There should be a post before this, about retiring, about parties, about family and two sick kids and a long, long, long road trip. It's going to come, probably this afternoon? Maybe it won't come. Maybe I'll get busy.
But the first day of Fiesta, Saturday for us, no one flew. In fact the weather was so bad, the city called it. No flying. We didn't go out that morning (the crew left at 4:45AM). We had breakfast instead. So when you don't balloon ... there are only opportunities to take pictures such as these ...
And these below. Grady had a lot of fun in Albuquerque. Of course, the entire time we were there, including as we walked in to dad's retirement ceremony, he said he wanted to "go home." David, a professional baby in all regards, was great. He probably slept 80% of the time we were there. And we all shared a room, which was remarkable in it's ease.
In prior lives, G would scream if he could see us but we weren't playing with him or up with him. This time, he just wanted us to be in the room with him. So I would stay in the room until he fell asleep and then I'd sneak out. This forced me to take a nap on two occassions, which sometimes I really need someone to force me to do.
Sunday we weren't going to go with them. But my mom txt (or I txt her?) at about 6:30 to see if they were going. Dawn patrol was setting up. It seemed likely they would fly. So what to do? Well Lewis sort of demanded we get up and go. I was more inclined to say let's just skip it and pack up and get on the road (this goes back to the next post about long, long road trips ... I was much more eager to start the day on the road and make that easier, versus seeing balloons). But I'm very, very glad we did decide to go out. Fiesta is amazing.
Watching a mass ascension is just the
coolest. It really is. Fiesta is nuts with all the people and the planning and the organizing and the parties but the actual ascension is just amazing. So many balloons. And G really seemed to appreciate it this year. His eyes just big as saucers watching all the balloons and the special shapes! He loved special shapes. He could tell the pig was a pig by some wierd coincidence before it was even fully inflated. He loved the cow. The elephant. It was just really neat. David, however, was less interested, and slept the entire time.
We chased afterwards but this was where our plan should have changed. We should have skipped this part, or at least the tailgate afterwards, and went and packed and hit the road. We had a super long drive ahead of us and I'd had four hours of sleep and Lewis had only had six. It was scary there towards the end because me in the passenger seat kept dosing off and then jumping awake afraid that Lewis was in the same boat! He didn't seem to be (he said he was fine) but I tried to stay awake to help him stay awake and it was really difficult.
Our first Fiesta as a foursome. Definitely not our last!
Such an amazing event. If you ever have the opportunity, I really recommend taking the first week in October off and going. It's amazing. Pictures hardly do it justice.
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