International Balloon Fiesta

It may be our only real claim to fame, but seriously... check out some of these photos! The International Balloon Fiesta that happens every year here in Albuquerque certainly is quite a site to behold. These first couple of pictures were taken at the Saturday Morning Mass Ascension. Literally thousands of balloons from all over the world gather for this event and the crowds are unbelievable. Rick had to work, but Noah and I took the "park and ride" down to the park. (This was Noah's first time on a bus and that practically deserves a whole post all to itself. Seriously... the boy almost had a coronary, he was so excited...) This year was the first time I've made it out for a Mass Ascension... waking up and getting down to the park by 6:30 am was almost too much to ask... but after getting down there, it was sooooo worth it.


As you can see from that last picture, there are lots of fun shapes to be seen up in the air during the week of Balloon Fiesta. By far the best event takes place later on in the week. It's called the Special Shapes Glowdeo, and although none of the balloons actually take flight, it's a blast to see them all lit up at night. Just before sundown all the balloons start taking shape. There are speakers set up throughout the whole park and they start counting down to the "all glow." All of the balloons simultaneously light up and the whole park comes alive with crazy shapes. The pictures aren't the best (mainly because I spent 3/4 of the times trying to figure out what setting would be best on my camera), but you get the idea.

Darth Vader was a new addition this year... honestly, it was a little creepy to see his head just floating around in the sky every morning.

And just because my boys are so super cute, I had to throw in this one last picture. To give you a little background, Noah has recently started to appreciate the novelty of saying "cheese" during the whole picture taking process. Well, every time a balloon would light up, he would look at it and say "cheese!!!" with his eyes all scrunched up. How cute is that?

Early Release Due to Sneaky Behavior

There was nothing unusual about this day to make me think that my life was about to change. My morning had been spent frantically trying to catch up on things that should have been done yesterday. (Alright, alright... a week ago... but who's counting, right?) After deciding, yet again, what lunch to feed my ever increasingly picky eater, I finally reached my favorite time of day... nap time. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of a whole hour (or hopefully two) ALL TO MYSELF. I dreamt of sitting and watching something very non-animated... maybe even taking a nap. That made me chuckle a little as I settled for a few minutes to balance the checkbook in peace. Time flew by and I knew that things would be coming to a close very shortly. I heard him stirring in the next room... I said a silent prayer that today would be that lucky day that he would roll over and go back to sleep for another 10 minutes. Allowing myself to slip a little deeper into that mommy selective hearing mode, I suddenly jumped when he appeared out of the corner of my eye...

Wait... what?!? How in the...?... Nooooo!!!! The time had come. My dear sweet boy... the one who keeps me running from morning 'til night. The overactive 2 year old that just wont stop. The one who had NEVER shown even an ounce of interest in finding his own way out of that wonderful invention, the crib. Suddenly, my one last haven... was gone. First, he learned to crawl. Then, he learned to walk. Even when he learned how to open and close doors. Through it all, I could always count on the crib. The one thing that would always keep things exactly where and how I wanted them. Safe, happy, LOCKED UP. In the blink of an eye, it was gone.

And that is what it's like to have children, isn't it? The moment that you think you've finally nailed down a good routine, and things are flowing kind of smoothly... wham! Your world flips upside down and you have to start from scratch. New plan. New routine.

So, now we've got the "big boy bed." (We received a great toddler bed from my sister here in Albuquerque). And you all know how that plays out. Days, weeks, even months of convincing your child that after over 2 years of being behind bars, they should actually choose to stay in bed on their own. Right.

So that has been my life for the past week. I know all parent have to go through it, in some form or another. But seriously... sometimes you have to stop and wonder about it all. But here I sit. My husband is in bed, and yes, even the boy is finally fast asleep in his non-crib. We'll just pretend for now that things will stay that way all night...