Psych!

This was the first year in the 10 years that we have lived here that we decided to go to a Mass Ascension. We have always been too lazy or figured the kids would die from getting up so early so we settle for watching on tv and from the backyard. We mistakenly assumed that if we left the house by 6 am we would get there in time for the 7 am mass ascension, on opening day no less! Normally this trip would take about 20 min, but after an hour of sitting on the shoulder of the freeway getting only inches closer to our exit we decided to bail. We did get to see dawn patrol from the car, which is where some balloons go up to check out the weather and give the all clear for the other balloons to go up. Then the sun came out and we could see all the balloons inflating getting ready for take off. At this point everyone in the car had lost their mind, especially me -I admit it- and so we finally gave up because by the time we paid for parking and walked onto the field all the balloons would have been up. There was no way to turn around for several exits because the balloon traffic wreaks serious havoc on the freeway and exits so we had to keep going, find a place to eat and wait it out. We ended up having a scrumptious breakfast ( I had pumpkin pancakes-yumo) and everyone found their happiness again.

On our way home it was such a beautiful site to see all the balloons in the air so we decided to pull over by the casino off Tramway and join the other roadside spectators enjoying the free show. I think we found the best kept secret for viewing balloon fiesta. We realized that we wouldn't have been able to get over to that exit that morning any easier than the balloon fiesta itself but if we just went down the freeway a ways and turned around we could probably access the exit from the frontage road. We were also wondering how much the rooms at the casino were going for because they seriously have the best view in town.

I wish I were the kind of Mom that would have seen the bad attitude of the kids coming on and started singing songs or playing games to keep them happy, but I'm the kind of Mom that infected her kids with her impatient genes. For the record I did try to sing a song with the kids but it was more mocking the kind of Mom that does that than actually trying to help my kids --I'm so bad! This trip was educational in that we learned that you have to leave by 5am at the latest, my kids got all my worst traits and we are pretty funny even when we are grumpy. We managed to make lemonade out of lemons in the end and we can have a good laugh about the time we all lost our minds (except for Nate, of course, who never looses his mind) in the car very early in the morning trying to go see the stinkin' balloons. lol :)