Ballon Fiesta 2010

The evening air turns cooler, yellow starts creeping into the green leaves, the smell of roasting chile is in the air... What does this mean? Hint, Nathan is pointing it out below.


Balloons! Nearly every morning in Albuquerque around sunrise, you will see a few intrepid souls flying their balloons over the Rio Grande valley. But once a year for 10 days, the skies of Albuquerque are filled every morning with the breathtaking sight of hundreds of balloons.

We live at the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, which means we look down into the valley where the Balloon Fiesta grounds are located. The first weekend of the fiesta, we woke up early and hiked out onto the dam in front of our apartment complex to watch the first mass ascension of balloons.

View from the dam, as the balloons drift southward.

We were waiting on heading down to the fiesta until the second weekend, when aunts and cousins converged upon the elder Malenfant household to take in this event together.

On Friday, Grammie, Aunt Nicki and cousins Carly and Alicia took us to a corn maze in Corrales. We had fun playing in the "corn" (in place of sand) box, getting very discombobulated in the maze, taking a hay ride, and then visiting the animals at the end.

Alicia, Nathan and Carly get ready for some farm fun!

Studying the rules carefully for the corn maze (or maize, hahaha).

Corn, corn everywhere.

Nathan loved the pigs, he was great at imitating their snorting noise.

Why are the leaves a funny color?

That evening I went with Nicki, Alicia, Carly and Kylie to the Glowdeo, which was the traditional balloon glow, but with all the special shape balloons. It was a bit shorter than expected, so I only got a few shots...

An "all burn" where all the balloons burn at the same time to glow.

I spent a lot of time shooting the ristra (bunch of dried red chiles) balloon.

Spongebob! A huge crowd favorite. The final burn was accompanied by hundreds of people singing the theme song. It was almost moving.

When I got home from the glow, Michael was waiting with a gift. Saturday was our anniversary, and he wanted to give me something early. I have always admired the Acoma pottery, and when we were at Skip Maisels a few weeks ago (buying the drums), I was drooling over a certain piece. It was a fine example of Acoma pottery, deep blacks, precise painting, and paper thin walls.

I opened the box, and there it was! I love it.

Saturday morning, the best alarm clock in the world, Nathan, woke us up at 4:15am and we got ready to jump on the bus to the fiesta. Nathan was so excited to go on a schoolbus, he points to them all the time and says "ba! ba!"

We made it in time for the morning glow. A few balloons are the "dawn patrol", they launch early to measure the wind speed and direction for all the remaining balloons.

The lineup of balloons getting ready to launch for dawn patrol.

Off they go!

Warming ourselves up with a hearty breakfast burrito.

Krispy Kreme!

Nathan loved the balloons. He had a big smile spread across his face, and kept dancing when a new balloon went up.

Grammie, Carly and Alicia try and stay warm as the sun slowly comes up.

We sat next to Airabelle, the Creamland cow (just like two years ago). Here she is, just getting started.

All ready to go!

Up, up and away!

Nathan and Michael watch Airabelle fly with all the other balloons.

Nicki, Nathan, Michael, Alicia, Tania, Patrick, Stephan and Carly, all very excited as a certain balloon takes off.

So many balloons in the clear blue New Mexican sky.

A very tuckered out Nathan fell asleep on Michael on the busride home.

After Nathan took a 3.5 hour nap, we all reconvened at Grammie and Papa's house for dinner.

We all fill up on chips and dip.

Mmmmm, chile con queso!

After dinner we celebrated two birthdays and an anniversary.

It was a lot to fit on one cake!

And now it is Sunday afternoon, the family has departed for their long trip home and we turn our sights to grocery shopping, cleaning and preparing for the week ahead...