The Astonishing Amazing Awesome Appealing Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Lissa had the awesome idea for her family to go to the world-famous Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and wondered if we wanted to join them. Of course we said YES!! 

The Balloon Fiesta is held the first two weekends in October. We started making hotel reservations and checking for flights in August. The flights were all very expensive if you flew into Albuquerque, so we decided to fly into El Paso, Texas and rent a car to drive to Albuquerque. (it's about a four-hour drive) 

We were able to see Tyler and Rachel's family for a few hours before we started our drive to Albuquerque. 

                                             

                 We drove through some very pretty countryside in New Mexico and were at the  Albuquerque airport in plenty of time to pick up the Stinsons. Their flight landed at 9pm, and we went to our hotel from there. We shared a two-bedroom suite with them at the Residence Inn. The next day was Friday, and we spent the day exploring some of the museums in Albuquerque. 

Kiera looking at one of the displays about the native culture in New Mexico.

This was a mural on one of the walls of the cultural center.

We also went to the New Mexico Museum of natural history and saw some displays about dinosaurs.

That evening we ate at a pizza place with a friend of Lissa's who we'd known when we lived in Japan. She gave us some tips about what time to leave to go to the Balloon Fiesta.

We went to bed early that night and we were up at 4am on Saturday morning to start the drive to the place where the balloon fiesta is held. We waited in a LOOOOONG line of cars to get to the parking lot, and it was shortly after 5am when we went through the gates. We scoped out a place and set up lawn chairs and blankets that we'd borrowed from Tyler and Rachel. It was surprisingly chilly. Below is the first glimpse we had of the balloons at about 

The balloons looked really amazing lit up against the dark sky. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were too windy and the balloons weren't able to ascend, other than a few.

By 8am it was announced that the balloons wouldn't be ascending that day, so we headed back to the hotel. We took naps and watched a session of General Conference. Around lunchtime Tyler and Rachel's family arrived to spend the rest of the weekend with us. We drove to the Petroglyph National Monument, which was near by, and we spent the afternoon hiking on the trails.

The cousins had fun together!

Note the petroglyphs on the rock behind Lissa, Jason and Kiera.

Christian did a very good job of keeping up with the grown-ups and big kids, but got a ride from Daddy at the end of the trail.

Just thought this photo of Savannah, Sylvia and Melody in their hats exploring something in the path was TOO adorable!!

We were back at the Fiesta grounds bright and early again on Sunday morning at 5am. 

We all cuddled together to stay warm.

This time we were rewarded with an absolutely PERFECT day, and over 500 hot air balloons went up!

                                      

S

It was breathtaking to see all the balloons filling up and then ascending into the sky.

This shot shows lots of animal shaped balloons.

We took about a thousand pictures.

It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

There was a wide variety of balloons, but they were all colorful and cool in their own way.

We were home by about 9am to rest a bit before watching a session of General Conference. In the afternoon we went to explore downtown Albuquerque.

                               

There was definitely a distinct Pueblo style of architecture in Albuquerque.

All the cousins together at a fountain in the middle of the town.

I thought these colorful hanging decorations were pretty.

That evening we went back to the Balloon fiesta grounds to watch the balloons "glow" at night.

Savannah and Kiera helped one of the balloonists prepare their balloon to fill up.

The balloons didn't leave the ground, they just filled up so they were upright.

As it got dark they lit their fires so the balloons would glow.

It was really cool to see.

The grand finale for the evening was a fireworks show.

It was a fantastic ending to a spectacular weekend!

We drove home on Monday morning and made a stop at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

We went to the visitor's center, which wasn't very big!

Here's some of the nice New Mexico scenery we saw as we drove back to El Paso for our afternoon flight back to Virginia. It was a super fun weekend!