Going to New Mexico wasn't just about balloons for us, although that was a huge part of it. We are part of a group called Full-time Families that supplies families who live on the road with support in many ways. One thing they do is plan hang-outs, or rallies, where you can get together with other families and connect. There was a 22 of us that were able to park together and participate in planned activities as well as just hang out and get to know each other. We loved meeting new friends and connecting with old friends again. Our children had SO much fun!
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| Not everyone was there the full 2 weeks so this is only part of our group. |
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| Lots of visiting went on! |
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| Someone said we had about 60 kids in all. It sure was noisy :). |
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| Makayla making cloth dolls with her friends. |
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| The row of tow trucks :) |
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| The sky was always so pretty! |
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| Play dough for the little kids..... |
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| ......and clay for the big ones. |
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| Nerf guns......everywhere! |
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| Our site was apparently the best place for digging because we nearly always had someone playing in the dirt there! |
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| Ethan loved everyone else's cool toys! |
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| Making balloons with salt dough. |
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| Bingo! |
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| My little winner! |
Our sites were all boon-docking, meaning we had no water or electric hook-ups. However, we were next to a premium row that had water so we were able to hook water hoses together and fill our tanks with water when needed. If tanks needed emptying, several guys had tanks that could be filled and hauled to a dump stations several miles away. And of course, we all had generators for electricity. The guys did all kinds of projects together while we were there. Eldon said he learned more about generators in one day then he even knew before!
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| It cost $6 to dump......so by putting several tanks on one truck they were saving money :). |
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| Lots of generators got tuned up! |
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| Installing a new AC. |
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| Glow in the dark slime! |
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| More digging at our site :) |
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| Each family made a balloon racer car for a race. |
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| It had to be powered by the balloon! |
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| It ran fantastically at home but failed in the real race :) |
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| Emily's friend Ellie. Ethan loved to tease her because she always hollered at him. |
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| Our row. |
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| Michael and his friends tried to turn our car into a wind powered ship......another fail! |
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| Just making memories! |
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| They were playing "olden days" with scrap fabric. |
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| Michael and his friend Hunter (and Doug the duck) spent hours adding toilet paper tubes and gorilla tape to this their car. |
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| They were singing praise songs :). |
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| Everyone who went along to crew the balloon got to sign the banner on the last day. |
Last but not least, the best thing that happened the whole 2 weeks we were there was when our friends Clementine and Pieter welcomed Celcilia Adelina into the world! Clementine was crewing balloons up until the day before she was born and even went up 7 days before giving birth! She did have a home birth with local midwives attending and many of us got to be involved with filling the birthing pool, babysitting the older kids, making food, or cleaning up. It was amazing to see everyone come together to make it all go smoothly!
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| Sweet new baby! |
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| Clementine and Cecilia with the pilot of the balloon we helped crew. |
Obviously, we had a fantastic time and highly recommend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta to everyone!
Part 1 of the ABF2017
Part 2 of the ABF2017
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