Fiesta de los Globos

 Balloon Fiesta! I got a little choked up this year when I realized that this is Eliana's first, and only for a long time, Balloon Fiesta.  Next year Joaquin will be in school so we probably won't be able to come down for it.  How do you grow up without the Balloon Fiesta?  Do you come out warped or something? Fortunately despite some bad weather we had a good one.  Several days saw balloons landing in our neighborhood, one on Sunday so Joaquin got to see them.  Friday night the glow didn't go because of wind, but since parking and admitting were thus free, we went and watched the fireworks from close up.  Joaquin and Daniel bought a little shooting LED-thingy and had a great time watching it shoot into the air.  Eliana set a record as the most relaxed baby about fireworks.  She enjoyed them at first, calmly watching the sky explode into fiery bits and then decided to go to sleep.  (This from a baby who wakes up when Joaquin plays with Legos)  The next morning was COLD but the only morning we could go that had a good chance at lift-off.  We bundled the kids up ridiculously (here's Eliana as the world's cutest sausage.  She had some underthings, a sleeper, a cute sweater jumper and a fuzzy lined sweatshirt. Plus she got to snuggle up next to Mommy in the sling.)  Fortunately there were a lot of people there so we just warmed up by wandering through the crowds.  We had a great time as usual playing with the balloons and then Joaquin got to play inside a giant bubble.  Basically they fill up these giant plastic bubbles with air and a small child and let them loose on a pool of water.  Joaquin bobbled around and bounced his bubble and apparently it was great fun.  Show the child hundreds of giant hot air filled balloons floating through the sky and all he wants to do is bob around in a shallow pool.  Maybe he's a little blase about this event.  Eliana had fun watching the flying balloons, even saying, "ba, ba, ba" at them.  Then she decided to (you guessed it) go to sleep.  I hadn't realized the sling was still so soporific for her.  A few minutes at the chainsaw cutting contest and an almost purchased horse head carving later and our last (for a few years at least) Balloon Fiesta was over.