New Mexico..so far

Gabe & I are having a blast here in the land of enchantment. The drive out went about as smoothly as possible (aka no Gabe screamfest, no bad traffic or truck troubles) minus me getting lost in tulsa, OK for a breif period. We arrived in placitas about 10 pm central time and were greeted by Grandpa Nulk, Brian & Christina, Sadie & Ceader. Sadie suprisingly chose not to like Winston (cuz he's so scary) but other than that the 4 dogs got along swimmingly. Gabe was ecstatic with all the attention. He buddied up to Uncle Brian straight away and loved playing with Aunt Carolyn & Uncle Ron (who arrived SAt. afternoon).

Early Sunday morning was balloon fiesta! Mary, Carolyn Gabe & I went and it was totally fabulous! We woke up Gabe at 4:45am but you'd never know it. He was completly enthralled with the balloons (calling them "moons" and pointng up. We took the shuttle from the Santa Anna casino and it was about the easitest thing ever. NO parking a mile away or sitting in traffic. Totally the best discovery ever. Props to Aunt Carolyn for finding out about it! As soon as we arrived at the Fiesta Park (it waqs still dark) we hopped in line for freshly made breakfast burrittos and hot chocolate. My burritto was delish (sans green chile, thank you) and soon after the balloons were starting to inflate. There were about 700+ balloons that launched and the colors were amazing! I was in photography heaven. I think i took about 300 pics that morning. We got to watch the sunrise and stayed there a longgg time watching all the balloons rise up and shopping at the vendors. The contrast of the mountians, blue sky and brightly designed balloons was unreal. Gabe loved running all around pointing and chasing after balloons. Here's some pics of our visit so far.



Uncle Brian being tempting Gabe with a beer

I'm obsessed with these chili ristras (sp? I can't spell in spanish at all)



5 am bright and early.You'd never know it though, he loved sitting next to me on the bus and looking out at the moon. I think he especially loved zero carseat.



The sisters fussin' over Gabers






The crazy sisters!








Good thing i have a very photogenic baby...he's my favorite subject by far. Him and Nulkie :)


Sunrise. Me not being a morning person at all, this was a treat!

The balloons all were so beautiful. I could not stop snapping pics


Gabe loveddddddd this duck balloon

That's the gals and Gabe in front of it. CAn you believe how big these balloons are?



It's SMokey the bear...resurrected. I guess he was shredded to pieces and burned up a few years back.

Insert star wars music here. Mary didn't even know who this was. Darth Vader! Hello! Thanks to Mcgregor and wesdawg, i know my star wars.

A "zeebra". Aka the refs of the fiesta..telling balloons when to go up and so on. I know it's a terrible photo. Don's judge, i tried.


Gabe in a gondola. This was taken thurs. night at the balloon glowdeo. It was cancelled though. And you'll never guess how difficult it was to get gabe;s pic without ten other children jumping in. Mary & I had to be agressive and yell at kids to wait their turn.