What better way to start blogging again than to share my love for hot air balloons!
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| Right before we left that morning |
We love to go to this yearly event but hadn't been in years. I really just needed a two year break from most the things we usually did because Madeline has WORN ME DOWN! This child is busy. So, so busy. She never stops moving and she just loves destroying things (just wait for the cake below). I was very determined to go to the races this year and we made it! It was slightly different, the location was changed and it was harder to navigate the grounds, but we had fun. It's an all day event. The balloons don't launch until 4:30 or so (wind depending). In order to get parking and enjoy the other festivities we arrive around 11am. So this is quite a long day with kiddos. I wish I had a picture of all the stuff I had packed for the all day event. I left a lot in the car upon realizing we had to walk a mile. I packed our small drink cooler, food, toys, blankets, etc in two ROLLING suit cases. I fancy myself a genius for this.
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| Only picture of the crew walking a mile and rolling two suitcases and a wagon. |
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| Before we left the house, super fancy Beatrice! |
Ricky and I have been working out and eating better lately. We decided
we would cut back on drinking alcohol so we packed flavored sparking water.We lasted all of an hour and a half in the heat, with six kids, rolling luggage, parking stress, a literal mile walk from our car with eight of us, crowds, and the added stress of lines with kids. It was me who broke. I grabbed Ricky by the arm pointed to a beer stand and told him to get us Blue Moon because neither one us wants to do this without beer. Hahaaa! He did not argue. The cold beer was so refreshing in the heat. Moderation ya know?
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| Doesn't look like he just worked a 60 hour work week, but he did! |
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The snow cone truck gives you a lei if you order a large snow cone (we ordered all smalls), but they gave
us lei's anyway because we ordered so much and they probably felt bad for
us in an endearing way. We were literally juggling kids, beer,
money, snow cones, a baby... and two kids could not make up their mind to save their lives. Chaos is my life. It's not that I thrive in it (ok maybe I do) it's more that I'm just used to it. It stresses Ricky totally out though. I just roll with it, which is funny because he is actually the more laid back person in general. He's fairly stressed on this day because the poor guy just worked a 60 hour work week and he is dealing with crowds and juggling snow cones, and he worries about the kids a lot when we are out with crowds. But, now we have beer. I think sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
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| Snow cones and inflatables = childhood memories |
Aunt Sharon made me my darling skirt and I'm absolutely in love with it. I got so many compliments and everyplace I walked I could hear a trail of people behind me commenting about my skirt. Dozens of people stopped me and told me how cute it was, how nice I looked, how fun it was. So, that was super fun! At balloon launch time I ran around like a chicken chasing balloons in a secluded area while my patient husband snapped photos. He always helps me chase my wild ideas and dreams! I hope he truly knows how grateful I am.
Before the launch we played with our parachute I brought, met huge caterpillars, ate lunch and cake, "relaxed", and ran around.
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| Strawberry cake was a little smashed from a trip in a suitcase, Ha! But it was good! | |
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| Penelope found a huge fat caterpillar. I pretended to eat it. It's something I do with bugs more often than is normal to freak little kids out. LOL. I'm weird. We put him back where he was found. |
Everything is good. We are chilling. Kids are happy. It's a really hot day, but we are okay.
Then all of the sudden we look over and Madeline had stuck her head right down in the half eaten cake. Just for fun.
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| Not sure if this is the face of regret or pleasure in her mischief. |
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| Bea is laughing her butt off about it. |
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| I mean this is what I do. I don't even flinch. I'm SO NOT SURPRISED. It's Madeline! | | | |
My photos of the skydivers came out really great this year...
Layla, teenager now, doesn't get in front of the camera very much. But she took a couple cute photos of me and Ricky. Unfortunately people were walking by. Ha! So I have to get them photo-shopped out. For now, they are there. I don't have time for Photoshop right now. I have nine kids.
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| We picked a super secluded spot, but once in awhile there were suddenly people. And I was doing this. lol. |
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| And This. |
And that's our super fun day at the balloon races. I have actually been in a hot air balloon before! When I was 20 years old. It was super fun and not scary at all. I've become more afraid of heights over the years though, but I do hope to fly the open aired sky in a basket again some day. The basket I was in was huge! Huge! like it could fit 15 or more people. These baskets are so tiny:
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| Imagine traveling in the sky 30 miles like that! |
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There is a hot air balloon fiesta in New Mexico that looks so stunning the photos and videos online gives me goosebumps. More balloons take off there at once than anywhere in the world. In 2011, 345 hot air balloons took to the air within one hour, setting the world record for the most hot air balloons launched in one hour. I get insanely excited about 40 balloons, I cannot even contain my excitement for this! I have to start preparing Ricky for the crowds! LOL! (And I can rock that skirt!!!)
One more super huge detail of the day: Charlotte (21) was at home for the day and after we left in a rush there were dishes, toys, and messes everywhere. You know what that is like, no matter how hard you try there is just so much that gets undone when you prepare for a huge outing, especially if kids are involved! She cleaned the house up while we were gone. That is the best gift anyone can give their mom. The gift of relaxation when you get home! Ah. My kid is so great. I seriously can't explain how appreciative I was --and I really didn't get to relax when I got home, but I was able to easily attend to 20 other things without added stress or worry, because the next day we went to the zoo and I was unpacking and then packing for that... and that's just crazy! Coming soon, the Decade Dame's Pin Up Day at the zoo post! BUSY WEEKEND!
