Balloon Fiesta

Here are photos in no particular order from our early morning Balloon Fiesta adventure. We woke the kids up at 3:30 am to make the drive to Albuquerque for the dawn show. What I should have taken pictures of is me trying to wake up a dead-to-the-world Rocky at 3:30am. It was like shaking a rag doll! Was it worth it? Check out the pics...

These funny referees (called zebras) did crowd control. They would blow their whistles to get your attention and keep people safely out of the way when the balloons were on the rise.

My pictures are totally out of order. This is from the end of the show. You can see the nesting doll balloon on the rise and the witch balloon in the air.

More shaped balloons. This balloon guy looked familiar, but we couldn't place him.

Here's the Tweety balloon being inflated. This was one of the first shape balloons we spotted.

This is a picture we took on our way out. Most of the balloons were gone and the crowd was dispersing. We were done around 8:30am.

The sun was going up and so were the first set of balloons. Gary and the kids seem happy!

Here is a crowd favorite and also a family favorite. There were lots of cheers and applause when Spongebob went up.

More Spongebob.

Here's what Spongebob looked like on the ground as they were inflating him.

Pepe Le Pew!

Inside a balloon as it was being inflated.

Happy kids at dawn. It was cool to see the balloons lighting up like lanterns before the sun came up. I didn't get any pictures of it, but Gary got video.

Turkey on the ground.

Turkey rising over our heads.

Turkey in the air.

Haunted House in the air.

Darth on the rise. At this point we were over by the tents with all the food and souveniers and art and...and...and

Lots of balloons being inflated and lots in the air behind Gary and Rocky.

It was COLD!! Next time...think warmer! Especially before the sun came up it was quite cold. People liked to stand near the balloons as they were inflating because you could feel the heat from the flames even from a distance.