Balloon Fiesta and Cousins!

Albuquerque's claim to fame is the Annual Balloon Fiesta that it hosts every year in October. It is one of my favorite things about living here so far. In the weeks leading up to the event, and then throughout the 2 weeks that it is going on, you can see TONS of hot air balloons in the sky every morning. It is one of the most beautiful things to me to see these colorful balloons against the brilliant blue sky. I love it! We weren't going to go to any actual "events" this year at the Fiesta because 1-it is soooo crowded and 2--you have to get up at the crack of dawn. Literally. Friends told us to leave our house at 4:30am to be able to see the Mass Ascension (where all the balloons launch at once, seriously hundreds of balloons). Yikes! Anyway, a couple weeks before the Fiesta, my sister in Phoenix called and said they wanted to come to visit and come to the Balloon Fiesta, so now we were going! We were so excited!! We hadn't seen them in almost 1.5 years. Unfortunately the weather turned cold for the weekend and lots of the events got canceled due to wind and rain. We were able to see one of the Mass Ascension's and it was really fun. (we decided to take our chances and not get up quite so early....glad we didn't! We were able to park a little further away and walk to the park and still make it on time for the Ascension since the start was delayed a little that day.) Anyway, enough talking, on to the pictures!
The first snow in the Sandia Mountains...it was so beautiful to watch the sunrise over the fresh snow on the mountain. This picture just doesn't do it justice. Overlooking Balloon Park..
They have all sorts of fun balloons..pig, skunk, cow, stagecoach, bees, clock, Spiderman pig, to name a few...
How beautiful is this???
One of the days that the cousins were here, we went and hiked the Volcano Cliffs that overlook the city. It is a quick little hike with a beautiful view at the top.
Saying goodbye on Sunday morning...the kids had sooo much fun playing together! It was a little different to have 3 crazy boys in our house, but they all got a long so great and had such a good time together! We miss you Horlacher's!!