 

 

and then white vinegar

 

 

After about three minutes, the egg in white vinegar floated.

the egg in water stayed at the bottom,

and so did the egg in oil.

Then he tried this same thing with a boiled egg.

All the boiled eggs stayed at the bottom.

When we looked closer, we saw a strange

thing happening to the egg in white vinegar.

Both the raw egg and the boiled egg were bubbling on the shell.

After five days of watching thaw egg in vinegar, we learned

that the vinegar dissolves the shell.

The membrane of the egg still stays intact,

but the vinegar makes it's way inside the egg

by diffusion.

We could see the yolk.

 

this was a very interesting project.

Orion had fun, and learned something.

What Orion found out from

Science  Sparks

is this:

If Orion left the egg in the vinegar, it would eat the shell,

and leave the egg.

 

The Science

 

“The acid [would react] with the shell and “eat” away at it. The shell is made up of calcium carbonate and this gets dissolved due to the acid. The inside of the egg should still be intact because the vinegar doesn’t break down the egg membrane. The egg also swells up, because some of the liquid seeps inside it via diffusion (high concentration to low).You should be able to see the yellow yolk through the membrane. It really is quite