Road Trip

I love to go see my sister and her family. I like to get away from my life I guess, but I really like spending time with them. I have three nephews that seem to be aging faster than I do. Okay, that isn't true. I don't feel like I have aged until I see it in them. Sam is in third grade this year. It seems like just a couple of years ago he was the only one and therefore the most photographed child in the world. He is the one that looks most like my sister. (all the boys got their dad's head though, poor Sue) Ethan is in kindergarten this year and Ben has started his first of two (or three?) years of preschool.

I picked up my aunt at the airport and we drove through Colorado and into New Mexico. We ran into a fair amount of road construction which drives me nuts. I have a bit of a lead foot, but I won't speed in double fine areas. I just want to get where I am going. I can't relax and enjoy the trip (funny that describes me in so many different ways, hmm...)

I am so sad about my aunt and uncle getting a divorce. My uncle was supposed to walk me down the aisle, but with these circumstances that didn't happen. I love my aunt dearly and I love my uncle. They have been together all of my life. She will always be my blood, but it is hard for me too. My uncle has changed and isn't a very nice person any more. He went through some midlife crisis and flipped out. My sister and I tried to be cheerleaders for my aunt. Sometimes she isn't doing very well, as can be expected. I wanted to rip her phone out of her hand when she would call him. Those calls never turned out well, besides she didn't need to talk to him. We tried to tell her she shouldn't talk to him unless it is about business. We know that is hard though. Your partner becomes your bestfriend and then when you don't have your partner anymore... I learned that lesson in my youth and I know how hard it is. Who do you talk to?


I was extremely disappointed with my Balloon Fiesta experince this year. The balloons only went up twice when we were there. The first time was on Saturday when we had to wait in line for more than an hour to catch the bus to get to the park. It rained off and on while we waited in the line. We weren't sure if the balloons were even going to go up. This picture is just a small part of the line behind us. There were probably five hundred people ahead of us when we got in line and at least that many behind us when we got on the bus.

When we finally made it to the balloon park it was swamped. There were more people than I have ever seen (as one should guess from the bus line). At least half of the balloons were already up. We only got to see a few inflated and maybe ten take off near us. By the time we got there the wind was picking up so it was dangerous for the balloons to take off. We did see some inflate and deflate. There were so many people I was so affraid we were going to get seperated from a child. There weren't a lot of the balloons I really wanted to see there.

My poor brother-in-law had been away on business all week. He was supposed to come home Friday evening but he missed his flight and couldn't get back until Saturday morning and then he had to go to work for several hours. As soon as he could leave work, he and my sister went to Santa Fe to stay overnight. They don't have overnight sitters very often so they took advantage of it. That was fun with my nephews. My aunt had the good idea to get them these pictures and markers and the older two colored for HOURS! I got to color with them so it was fun. Saturday night and Sunday morning were the hardest for my aunt. I was a little frustrated some of the time because I would have liked a little more help, but we got a long. Sam is a lot of help about what to do and where to find things. He is old enough and young enough that he is pretty honest about things. I really had fun with the boys.

My poor BIL, he dropped my sister off on Sunday and had to go to work for hours. He had a project that needed to be reworked to be submitted on Tuesday morning. He went to work again before I got up on Monday and Tuesday. I saw the poor guy for about 30 minutes in the time I was there. I thinked it helped the kids though, because they were busy with us and didn't notice dad was gone so much.

We had planned to go see the balloons again Monday morning, but when I woke up at 0515 I could hear rain and wind so I just went back to sleep. Tuesday morning was beautiful, of course, because we were leaving. We stayed a little later than usual and saw the boys all off. These kids go to school late! They don't get on the bus until 0830 and they aren't the last pickup. Anyway, we were hugging goodbye and we could hear a balloon VERY close. We saw it between to houses, two streets away! It landed in the last remaining open area less than a block from my sister's hous. We went over and talked to the guys. They were from England. We walk up and touch the balloons at the park but it is somehow different when they land next to your house. We could hear another balloon near by and turned around to see one graze my sister's roof and touch down in the street behind her yard. (that would be the frog balloon) More and more houses are being built around my sister's and that road is pretty busy. The balloon got back up and had to go about another mile to get a good landing spot. I was so glad we didn't get out early. I just love the balloons.