Disney World!!

 This is what New Fantasyland looks like from outside. To the left, you can see Pinocchio's restaurant. To the right, just out of the frame is the carousel. Notice anything missing? Where's Dumbo??

Now I'm standing right next to the carousel looking in. The monstrosity right beyond the castle walls is a big roller coaster that is still under construction. 

 Speaking of the roller coaster - it is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs themed, so on the wall around the construction, they had these paintings. I thought they were cute.

 Here's a little sneak peak of the ride itself.

We're painting the roses red.

A fun Disney touch. In 'Belle's village', there are horse and wheel tracks. I can think of two ways to interpret them: 1) They are leading to the Little Mermaid castle, so they make me think of the scene where Ariel drives the horse and buggy like a wild woman 2) The hoof prints are too small to be Belle's horse, Philippe, which leaves one other notable horse and buggy from Beauty and the Beast, the one that comes to take Maurice to the insane asylum. 

 A bride leads you to the Beast's castle.

The gate at the end of the bridge is the entrance to the new restaurants. 

If only we'd been able to go in and see what the restaurants look like! 

 A gargoyle guarding the bridge. Liv made a good point - why is the castle still set up like it's under the witches spell? 

 Belle and Maurice's house. You can go in and have Belle read you a story. 

 Walking from the castle/bridge to Belle's village.

 Gaston's Pub

 All the little touches in the pub were so perfect. 

 Sorry it's so blurry, but it looked exactly like the movie. It was perfect. 

 A new one for Dad to add to his rounds. 

 Cute!

 I thought these were really cute! But then I thought, what if you went to someone's house and they actually had these for plates? That would be kind of weird. 

Popcorn/Ice cream vendor (It says "Maurice's Amazing Popping Machine" - or something to that effect)

 If you keep walking past Belle's Village you get to Prince Eric's castle. I thought it was well done, but a little random. This was about it for the Little Mermaid. There's a ride inside. It's a slow moving clam-mobile! 

 Prince Eric put his wife on his boat, I guess. 

 If you keep walking past the Little Mermaid, you get to the end of the road. Ahead is where the old Toon Town used to be. Now there is some sort of circusy area. It was open, if you went around the other way, but we didn't go in. 

If you're standing at the back and look toward the front, the Beast's castle does look like it's big but just off in the distance looming above the village. It was a neat effect, but I was still sad that you couldn't walk in the castle. 

 One last look at Maurice's house.

And the castle through the trees. 

Before you head back out into the park again. 

 Still wondering about Dumbo? He's back in there. You can see the race cars off to the right. I have no idea what's in the tents, and what all is going on back there, but I did see Dumbo, so he's safe and sound. 

 They had a crane up working on the castle all day long, but they finally took it down in time to snap a picture before dark. 

 The Haunted Mansion got a bit of an upgrade. Now while you're waiting in line, you can go off and look through a graveyard. It was really dark out there, so I could get only a few pictures to turn out.

The inside of the ride is still the same. 

 Now for the parade! I thought it was fun that they have the evil stepmother and step sisters. I also thought about those poor girls who tried out to be princesses, and they got a call-back. They must have been so excited, and then they find out they are going to be Drizella and Anastasia. haha

 Princess Tiana made the cut and got in the parade. 

 Disney's doing a lot of construction. This is taken in Liberty Square. The Haunted Mansion entrance is off to the left. There is a new spire/castle type thing. It looks like it might be from Tangled?

This area was under construction (hence the giant wall), but I had Bob hold the phone up and try to get a picture of what's going on in there. This is where the sky buckets used to drop you off by the Peter Pan ride. There's the spire/castle thing in the background. What do you suppose it'll be? 

Happy Fourth of July!!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

I just wanted to show my festive "wreath" for the holiday. I was bored one day, and I decided to dress up the door. We've had a wreath hook hanging on the door since Christmas without anything hanging from it, so I used what I had on hand to make something fun and festive.

