Balloon Fiesta 2011 - with visitors!

We were so excited to hear that we would get to host some visitors for Balloon Fiesta this year.  First, my mom said she wanted to come (replacing her traditional pre-Christmas trip... now I'm wishing she could do both.)  Then, Melissa said that sounded like fun - we could celebrate Kate's birthday with some REALLY big birthday balloons.  Then, my cute Grandma Primmer said she was game for it too - great bucket list item - and came along with them.

My mom tells me that Grandma Primmer is the reason that the weather is bad whenever she visits a place.  Now that I think about it, the last SEVERAL times she has traveled to visit for a big event, the weather has been quite less than pleasant.  I'm not sure we can totally blame her, but the theory really might hold some truth.  We had unbelievably gorgeous weather before she came, and went back to it just hours after she left.  But, the weather while they were all here was AWFUL.  It's rare to have to apologize for bad weather in NM.  If we do, it's for partial cloud cover, or a blustery wind.  Nope, Grandma brought full on New England style rain with her, complete with a chilly little cold front that forced us to dig through the Boston box of outerwear to survive the weekend.  I swear the flip-flop tan line on my feet is fresh people.   This was the preview for our weekend weather.

Still, we managed to have quite a good time.  How can you really put a damper on double grandma-spoilage of the grandkids, cousin playing and outings, a birthday party, hot air balloons, and great food?  I was super impressed with my grandma that she survived it all.  We dragged her from the Earth to the Moon and back with only a sound-track of whiny, tired kids, and barking moms for nourishment and rest.

Here are the highlights:

Wed:  they landed bright and early at 8am and made it to my house by 9:30.  That was a challenge for me to have company get here so early in the day.  I tossed the last cleaning rag in the laundry room just as they pulled up.  We hit the ground running as soon as my kids got off the bus at 1pm and headed to the aquarium so that Sean could have some shark time.  Since he ran straight from the gate to the sharks (the last exhibit on your way out), we spent a total of about 15 minutes at the aquarium; but made up for it in shopping time at the gift shop.  Those grandmas are like walking ATM's I tell ya.  

Thurs:  my poor kids had to go to school for one more day, so we made do without them and headed to Old Town.  Unfortunately, the rest of the folks in town for Balloon Fiesta had the same idea, so it was pretty crowded and full of overpricing.  Still - great food and fun shopping.  (but look at that sky behind the church!)

And, then, the debate started... will they hold the "glow" at balloon fiesta tonight?  We went back and forth on whether we should bag it, stay home, and have Kate's party, or be optimistic and just go for it and hope for the best.  Just in case, I made a quick Rapunzel cake for Kate.  

Kate and Harriet are so much the princesses:

We waffled too much and ended up having half of Kate's party, (Happy 3rd Birthday sweetie-pie!)

then, scrambled for a few warm clothes at the last minute, threw everyone in the car, drove to the fiesta park - only to find that it was too windy and wet to blow up balloons and that we were likely very underdressed - AFTER entering the park.  We should have known better when they didn't charge for parking or take our tickets.  But, we toughed it out and stayed for the fireworks (so glad they still did the fireworks!)  Brought wet, tired, cold kids and grandmas home for the night.  

 I've been threatened within an inch of my life to not post pictures of my mom and my grandma on the internet.  Too bad.  

 We all know Melissa was the one having the BEST time of anyone.  

 She did get to see ONE balloon glow.

 And, she got to see some pretty darn great fireworks.  Come on Kate - this is a great birthday party!  

Fri:  woke up to more rain, lasting all day.  No balloons launched in the morning.  (did I mention I cleaned my 25 foot tall windows so that we could see balloons every morning as we woke up and came down the stairs?  that never happened...)  No glow at night.  Decided to spend the morning at the GGYR pumpkin patch and then hit a dollar movie in the pm.  STILL have too many unused balloon tickets, and so gave some away, but kept enough for mass ascension on Saturday (PLEASE weather!!)  

 Cowboy Max locked the kids in the hen house.  Why didn't I think of that?  Can we catch you later, like in 2 hours?

 Best Cousins...

I love how you can forget about screaming monster kids with a few darling pictures of them on their best behavior.  

Kept our tradition of doing a gingerbread house with Grandma - except, this one was haunted; and we painted the heck out of those pumpkins we bought at the pumpkin patch.  I think Kate's just dried yesterday.  Then, we spent a good hour organizing the warmest collection of clothes for the next morning's mad dash.  David, bless his soul, made take-out breakfast burritos for us to grab in the morning too.   He may have avoided us for the entire 3 days, but we know he loves us somewhere down deep.

Sat:  3:30am - the bright moon wakes me up as it comes shining into my bedroom window.  I know we're golden.  It means the sky is clear and we have time to dry up enough to see some balloons.  Wake up the troops at 4:20 (I KNOW Melissa prayed for rain all night.  She did not want to get up at 4:20 and go on a 4 hour outing with her kids.  But, too bad for her, the grandmas came for balloons and they were going to get them.)   We hit the road at 5am and get a little worried that we don't have any traffic all the way to the fiesta park.  But, they do charge us for parking (unlike the other night), so we know they must have at least something going.  As we walk down to the field, I know it won't be as awesome as it could be.  It looks like about half of the normal number of balloons are there.  We wait a long time as they decide which ones can launch and when.  We visit Harriet's teacher's balloon site.  We see a few inflate, but none take off.  At 7:54, Melissa decides to throw in the towel and head home to pack.  I beg her to just wait until 8am to see if something will happen at the hour.  Reluctantly, she gives me 6 minutes.  Her 6 minutes pay off because they do start the mass ascension.  Even though we don't see as many, we do get to see quite a few take off against the gorgeous background of fresh snow on Sandia Peak, a clear sky, and an ethereal sunrise over the last clouds lingering on the mountains.  

 stinker kids took grandma's chair...

look how cold she looks!  she should have kicked them out.

Just before the balloons start to inflate in mass, my camera battery dies.  figures.  I take a few terrible shots of the ascension on my "dumb" phone (as smart as I like to think I am, I do not, yet, have a smart phone.) I don't know what was with the wind, but it was blowing the balloons the wrong direction, towards the mountains, so they had to come down pretty quick.  We didn't get to see them floating over the city all morning and come down one by one.  They went up, they came down, but we did get to see them. 

We fly home and pack like crazy so that they can make it to the airport.  Apparently, noon on Saturday was the only time the flights weren't full for the weekend.  Most people aren't awesome enough to be able to attend mass ascension and make it to the airport in the same morning.  We send them on their way feeling like we really did not have enough time to hang out and enjoy each other's company.  We aren't sure where the 3 days went.
(Then, yes Grandma, the day warmed up and the weather got gorgeous again.)

Still, I am always thankful for any amount of time I get to spend with my family.  My mom, grandma, and sisters are such favorite companions of mine.  No matter what we do or how great (or not) it is, we just like being together, so I do thank them for going through some major effort to come and see me all together like that.  I know they were all tired beyond words.  I have some choice pictures of all of them sleeping throughout the weekend, but at the risk of not getting any Christmas presents from them, I'll just put up this one of Hattie.  She went to crawl back in her Grandma's bed after she left for the airport only to find the bedding stacked up on the floor.  She decided that was good enough, crawled in, and slept for 5 hours half upside down.  Then, went to bed on time and slept til the next morning.  Good times.