Our Trip to New Mexico

Balloon Festival 2008 (Bayley is waving to the people below)

We made it! We managed to take 3 young kids across the country for a 4 day vacation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not everything about the trip was easy, but we had a great time and made great memories. Friday we flew out of Birmingham, Alabama and after a short stop in Dallas where we fortunately did not have to change planes, we headed to El Paso, Texas which was the end of the airplane ride for us. Why did we fly to El Paso? Because the tickets were about $100 cheaper per person and the car rental was also much cheaper...an additional 4 hour drive to save about $500 was worth it in my book. Plus Jeff and I were excited to check out the city where we spent the first 3 years of our married life to see how it had changed and to catch up with some old friends. We arrived at my grandparent's house in Albuquerque at about 7 p.m. Friday night. After hellos and a dinner we headed off to bed after a long day of travel and to prepare for an 4 am morning to go to the Balloon Festival. Early morning at the Festival

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to hopefully see some balloons fly at the festival. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the ascension was cancelled. We were able to walk around the grounds and check out different vendors. There was also a kid's tent where they had activities and crafts for the kids attending the festival. Bayley made a balloon wind chime and Trey and Kendal painted balloons. We still had a good time despite the disappointment of being unable to see any balloons. Sunday was more of the same as far as the weather was concerned so the two days we were in Albuquerque, there were ZERO balloons that were able to take off. Oh well, Kendal noted that we have seen a hot air balloon fly in Alabama before, so it was not big deal.

We did have a great visit with my grandparents. The kids loved seeing the house that their Grandma "G" grew up in and they loved picking vegetables in Great-grandpa's garden, playing with fun toys, and playing with my cousin Hannah's kids Reid and Ava. And of course, they loved "swimming" in the hot tub. We are so glad that we were able to make the trip to Albuquerque to see my Grandpa and Grandma Rogers. We had a great time and made some great memories.

Tuesday we headed back to El Paso to catch our flights back to Birmingham. While in El Paso we stopped and visited with the Waymans (Jeff's singles ward bishop while he was in El Paso), then we drove around and checked out our old neighborhood and the first house that Jeff I owned. It was fun showing Bayley where she was born and where she spent the first couple of years of her life. It is sad that she doesn't remember anything about El Paso, but we do have a lot of good memories. We didn't get back into Birmingham until 10 pm, so by the time we got home we were pretty exhausted. We were grateful that the kids behaved most of the time and that we had no flight issues!

The rest of last week Bayley had off for fall break. We didn't do too much, but that was just fine with all of us!

Bayley did get her cast off and is slowly but surely regaining motion in her elbow. The orthopedist told us to give her about 4 more weeks for her to regain full range of motion, but if she has any problems that he would send her to physical therapy. We are hoping that we will be able to avoid therapy and that her elbow will loosen up on its own.

Friday night Heidi and Eden were kind enough to come over for cookie decorating. My kids had a great time and took ownership of the cookies they decorated. I have such great friends who are always looking out for my kids and I! Thanks Heidi and Eden!

Well, it is back to the grind. I think we are all ready to get back to our normal routine. We had a great break but it is time to get back to business as usual!

Kendal showing off her soccer trophy