Balloon Fiesta

We started our morning before the sun came up. We went high up on a hill in Rio Rancho that was over looking the launch site of the Balloon Fiesta. This is the 40th year of the annual event and I wanted to see a mass ascension. WOW was it worth it. Even though it was COLD, it was well worth getting up and going to see.

Sun rise, what a beautiful backdrop to such a great event.

on Saturday, the first day of the event, there was reported to be over 555 balloons that launched. Rich and I counted over 100 on Sunday morning. We were a WEEEE bit off, the radio later reported that there were over 500 that launched on Sunday. ABSOLUTELY a must see event!

After we saw all the balloons launch, and after I took tons of pictures, Rich and I decided to go get breakfast at a near by IHOP. What a great idea. We we able to see all the balloons fly over head and do the basket skips in the river. We were even able to catch this balloon land as we left.

We wanted, and by "we" i mean ME, to catch the color of the Sandia Mountains at sunset. It turns a watermelon color at sunset, which is where it got the name "Sandia".

We are waiting, at the balloon grounds, for the night glow to begin.

Seeing all of these balloons lit up was A-MA-ZING!! Something everyone should see at least once!

The balloon behind us we were able to watch from start to finish. It started as a heap of balloon carnage and came to life before our very eyes. It was spectacular.

We were able to walk around between all the balloons and get up close and personal with them. was so very neat to see.

SO PRETTY! This is one of my favorite pictures from the night.

We were even able to see some of the silly shapes go up. This is Spidey Pig. There was also a butterfly and two bumble bees, a few aliens, a beer bottle, a strawberry and some weird looking thing we were never able to decide what it was, but we did know it was wearing a halo.

Hotel Rupanovic will be open next year, make your reservations early as we tend to fill up fast! :D

Below is a short video of the balloons lit up at the same time. The announcers would count down for all the balloons to lit up at the same time. I cant tell you enough how awesome this was. I am so very thankful that we were able to experience this!!