Fiesta!

Today we got to experience our first Balloon Fiesta! What is a Balloon Fiesta you ask? One word: Awesome! Ever since we made the big move down here, that's all anyone talks to you about. It's not just talk, they're pretty serious about ballooning. It might have to do with this crazy thing called the Albuquerque Box. Josh has watched the balloons all summer during his morning commute, there's normally four or five balloons somewhere over the valley.

We even get a wake up call most weekends by the sound of the propane burner by some balloon flying over our house. Last Sunday we caught this guy lurking around:

They even have a museum dedicated to ballooning, we went last Saturday for "Smithsonian Museum Day" (it was free). They have everything from the origins of ballooning, to the big gas balloons they fly over oceans and round the world trips. Pretty crazy. They also have a balloon simulator. It's pretty cool, and Josh did pretty well for being a newbie.

Luckily the other guy in the picture knew a thing or two about ballooning and was an excellent coach. It's a lot harder than it looks (at least that's what Josh kept telling me) for only having two controls. You get points for a good take off, navigating, and how close you can land to the target you are aiming for. Josh ended up getting about an 82/100, which was pretty good because a professional pilot flew before him and got an 88.7/100.

Anyway, back to the fiesta, we had some hookups for a sweet parking pass (thank you so much Tyler!) and made it to the park around 6:30ish A.M., slightly before the "mass ascension" (sounds like a Catholic term) where all the balloons take off. Despite the huge size of the park, they have to stagger the balloon start times so everyone can take off safely. You get to walk directly on the field where the balloons are launching. You can walk right over to the pilots and crew and talk with them and ask them questions, while they are blowing up their balloon. Anyway like someone has mentioned in the comments, a picture is worth the rest of this post so here goes:

That's just a handful of the fun. Josh went through an entire camera battery this morning. This was one of those experiences that is indescribable, the pictures do not do it justice, and you just have to experience it within your life. So, add this onto your list of things you just have to see. Tonight is the evening glow, so perhaps they'll be some more ballooning in store for the blog. In the meantime, the fiesta goes through next weekend, so if you're hankering for a quick get away come on down, we love visitors!

Bikes.

Krissey and I got the internet hooked up this weekend. Those long awaited house pictures should be up pretty soon. But in the meantime, here's something for my fellow bikers to think about:

It's hard to go even a month without hearing about a cyclist injured in a motor vehicle accident. Sure you can blame the public for not paying attention, not following the rules. The drivers aren't the only ones following the rules, just check out the comments on any news website about these accidents. (especially the Salt Lake Trib) you get an onslaught of complaints about cyclists not following the rules. If we expect to be treated with respect on the road, we've got to play by the rules too.

All Moved In...well mostly!!!

Last weekend was a busy one. We moved into our new house! Wahoo!!!! We are so excited to finally be in our new house. The first couple of nights I had to keep telling myself this really is my house. It is so fun to be able to have all my stuff out and organized (well mostly, we are still working on that) but not to have my stuff stored away. We are able to put all of my dishes in cupboards and we opened up wedding presents that we had never used because we never had space for them. It felt like Christmas. I had a few boxes of nice pyrex ware and a 24 set of nice glasses. We would like to give a HUGE thank you to Josh's siblings for coming down and helping with such a big project. We are extremely grateful and don't know how to thank you enough. It probably wasn't the funnest trip you have ever taken and I know we were very busy, but we hope you had a good time. We sure enjoyed having you come and visit us! It was hard being pregnant and not being able to lift anything. I had to watch everyone else move all of my stuff. The third night in our house we had a very full house. Josh's cousin came down from Pecos NM with her 4 kids and husband and spent the night with the 5 of us. It was so fun to have everyone come stay with us and that we actually had room for everyone, even though our house was a disaster. We also appreciate the help from other family and friends from the ward, we couldn't have done it without any of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

THINK PINK!

That's right...the "IT" became a she on Thursday. We are so excited to bring a little girl into this world! She was really funny, we did not get to see her face during the ultrasound because she kept her arms tucked up tight around her face, like a boxer. Darcy, the ultrasound tech, could not believe that it was both arms up and that she would not budge them even for a quick picture. So, needless to say we did not get to see her little face just yet, but her gender was easily determined! There was no question what she is. I am feeling great and can't wait to get into our house and get settled in. Our official closing date is September 4th! YEAH!!!! Less than one month to go! We are having Josh's siblings come out and help us move over Labor Day weekend and are so excited to show them around. We are also grateful they are coming to help seeing that my doctor said I couldn't lift anything heavier than 10 lbs! We have so many fun pictures, but putting them online is so hard when you aren't at home using your own "stuff", so patience everyone and we will get pictures up as soon as we can. We miss and love all our family and friends. Thanks for your encouraging and loving thoughts!!!!

Whirlwind!

Sorry for the no blogging lately. Where we are living currently, we do not have the internet so the posts will be few and far between until we move into our house. We have been through a whirlwind the last two months since we got here to New Mexico. We moved into temporary housing for 23 days and then had to find a new place and move. Two days after we moved, all of our "stuff" was delivered to us from out of storage and the next day we flew to Utah. We went for Josh's little brothers mission farewell. Curt we are so proud of you and know that you will be an amazing missionary! Josh only stayed the weekend but I ended up staying the entire week. My family has had a bit of bad luck over the last while and I stayed to help them out. My mom sprained one ankle and broke the other, a few weeks later my sister broke her ankle and leg and had major surgery to screw it back together, and then my dad had his 5th back surgery. I came home right for the 4th of July and spent that week home trying to organize our tiny one bedroom apartment. Then we left for the annual Erickson Lake Powell trip. Again, Josh left early and I stayed the entire week. I went home with my family for a few days and then my parents drove me back to New Mexico. They stayed in town with us the rest of the week to see where we are living and what it's like down here. Whew! That is what has been happening in our lives. Our house is moving along so fast and we can not wait to finally move in. It is actually starting to look like a house. Finding cheap decorations and picking colors is becoming my daily routine. We will find out what we are having on August 6th so check back to know the details. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon. I also designed a cute 4th of July blog background but never posted it because the no internet, so maybe I will try and get it up for fun!