Albuqueque

We had so much fun this weekend in Albuquerque.  The Balloon Festival was the high light obviously, but we did fun stuff other than just that.

Monday we road the Sandia Peak Tramway to the top of Sandia Mountain.

The views were breathtaking! 

Sure love these kids of mine!  Any chance I get to slip away from the business of life with them I take it!  This is the view from 10,378 feet up!

Once at the top of the peak we did some hiking!  What great hikers I have!!

I love these boys of mine!

It was a fun filled day, FULL OF ADVENTURE, thanks to this kid and some help!

One side of the mountain you can ride the tramway and on the other side there is a ski resort.  During the off months you can ride the ski lift down and back up.  After we hike a little bit we had lunch at High Finance which is the restaurant at the top of the mountain.  Such gorgeous views from up there!!!

Grant and I had fun riding the ski lift down and back up the ski resort side.  Sure glad Grant rode with me because our ride got a little scary....

Well these boys are 12 so as you could imagine they are up for a good thrill most of the time.  They were riding the lift together.  As we made our way back up the top of the mountain, these two rug rats thought it would be fun to make their ski chairs rock.  Due to each of them only weighing 60 pound soaking wets, it only affected their chair for the most part. 

The loaders of the lift only loaded every other chair with people.  Hunter and Brodie were in the very front of our group, then an empty chair.  Then there was Mona and Logan, and empty chair, then Grant and I.  Well Mona and Logan would see and hear the fun Hunter and Logan were having.  So they decided they would start rocking their chair.  

As you could probably envision, when you have a 200 lbs person swinging and rocking a ski lift chair, there is  A LOT of momentum!!!!  Mine and Grant's chair started rocking back and forth in such a way that was scary!!  It was really windy as well.  I started yelling at Mona and Logan to, "STOP ROCKING!!"  They looked back and gave me a thumbs up and then turned back around, continuing to rock the chair.  If I would not have been holding on to Grant he would have easily slipped out.  I was getting super nervous!!  I knew Hunter and Brodie could not hear me.  Plus them being so light I knew they were not the ones causing the extreme amount of rocking.

After about 10 minutes of this continuing to happen, the ski lift stopped.  The kids continued to rock the chairs.  Mona and Logan were suspended over a 200 foot drop while the lift was stopped.  I was really scared because Logan is small for the ski lift chairs and he was sliding all over the place.  Once Mona got involved in the rocking of the chair it affected main chairs beyond hers.  Hunter and Bodie were then REALLY being bounced all over the place, as was Grant and I.

It not only made our chair rock and bounce it completely derailed one cable on the lift.  That is why the ski lift stopped.  A guy on a quad came riding up and could see the kids rocking their chairs and started yelling, and I mean yelling, at them to stop.  Once he got close enough the could actually hear him they stopped.  He yelled at them big time!  Telling them they were the reason the lift was stopped.  The poor guy had to climb the lift pole several times with equipment to finally get the cable back on track.  Boy was he mad!!!  I don't blame him, I was just relieved the rocking was over and that no one fell out.

Once we got to the top I could see they were holding my kids to the side and lecturing them.  When I got to the top they also lectured me.  We then had to wait for a manager to get to the top of the mountain and he really let us have it.  He told us we all could be leaving here in cop cars if he wanted us to.  He told us how the chairs got to rocking in front of Hunter and Bodie and that the lady in that chair had a full blown panic attack because the lift was stopped for so long and it was bouncing around so much.  The lift was completely stopped for at least 40 minutes!!!  

I agree it was a scary thing and irresponsible of the kids.  I wasn't surprised that Hunter and Bodie, two 12 year old boys, would do it.  But Mona doing it for so long and her seeing the affect her doing had on the chairs around her really surprised me!!!  And I don't know if her and Logan really "couldn't hear" me or if they just ignored me.

Needless to say I was so grateful to get back to the rental house with everyone safe.  I was thinking there for awhile that this would be another vacation with an ER visit. 

Sure grateful for these sweet kids in my life and that we all survived the thrilling ski lift.

We celebrated the day with dinner at The Melting Pot!

It was delicious as always!!!

I could have just ate the chocolate fondue and been super happy!

Oh the goodness!!!!

Hatch, New Mexico has some pretty fabulous statues.

We really love this girl!  

Mona is teaching us a lot.  It's funny because she doesn't really teach us about Germany as much as I had imagined she would.  But she is teaching us a lot about personalities.   She can be so fun, yet so serious.

We are grateful we get to have Mona in our home and for the fun times we are having with her.  I really love seeing her and Logan together.  They seem to be hitting it off really well and I think she enjoys Logan's silliness!

Logie Bear with Yogie the Bear!

What's not to love about a giant hot dog with a monster dinosaur coming to attack you in the distance.

It was one fulfilled trip!!!

I love being a mom!  Wish Justin could have gotten away from the office.  And I really missed having Kiersten and Ella with us!  Next time they are coming for sure!