This morning at 5am I contemplated the possibility of loading my children in the car to go to the Mass Ascension. Yesterday the wind was blowing fiercely and raining, so it wasn't looking good for a calm morning. I was feeling bad for a couple that I met in the temple who had come from SL for the balloon fiesta and had tickets for a balloon ride this morning. I offered to pray fervently for good weather for them....I'm not claiming that my prayers worked.....but it was a gloriously perfect morning for balloons :0) haha
So, at 5 am I went outside to assess the weather situation and it was perfectly calm and still. Bummer, I now had to go wake up the kids and get them ready to go instead of staying in my toasty warm bed. Normally we would leave by 5 ... 5:30 if we're feeling lucky, so that we don't get stuck in traffic and miss the entire thing. I was feeling lazy this year and Nate wasn't coming with us....so I pushed it to 6....I was feeling daring.
As you can see, it was a toasty 32 degrees this morning and with the rain from yesterday, the ground was covered in frost. The frozen grass was making the little ones feet freeze but other than that, it really wasn't that cold....we've been to colder for the fiesta.
The Kids favorite balloon this year was, what we're calling, sherlock penguin. He was seriously cute, especially with his pipe and spy glass.
Some of the fun shapes this year....wish I would have thought to turn my flash off for the earlier morning pics, they're a bit dark....oh well, that's what you get from a mwac. The kids also loved the balloon we're calling "merlin." There were 10 new shapes this year that have never been to abq before. The special shapes is where it's at. Hopefully the "regular" balloons are under no false delusions about their awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, they're still beautiful against our beautifully blue sky, they're just not as awesome as a special shapes.
Jared's other favorite this year was the British flag. Him and I have an obsession with British television, so the picture was our little ode to that.
There were lots of people there this morning. Luckily I've been here long enough to know the tricks. The newbies stay in the center on the paved path. It's a nightmare. It doesn't help that I'm not a fan of crowds. We head to the outside of the field and weave our way between the balloons. It is much less crowded and you have a much higher probability of snapping a decent photo. I also love to see the tourist that walk around with their camera in the air the entire time and running into everyone.
Because I pushed it to the limit, we got there just after Dawn Patrol went up and just as the National Anthem was played. It was beyond perfect timing.
When the sun rose the balloons popped against the sky. It really doesn't ever get old. I've been here almost 15 years now and I still love the balloons.
See what heading to the outside does...no crowds...which makes me happy!
The kids and I noticed that this queen was waving to all the balloons or giving the "permission" for their send off.....or like the wicked witch of the west saying to her minion flying monkeys, "fly!" haha
I'm telling you, it's beautiful and breathtaking in person. You should experience it!
We are such old pros at this that we were leaving the field by 8:30 this morning. I was still taking pictures while we were walking to the parking lot. Luckily I talked my kids out of doing any of the booths or standing in line for food. We stopped at McDonalds on the way home and I made myself a breakfast burrito with my home canned green chile (I'm semi off the juice) - yum. We had all that fun before 9 am this morning, awesome!
To warm ourselves up when we got home, we all piled into my bed and watched the first episode of a new show we've been anxiously awaiting. It's about a girl named Alice in a land full of wonder.
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