Winter Balloon

Tired of balloons yet?  I looked out my window this evening and spotted this beauty.  The mountains are looking extra pretty and wintery since our first snowstorm this past weekend.  I couldn't resist posting these pictures since I'm on a little hot air balloon kick.

Balloon Fiesta from our deck

As I said in the last post, we have the best views from our deck and backyard.  Balloon Fiesta was so fun all week because of it.  Every morning we could see hundreds of balloons.  We ate breakfast upstairs so we could watch all of the balloons.  Matt took all of the pictures in this post from our house.  I think there are so many beautiful ones.  I love hot air balloons. 

 

The next four pictures were taken on a random morning in September.  On a typical day we see 3 or 4 balloons.

 

 

 

 

 

Balloon Fiesta

Quite possibly my very favorite thing about living in Albuquerque is the presence of hot air balloons.  The house we are renting sits above the river so from our back deck and backyard we have glorious views of the mountains and the city.  We also have almost daily hot air balloon sightings.

I was so excited for fiesta week to arrive and it did not disappoint!  Everyday the sky outside our backdoor filled with hundreds of hot air balloons (I'll do those pics in another post).  I could hear the burners and smell the propane.

We took the kids to a Glowdeo.  The balloons are filled up and then tethered to the ground as the sun sets and the sky darkens.  It was beautiful and dramatic.  I love, love, loved it.

Here are a few of our pictures.  Probably WAY too  many, but I think each and everyone is just so pretty.

 

I've heard this is one of the only hot air balloon festivals where spectators are allowed to be right on the field next to the balloons inflating and deflating.  There were several times we were a little too close.

 

Oliver was there, somewhere under the blankets.  It was cold and windy the night we went.  Oliver stayed wrapped up and slept most of the time.

 The Glowdeo was followed by a fireworks show...  also wonderful.

 

birthday momma

I never seem to post in order or on schedule.  Christmas in February.  Valentine's Day in July.  Why not?  So here's my birthday post in November that I should have done in September.

Matt had the whole week of my birthday off!  It was lovely. We spent my birthday at the zoo. We've lived in three cities with fabulous zoos - Toledo, Memphis, and now Albuquerque.

My favorite animals at the Albuquerque zoo are the seals and sea lions.  I love watching them swim.

Here I am watching them. I post this picture because of the strollers around me. Yup, they are both ours. It was the first time Matt and I took the three kids out somewhere we might need a stroller (Ollie was 7 weeks old).  We weren't sure what strollers we'd need and since we were both there we brought a seat for each kid.  We only really needed a seat for Ollie in the end.  But he got to rotate around and change it up.  Willa and Clark pretty much ran and ran and ran.

 

 

 

After the zoo, I came home to beautiful flowers sitting on my front porch from Moe,

 

 

Willa, Oliver, and I played,

 

and we finished off the night with cake.  Matt was behind the camera all day, I guess.  No pictures of him.  oops.