Balloon Fiesta 2

Dennis, Bob, & Jorge arrived on October 6th for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! After Mom & I picked them up from the airport we went to El Taco Tote for dinner. Then we took them to their hotel and then they came over to our house for a visit! The next morning we went to the Balloon Fiesta! The gal who was directing the parking took this group picture of us! It was a beautiful morning cool with very low clouds! (This will come into play later!) From where we parked you had to walk down the steep sloping hillside to get to the Field. The first part of the morning was the special shapes. However is was a little windy and some of the shapes couldn't get inflated! The intresting thing about the AIBF is that you can walk right up and touch the balloons! However most of the pilots don't like you to do that! But you can ask questions of the pilots and their crew! After all of the special shapes went up that wanted to go up they had competition flying. The Zebras (Flight directors of the AIBF) cleared one half of the field and they had Key Grabs and Money Drops. For the Key Grabs the pilot has to get his balloon inline with a 15 to 20 foot pole that has a key on the end! Then he/she leans out and grabs the key! That day they were grabing for keys to a new Truck! I have seen where they are grabing keys for a new house! However most of the Balloons cost more that the house they were giving away! For the Money Drops each pilot has a beanbag with a long tail on it. The tail is numbered with the AIBF Balloon Number that is for that balloon! Then they try to drop their beanbag on different targets. Depending on how large or small the target is is the amount of money the pilot gets! The smaller the target the larger the money amount! Before we left the Balloon Field we went shopping! Here is Dennis and a hat he tried on. He didn't buy the hat! But I got some great gloves made from Alpaca Wool for half of the original price. I think I paid $12.00 for a pair of hand made gloves I know I got a bargain! After we left the Balloon Field we went to the new Super Target! Jorge works for Target so it was fun for him to see this bigger and better Target! More of Target goodness to love! Also we used Jorge's employee discounto! Then we went up to the Tram! Ok now I have lived here for 10 years and visited lots before but I had never been on the tram! The amazing thing about our trip is that we came out above the clouds! It was warmer on the mountain top that it was in town! The person who works for the tram people said that in all of her 12 years working for the tram she has never seen this! We then went to pick up mom and then off to our favorite place for lunch...Village Pizza! We then came back home for a little nap and then off that evening for the Special Shapes Glowdeo! This is where the pilots change the air to fuel mixture for the balloons and the fire will burn yellow instead of blue. Dennis & I went shopping for some hats that we had seen earlier in the day! Dennis is an elementary School Principal and he got this great "Horton Hears A Hoo" hat and I got this great witches hat! My hat has this beautiful lace spider web in the crook of the hat and a little dangley spider off the crook! It was great fun walking back to mom wearing the hat. We had parked mom on the field when we went shopping. I went back to sit with her and Dennis, Bob, & Jorge went around the balloons. Here is a great picture of Jorge almost getting landed on by Airabell the Cow Balloon! Airabell is Dennis' favorite balloon! After the fire works at the end of the Glowdeo we went to dinner then off to bed! Thus ends day one! We woke up the next morning and went to Jacklope then off to Albuquerque's Old Town and then up to Santa Fe! We stayed 2 nights in Santa Fe! It was a lot of fun! The first night we just went to dinner then to bed! The next morning we got up and off to breakfast at the Pantry. While there Jorge pulled a bunch of brochures and I found this great yarn shop called Oodles! We went to see the Georgia O'Keefe museum then over to Oodles. The boys dropped me off at Oodles to look at the beautiful yarn and they went over to Our Lady of Guadlupe Church. Dennis loves our Lady of Guadlupe and loves to go to different Our Lady Churches! Then we did Santa Fe's Old Town. We went to the Santa Fe Catherdal but were between times for Mass so we couldn't go onto the church it's self and then over to the Loreado chapel with the Miraculous Staircase! Then we went to the La Fonda Hotel. The boys did old town, I sat at in the hotel and played with my yarn! That night we had a great dinner at the Blue Corn Brewing Co. and then off to bed. The last morning we got up had breakfast at the hotel and then drove back to Albuquerque and left them off at the airport! I know they had a great time and I had a wonderful time with my friends!

Thanksgiving

The tridition for the Mills' gals has been to drive up to Cortez, Colorado and spend Thanksgiving with our Family there. However this year we were supposed to go to California for the weekend before Thanksgiving for First Christian Church, Huntington Beach's 100th Anniversary Celebration, but that got moved to early October; we decided to stay at home. The first incarnation of the trip was that the weekend before Thanksgiving would be for the Celebration and then we would spend Thanksgiving with Dennis and family. Mom had also kinda decided that she didn't want to go to Cortez so we decided to stay at home. Our friend, Marilyn McClenahan, invited us to their new house for Thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun and a lot of food & a lot of pies! I even got the Turkey carcus and made Turkey Soup last night!

Sorry!

I have written a wonderful blog about the Balloon Fiesta including pictures. However the pictures are not wanting to load. So I had to delete the whole thing and I will try to write the thing again and download the pictures from my computer at home!

Coming Soon!

Well I spoke with Dennis on Sunday and he said that he mailed the pictures from the Balloon Fiesta to me on Thursday! So that means that I should get them today! I can't wait to see them and post them for you!

Mother Earth

I have a tub that I keep in our Dining room that I use to put our clean glass recyclable. Here in New Mexico we can't put glass in our recycle can that they pick up once a week. We can recycle cardbard, newspapers, #2 plastic, tin, & aluminum cans. But since it all goes into one trash can they don't like us to put in glass! However at the Waste Management plant they have bins for recycling and there they take glass. So this last week my tub was full and off mom & I went. I guess that it is because we are always afraid when we break glass at home fearing that our doggie, Sadie, will step on the glass; it makes it more fun to toss the glass into the bin where it makes this loud breaking/tlinking sound! It was also fun to see what else we could break while in there! So don't forget to recycle it saves the earth!