Balloon Festival

We started out the weekend Friday night at the Valley Horizon Fall Festival which has a bunch of fun games and activities for the kids to raise money for the teachers to use in their classrooms. There were many booths, including ring toss, fishing, a cake walk, face painting as well as a hay ride, sack races and more outside. They sold cotton candy, soda, & popcorn too. The kids had a blast, and of course, my camera's batteries were dead, so no pictures of that event. Fortunately by morning it was rearing to go. At sunrise (about 7:00) we drove over to Cibola High where the practice fields were filled with bunches of partially inflated hot air balloons. Yes folks, this weekend was the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival! (Yes, I just sang the jingle!) We've attended this event for several years, and the kids never tire of it. Who am I kidding? We love it too! It's amazing to see so many balloons lift of and float away. Plus the operators are really nice and let the kids get up close and watch them fill them up. (No rides though, bummer) After the last balloon was in flight, we drove to where they were landing and watched some come down. Next, we drove to my mom's house (at the kids' request) to play in "thier" room. Did I mention that they added a little kitchen to the toys? After playing and watching Shrek 3, we drove home for some lunch and headed out to the Peanut Patch where it was their 30th Anniversary and they were selling penny candy and 10 cent ice cream cones. We also got our Christmas stash of peanuts. (Santa likes to put them in stockings...a Titensor tradition). Plus who can resist their fudge? Yummy. Mia was so funny, she refused to eat ice cream, and only wanted some roasted and salted green peas. Don't ask me why! Funny baby. After going home and taking naps, we cleaned up, and went to the Desert Glow, where the aforementioned hot air balloons are gathered at the baseball field and after dark they light up while music is playing in the grandstands. It's really quite cool. Only one picture, as we got there a little late - traffic was horrid!(Dang snowbirds!) We could see the balloons as we drove though, so it wasn't too bad. Plus we were there in time for the firework show after! Sorry for the novel, but our weekend was so much fun I wanted to share. Check out the slideshow for some pretty cool balloons!