I put Chloe in charge of planning our family vacation this year, and after telling her grandma that she was in charge Grandma found the perfect plan. She thought she should go to Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta, and that grandma and grandpa should tag along. They would get on Google hangouts every Sunday night for months planning it. She set up a couple of spreadsheets so they could share information (even though they never contributed to them!), but Chloe had fun doing them.
This is how the vacation played out:
My parents came down on Friday evening (Oct 3rd), so Chloe declared that the official beginning of the trip. Saturday morning all but Brandon and I went to pick up the rental car, since we no longer have a vehicle big enough to haul all of us (that is reliable). We stopped in Price for lunch at a Chinese place. They weren't big on vegetables, but we got filled up on grease. Then it was on to Bluff. We had to go back, my parents needed to see our film. There's a restaurant there in Bluff that has an awesome vegetarian section on their menu, but the first time we went we weren't there at the right time for dinner. This time it was perfect, so we headed over to find their doors locked. They had closed that day so their employees could attend the Shiprock Fair. When we got to Shiprock we learned what a big deal this fair was. Luckily, we were headed in the opposite direction, so the traffic didn't affect us. We drove all the way to Farmington, NM that first day. Chloe has an affection for Comfort Inns, and that was the closest one to Bluff. We got there in time for her and grandma to head to the pool.
Sunday, as well as Saturday, we enjoyed listening to General Conference in the car. We got to Albuquerque just in time to check into our hotel room. We got settled, and then headed to the balloon park for the evening festivities. No one knew what to expect, so we were just taking the advice of the official website. We got there early, and while sitting in the parking lot we saw balloons starting to inflate. We were afraid we were missing the show, but not so. Once we got inside we just wandered around, and then the balloons started to "glow." They all stay on the ground for the balloon glow, and about every 5 minutes they would all flash their "lights" (gas) at the same time. It was beautiful. And it was a perfect evening to be out. That went on for about an hour, and then the balloons all started to deflate. Once there was room we laid our blanket down and planted ourselves to watch the firework show.
Monday was our day to explore Old Town. That was my dad's one request. I'm not sure he enjoyed it near as much as my mom did. It was just a lot of shopping. We did get to go inside a church for a bit, and the town square had entertainment going on all day so we stopped and watched some hula dancers my mom was excited about. Dancing and purple outfits, how could she pass that up? Unfortunately, it was right at lunch time so the girls weren't nearly as interested. We took off just a little early to go find some food. They had 4 different penny smashing machines there, and Chloe had to visit them all. Well, she may have been happy after a couple of them, but she got someone else addicted (do we need to mention who?). All that shopping and walking wore us completely out. We went back to the hotel and crashed. It was nice to just lay down and do nothing. That hasn't happened for a long time, and that made it actually feel like a vacation. The girls got plenty of HGTV time in. I went and soaked in the hot tub while Sophie swam with Grandma. That felt so good, and I believe it helped me sleep really well.
Tuesday was another explore Albuquerque day. You can buy a combo ticket to get into the zoo, aquarium and botanical garden all on the same day. They have a train that takes you between the two locations (the aquarium and garden are right next to each other). We started at the zoo. Brandon was impressed. It was a nice zoo. They had suggested that we head over and do the aquarium first so that we would be able to take the train back before the last one left for the day. We actually split it up. We did about 1/2 of the zoo, went to the aquarium (not so impressive) and the botanical garden (it was a lot of fun), and then took the train back to finish up what we had missed at the zoo. It was another super fun but exhausting day. We got to eat at Panera that night for dinner. I still can't believe we only ate their once on our trip. When on vacation we try to eat there as much as possible -- and I didn't even get to cash in my birthday treat. They sent me the email for it the next day.
Wednesday we went back to the balloon park. We got up at 4:00 AM so that we could be there for the dawn patrol. That was kind of lame -- I think it was too windy or something. But then they did a morning glow. We froze nearly to death, or maybe it was just me. Someone asked me where I was from. When I said Utah she said she thought I was going to say something like Miami Beach. Can't people in Utah get cold? I've been cold my whole life. Until I moved to Utah, then I'm fairly uncomfortable from June to August! Wow, I'm getting off track here... so after the morning glow they immediately moved to the Flight of the Nations Mass Ascension. Someone else told us there are generally about 500 balloons that go up. I think it was probably less than that this morning, but some of the others could easily have been that many. Then we walked over to a museum they have adjacent to the park. Sophie did a treasure hunt. I warmed up. Brandon and Grandpa took naps (I'm pretty sure).
