Enchanted Sunrise

Balloon Fiesta 2013

Sydney loves looking at the balloons but is NOT a fan of the noise they make when they start shooting flames.  She spent most of the morning covering her ears like this.  Later that week, I asked her why she was so scared of the balloons.  She said, "Because the dragons are too loud."  It never occurred to me that she thought there were dragons blowing up the balloons, but once she said that, it all made sense.  I'd be worried too if I thought we were on a field full of dragons!

Bennett is such a mellow fellow.  He seemed mildly put out that we woke him up so early. But didn't even whine about it.  He stayed awake for awhile, and then took a little snooze.  And then woke up again and wanted to be free, so Sydney took a turn in the stroller.  (I think she felt a degree of safety from the balloon dragons once she was in the stroller.)

um, I just love this big ole' frog.

Darth Vader--always one of our favorites!

I loved this hummingbird balloon, new the the fiesta this year.

Angry Bird was also new.

Here are some of the classics:  Airabelle, the cow, Wells Fargo Wagon, and the Bees

collecting cards

almost close enough to touch!

Me and Mel

Hurray for another fun year at Albuquerque's International Balloon Fiesta!   It was such a treat having Aunt Mel here to see the balloons and watch conference together.  So glad she got to come spend the weekend with us.  We love you, Melanie!

Balloon Fiesta 2012

October 13, 2012

Balloon Fiesta Park

Albuquerque, NM

The first Saturday of Balloon Fiesta was cancelled due to high winds.  During the week, we enjoyed absolutely gorgeous weather and the kids loved seeing the balloons every morning as they were heading to school.  Sydney and Hayden especially loved pointing to all the balloons!  

So it was really sad, when the weather for the second weekend was questionable also.  We were worried the weather wouldn't cooperate this year, but the second Saturday ended up being PERFECT!  We got there a little after 6, (we lucked out in the traffic department and didn't have to sit for too long in the car.) 

 Here are all the kids bundled up and ready to go onto the field.

We enjoyed homemade breakfast burritos and hot chocolate while we waited for dawn.

By the way, a little piece of trivia I learned this year--Breakfast Burritos were invented for Balloon Fiesta in 1978.    So if you love a good breakfast burrito, you have Balloon Fiesta to thank!!

It was pretty cool to see the balloons firing up when it was still dark.

And the first ones were off!

the "insides"

Sydney loved the balloons from a distance, but when we got too close, the sound of the fire bursts startled her every time, and she just buried her head in the shoulder of whoever was holding her saying, "too scary!"  Poor thing!  

LOVE this!

Special Shapes!

These two were new to me.  I loved that Horton the Elephant Balloon.  

The bees

Air-a-Belle

Sydney kept calling the shark balloon a "dolphin."  :)  

Darth Vader is still a huge favorite of our family.  This year the kids even got their hands on a couple of  Darth Vader cards--usually it's so hard to get close enough to that balloon to talk to any of the crew who have the cards to pass out, so that was pretty exciting for Sean and Hayden. 

When we got home, we found we had just missed out on the excitement of a balloon landing on our street!  They were just packing up the basket when we pulled into our driveway!  And our cameras battery had died by the time we left Balloon Fiesta, so I don't even have any pictures of them loading up just two houses up from us.  Our cute next-door-neighbor, Simone, said she was ringing our doorbell and knocking on our door for us to come out and see it!  Too bad we weren't home yet!  This is the first year since we've lived here that the wind blew the balloons over to our neighborhood.  Most of the time they seem to head west.

Happy Balloon Fiesta!

As always, friends, mark your calendars for the first two weekends in October, 

and come visit us next year!    

You will not find a ballooning event to equal this one in the 

whole WIDE WORLD!

And, we promise to make you some amazing breakfast burritos.