First, I traced and cut out three circles from a cereal box. Then I hot-glued two pieces together to make an extra sturdy base to glue the 'spokes' of the wreath to. I used ordinary wooden skewers to make the starburst - I just eyeballed the placement of the skewers and used a lot of hot glue to keep them in place. Next came the 3rd piece of cardboard to hide my spokes, and then everything (including a good chunk of my lawn) got a coat of white spray paint. Next, I punched out a bunch of red, white, pink and blue circles and arranged them on the spokes to get the positioning right. Then, a dab of hot glue on the back of each circle secured it in place. Lastly, I glued some ribbon on the back. Voila! A super easy and free wreath! I'm tempted to just swap out the paper circles to different colors for other holidays. We'll see.

PS I totally didn't notice Lena's earless bunny, squeaky toy that's been sitting on our front stoop for who knows how long (it's the light blue lump right in front of the bird house). Oops - maybe I should go grab that.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta!

Every year since the 70's, Albuquerque has hosted a hot air balloon festival. This year it lasted from October 3rd-11th. Every morning they would have a mass ascension right after dawn. At night the festival hosted a balloon glow after dusk where balloons would inflate but stay on the ground, then the balloon operators blow flames into the balloon to illuminate it from within. Unfortunately, the night we went to the balloon glow, the winds were too high, and the balloons kept getting blown over, so the balloonists were forced to pack up their balloons.



On the second day of the festival, Sunday, October 4th, Bob and I got up at 4:30am to get to the fiesta with plenty of time to park, get a breakfast burrito, and find a good spot to watch the balloons.

First balloon up! Bob got a good shot of the moon behind the torch of the balloon. This balloon had a huge US flag that unfurled from the bottom of the gondola as it took off.
The Beginning. First the crew (notice the pirate hat) takes the balloon out of the carrying case and spreads it out on the ground.
Next they roll out a huge fan and generator. The fan blows air into the balloon while other crew members hold the opening open.
The inside of the balloon being blown up by the fan only.
Next they light up the torch. As the air inside the balloon heats up, the balloon and gondola tilt upright.
And off they go! Several people hold on the the basket and walk along with the balloon until it has enough lift to spring into the air. Then fiesta volunteers blow their whistles and get everyone out of the way so they don't get mowed over by the balloon basket. Then the people holding on to the basket let go, and the balloon takes off. The balloon operator for this balloon had two rolls of streamers that he tipped over the side as they took off so the balloon had a pretty little 'tail'. Then the crew members that helped the balloon take off pack up their van or truck and 'chase' the balloon to where it lands. At the landing they all have breakfast, pack up the balloon, and go home.
Tons of balloons took off in a matter of a couple hours. As you can see, there were tons of balloons and tons of people. It seemed like it took about 10 people to get the balloon up into the air, then each balloon would have 30-50 spectators who moved from balloon to balloon as each one took off.
Pepsi, proud sponsor of the fiesta!
Balloons taking off as the sun rises.


We had a great morning at the park! It was 48 degrees when we started before sunrise and 67 degrees when we left around 9am. The park is usually used for a golf course, so it was a huge grassy field that spectators could go walk around on, and the balloonists didn't have to worry about snagging their balloon fabric on rocks or sharp sticks. Encircling the golf course were vendors and little shops set up like a street fair or county fair. So we got to pig out on fair food while we waited for the action to begin, however, the fair food isn't quite the same as in Iowa. They are big into burritos down here for breakfast and dinner. They sold things called Frito pies which are like walking tacos but with Fritos, traditional chili, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. And everything has red or green chili on it: burgers, corndogs, etc. Also, instead of having lemon shake ups they have 'agua fresca' which is a melon infused water, kind of like lemonade but with melon instead of lemons. But we did get a funnel cake and mini donuts, yum!


Now we have been to a balloon festival in Colorado Springs and in Albuquerque. Both of them were very interesting, colorful, and fun to attend. We definitely recommend it.