Thursday we got up early again, but we knew better than getting there way ahead of schedule. And we had already see a dawn patrol, so we didn't need to get up until 6:00. I think getting there after the sun was up kept me warm. It wasn't so bad this morning. We watched the special shapes rodeo. This was the kids favorite part. They loved all the fun shaped balloons, and there were a lot of them. Afterward, we went over and watched a chainsaw carving competition. That was a little loud, but it was fun to look at the bears that had been carved. Sophie has a special affection for bears, so it was mostly for her. Grandma told her if she wanted to pick one out that could be her Christmas present. She came and talked to me about it because she really liked the idea, but Sophie also really likes surprises. It would ruin Christmas for her if she knew what she was getting (she is not a snooper). So, we decided she would get one, but she wanted me to pick it out for her so she wouldn't know which one it was, and she and I have very similar tastes. She knew if I liked it so would she. But at this point we had already left the booth, and Grandma told her she could think about it.
That was pretty much all there was going on that morning, so then we went to check out the Petroglyph National Monument. There were several different sites you could drive to, but we just went to one. We climbed this hill, saw some petroglyphs, and that was good enough. We got what we needed out of seeing one site.
We took another little break back at the hotel, but then there activities going on again this night. It had been raining off and on all day so we weren't sure what to expect. We went out to dinner, and then not knowing any better just headed to the park afterward. Things didn't look right when there was more traffic headed the opposite direction from us, and then we got up to the point where we normally got our parking tickets and there were no agents there to take our money. We just kept going. When we got to the park the cops directed us into a different lot than we had been to before, and they informed us that the special shapes glowdeo had been canceled, so everyone was leaving at the same time. Well, still weren't clear what was going on, but we did want to get back into the park just so we could get that bear for Sophie, so we decided just my mom and I would go in (we didn't want to pay for everyone just to visit this booth), but when we got to the gate they weren't taking tickets either -- so we got in for free! We called the others and told them they could all come join us. Of course, by this time the bear I really liked was gone, so I had choose a different one for Soph. I hope she likes it! I was going to run it back to the car to hide it, but this crazy mess ensued, and we ended up just wrapping it in our blanket to keep it out of view. The cop had told us all they were doing was the firework show, so we thought we'd hang out for that. It wasn't scheduled to start for nearly another hour, but all of a sudden they started going off -- right in front of us. I don't think we could have been any closer. So, in the end, I think it all worked out for the best -- we got Sophie's bear, we got to see the fireworks from an awesome spot, and we didn't have to pay for parking or admission. And there weren't that many people there, so it wasn't that difficult getting out when it was over.
Friday we said goodbye to Albuquerque and headed down to Las Cruces. We all hung out with Brandon's grandpa for several hours. We ate at the cafeteria with him, and he gave us a tour of his village. We've seen it all before, but it was new to my parents. We had a good time visiting with him and hearing all about his life experiences.
Saturday morning we packed up and then went back over to say goodbye to Grandpa Fry. It was a quick goodbye, but we had a long drive ahead of us. We had to get all the way to Cortez. We stayed in the same hotel we did the last time we were there, because they have an awesome pool. They keep their water warm!
Sunday we debated quite a bit on what to do. We had planned to go to Mesa Verde (another reason we stopped in Cortez), but we didn't want to break the Sabbath and Shane was currently at Camp Williams (a few miles from my house) and planned to spend time with the family that afternoon. We wanted to hurry back to see him. In the end Mesa Verde won out. The fall colors were in full bloom so it was stunning up there, and I was very impressed with the cave dwellings. They were much more elaborate than I was expecting. Again, we only went to one of the sites, but I think that gave us a really good idea and gave us more time to hurry home. We arrived home to find two of my brothers waiting for us. We all got to visit (laying on the dining room floor) for a little bit before Shane had to head back.
Pictures below -- I was kind enough to cut all the balloon photos down. We took a lot!
Brandon tells me the slideshow won't show up for him, so if you are also having that problem try this link (sorry!)
Sophie, you're up next. I can't wait to see what she pulls together for our next vacation.
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