Family visits

Things have been busy in our household. Nana and Papa visited us for a week earlier this month. The week before that, Sarah and Josh visited us as well. What fun we all had together! We went to Albuquerque and Santa Fe with our Midwestern guests. We enjoyed walking and shopping on the Plaza in Santa Fe then we went down to Albuquerque (a short drive from Santa Fe) to see the end of the balloon fiesta - the special shapes night glow. The kids loved to see the balloons "stand up" and glow in the desert night sky. Very cool! Lily celebrated her 4th birthday last Monday. She had a Tinkerbell party and was very excited about all her gifts. She started asking on the morning of her birthday when the party was going to start so she could open her gifts. How they catch on to these things early on in life! She loved her ice cream birthday cake (and James did too!). He saw it as we sneaked it in the house out of Lily's view and he started to yelling "Birthday" and jumping up and down. He catches on to things pretty quickly too! The other night, we went for a walk with Buster and James saw several people in a neighbors front lawn. He said "hi" and then started a one-way conversation with them saying "What ya doing? Playing? Bye." It was very cute. He truly knows no strangers (kind of like his Grandpa Weldon)!

Albuquerque balloon fiesta

Sarah and Joshua arrived on Tuesday. We spent a few days showing them around Shiprock and Farmington. On Friday, we traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico which is about a 3-4 hour drive southeast of Shiprock toward central New Mexico. The kids did great on the drive. Last night, we ate in a Mexican restaurant in Old Town, a quaint shopping district in Albuquerque. We all got up at 4 am on Saturday morning to see the opening liftoff of balloons at the festival. It was quite impressive. The balloons each take their turns blowing up and taking to the skies - hundreds at a time. The fiesta is quite a big deal and they have lots of food stands and exhibits for adults and kids alike. The weather was perfect - sunny and pleasant - only a little chilly this morning for the mass ascension (what they call the morning takeoffs). We are planning to the see the "night glow" tonight where they tether the balloons down and then inflate them just enough to see them "glow" in the night sky. All of us have now taken naps to recoup from the very early morning. I think that we should all have fun tonight. Wish you all could see it with us!