Balloons Galore

It's been quite a week here. I went back to work and found myself neck-deep in catching up. Summer's parents visited. We ate out and went to a number of fun places around town. We missed all of General Conference. And I was sick.

But for the fun stuff. With the Catheralls in town for the Balloon Fiesta, we made our first ever trip to the event for Saturday's Mass Ascension. We got there well before dawn, walking in the gates just in time for the Dawn Patrol, a set of a dozen of so balloons that go up early to test the winds. Here are two balloons getting set to take off:

We spent a lot of time on the field, which is pretty surreal. Surrounded by huge balloons in various stages of inflation is pretty awe-inspiring. Here's one shot of the scene:
One of Allyson's Girl Scout leaders works for a company that sponsors a balloon, and the girls, seen below, got to help with the inflation:

Not to be outdone, silliness-wise, here are the boys:

And here is one of my favorite shots, the three older kids with a balloon behind them:

One of the most amazing features of the ballooning is the assortment of special-shaped balloons. A new one this year is this cathedral balloon:
And here are the kids' favorites, the boy and girl bee, who ascend side-by-side, as if holding hands:
But for me, the best part of the day was views like this, as we stood on the field among inflating balloons. I looked up to see three balloons converging, creating a small window of blue sky:

Sick Days

I've been thinking about things I'm grateful for ever since Carolyn posted on the topic recently. Here's one that's made my top ten list of late: sick leave.

In the past 5 years, I have accrued somewhere in excess of 200 hours of sick leave--enough to take off 2 full months, should I need it. I don't dip into my leave often; I may get ill once per term, and I take some hours here and there for doctor's visits and the like. But over the past few days, I've had cause to use some of my hours.

On Thursday I woke up a mess. I had been fighting a stuffy nose and achy head for a few days, and I was very tired, so I decided to call in sick, rest up, and be back at it Friday. My plans changed when the kids woke up and Evan had a fever. He later threw up, making my sick day all about him.

Yesterday Isaac had this same fever, and when he was still sick this morning, I took a second day off to let him rest. Evan again spent the day being sick (they're both napping right now), so I was able to hang out with the little guys while Summer took the older two to school and picked them up.

I am very fortunate to have a job that gives me sick leave, and I'm thankful for good health so I don't have to use it very often. And I'll be grateful once Isaac and Evan are well and back to their trouble-making ways.

Friday Fun & Thoughts on Downtown

The kids and I had a fun day yesterday. Evan was in Day 2 of his being-sick-and-getting-over-it, Isaac and I stayed home while Summer took the kids to school and went grocery shopping. After she got home, Isaac and I went to work, where I had a few meetings (he was very well-behaved).

(Side note: For several weeks, Isaac has been begging to go to work with me. I can take the kids on Fridays as long as my meetings are low-key, and it hadn't happened that way this term until yesterday, so he was pretty excited to go. About 5 minutes after we got to the office, he turned to me and said, "I miss Mom.")

After we picked the older kids up from school, the four of us made our way downtown for the Go Downtown Albuquerque Arts Festival, where we wandered among the artists' displays and listened to live music for an hour or so. It's fun to expose your kids to art and see what interests them, and they were happy to get ice cream, so everybody wins.

I'm coming to really like downtown ABQ. There's not much to it (yesterday's event closed off Gold Ave. for three blocks, and unless you like bars or nightclubs, there aren't a lot of businesses to patronize), but the funky urban atmosphere is nice. There are some cool shops and eateries popping up, and events like this one are a good sign. I hear that 10 years ago downtown was a mess, so we're seeing a nice revitalization effort. Earlier this summer we went to the Saturday morning downtown growers market, and our favorite cupcake place has a downtown location. Maybe in a few more years there will be enough to draw us downtown more often. And maybe when the kids all fly the nest we'll get a loft downtown...

I Could Send an Email, But...

This is the most audience-specific posting I've ever made:

To my sisters,
A while back, one of you initiated an email thread about our Xmas gift exchange pattern; I replied, and I think someone else did, but ultimately, nothing happened. So instead of an email, maybe a blog entry will work. If I recall correctly, last year was supposed to go like this:

• We had Carolyn
• Carolyn had Michelle
• Michelle had Cheryl
• Cheryl had us

But we swapped around and it went like this:

• We had Cheryl
• Carolyn had Michelle
• Michelle had Carolyn
• Cheryl had us

So, I propose that this year we go two down, like this:

• We have Michelle
• Carolyn has Cheryl
• Michelle has us
• Cheryl has Carolyn

(Here's where I get to sound like a big brother.) If there are no better ideas (cue Stew's snarky, sarcastic proposal), this will be the way of it. Okay? (That felt good. Maybe I'll go boss someone else around...)

Fun With Art

We had some pictures taken over the weekend. We chose the sculpture garden just outside the ABQ MOA as our location. It was so much fun. We all had a blast. Our friend (the photographer) posted a few of the photos on her blog. Those a just a few. I can't wait to see the rest!

Fall

I just looked at the recent postings on this blog and was amazed and the fact that I had only written once this month, and today's the 20th. Work has certainly taken up a lot of my time, and I'm back at work on my dissertation, so I find solace in being (perhaps?) productive. and if that cuts back on the blogging, so be it.

But today I find myself looking out the window and thinking about fall. It's still summer-like here in ABQ--highs in the (low) 80s, lots of sun, the swamp cooler's on. But there are signs of fall. Here are the main one's I'm noticing this year:

• As the days get shorter, the sun is rising farther to the south--it's close to Tijeras canyon from our vantage point, meaning that the sun actually crests pretty early simply because there's less mountain at that point. By December the sun will rise closer to the Manzanos and the days will be quite short.
• I don't have to water the plants as much. I water the strawberries every 2 or 3 days, and herbs once every 10 days or so. The days are less brutally hot and the nights get cooler, letting the plants recover nicely. There's also more shade during the day. Along these lines, for the first time we have a second bloom on the Desert Willow this year. Typically, the profusion of flowers on the tree goes from April to June, but by July it's all over for the year. Then last week we got a flood of new blossoms, with no end in sight.
• The cooler temps also mean that there are moments when it's a bit chilly, especially if I open the windows too early in the morning or run the swamp cooler too late in the evening.
• I actually wore a long-sleeve shirt to work earlier this week, and the kids have done likewise a few times on the last few weeks.
• The State Fair is almost over (and again we didn't make it out there), and the Balloon Fiesta is just a few weeks away.
• Summer has started asking what we should get the kids for Xmas. Any suggestions?

Corn Maze

On Saturday we packed up our crew and headed to the city's Los Poblanos Field Open Space, where the annual Maize Maze is underway. After catching the "shuttle" (a truck pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales), we paid our entrance fee and entered the labyrinth. Summer and I did a corn maze in Utah last fall, and we've also visited another one east of town before, but this was both closer to home and less difficult. Ideal for an afternoon with the kids.

The best part was simply letting the kids lead the way. Here's Isaac out in front of the pack:
And here Isaac and Allyson lead the way:
Ryan may have had the most fun, as a corn maze is perfect for a 7-year-old boy. Here he decides which path to take:
Evan rode most of the time in the sling, which Summer now configures to put the baby at her side or back, and for most of the trip he was fine. But toward the end, he desperately wanted to get down and walk. This, of course, was no good, as we had left his shoes in the car. So, instead, we let him make this face:
All in all, we had a very good time, notwithstanding Isaac's fall on the way back to the car (he bonked his head and scraped his knees). The day was warm, with just enough breeze, and deliciously sunny. Now I want to go back with just Summer for a moonlight maze some evening.