Parkes Ranch: Balloon Fiesta 2012!

Balloon Fiesta is a very special event in Albuquerque -- hotels are booked months in advance, airfare to Albuquerque spikes, morning rush hour accidents quadruple, and crazy people all over the city get up hours before dawn to drive through bumper-to-bumper traffic to Balloon Fiesta Park. Oh, and several hundred hot air balloons rise above the city for one of the most majestic sights I've ever seen.

Dale had to travel for work during Balloon Fiesta week, so I begged and pleaded and dropped several hints with my family and finally convinced my wonderful sister to come out to visit us for a week -- to help out with the kids and cook dinners for us and simply be a second adult in a house full of young kids.

Rachel and Simon arrived at the beginning of the week and made my life immeasurably easier from the beginning, despite some hilarious incidents that might not have happened under different circumstances. I live in a house with three kids, so I've become accustomed to devoting only 90% of my attention to any one child at a time -- the other 10% of my attention is split between the other two kids, even if they aren't immediately in front of me. I also instinctively leave every area child-proofed, making sure that the kids can't get into anything that I don't want them to get in when I'm not around. My dear sister Rachel comes from a house with only one child, and as such hasn't developed these multiple-children skills (yet!).

On the second day that Rachel was visiting, she gave Simon his nightly bath, then pulled him out of the bath and took him into her bedroom for lotion and pajamas -- without first draining the tub (a mistake every parent of multiple kids makes ONCE). Enter Cordelia, freshly bathed herself and in her pajamas. Cordelia took one look at the bathtub full of water and toys and decided to climb in! I heard her splashing in the water and ran in to pull her out of the bath, but not before she soaked her pajamas and diaper.

The next night Rachel gave Simon a bath again, promising to drain the tub before taking him back to her bedroom. She was so intent on making sure that the bathroom wasn't unattended that she didn't think about her bedroom. I had been cleaning up after dinner downstairs, and when I walked upstairs and past Rachel's bedroom, I heard Adelaida telling Estella to be very still. I looked in and saw Adelaida rubbing something white into Estella's hair. Adelaida had found Rachel's face wash and decided that it was going to be Estella's shampoo! She had poured out half the bottle, most of it ending up in Estella's hair, plus some on the floor, some on the bed, and some on Rachel's clothes. It was such a mess! Needless to say, Estella had another bath, where we tried to rinse most of the face wash out of her hair.

I think Rachel learned a few lessons about surviving with multiple kids in the house that week!

Really, other than those two incidents, the week was disaster-free and I so appreciated having my sister around for moral support while Dale was gone.

At the end of the week, Dale returned, and we decided to go to Balloon Fiesta. That involved getting up very early, bundling everyone in warm clothes, and trekking through Balloon Fiesta Park with four tired kids.

Balloon Fiesta was amazing, as usual. Walking on the launch field, with balloons inflating, standing, and taking off all around you, is an incredible experience. This post shows some of the better pictures we took that morning, and looking over these pictures the positive memories (seeing the dawn patrol balloons burn and ascend, watching the special shapes balloons fly, and watching a balloon go from fully deflated to rising) outweigh the less positive memories of the morning (flat tire in the double stroller, cranky Simon, none of the kids wanting to ride in the rented wagon, Adelaida pouting). And as usual, I have more pictures than I have words to describe this incredible event!