Pirates of the Canyon

As if two parties two nights in a row were not enough, we decided to leave the house at 5:00am Sunday, November 1 and head down to Canyon, Texas for the Pirates of the Canyon balloon festival.  It was well worth the 4:15am wake up and hour and a half drive!  Nick and I love balloon festivals.  We went to the awesome Albuquerque Balloon Festival in 2007 with my parents.  We had a wonderful time and plan to go back possibly next year.  We attempted to attend the Pirates of the Canyon in 2007, but the weather was not conducive and the festival was cancelled.  We lucked out this year, it was cold, but BEAUTIFUL!  There were about 30 balloons!  And the canyon!  Oh I LOVE Palo Duro Canyon!  It is stunning and truly breathtaking.  What a great place for the festival to take place! Allison had a great time. I was concerned she might be frightened when the balloons turned their gas on, but she did not mind.  She saw lots of dogs and constantly said, "Dog! Dog!"  That made her day!

As if beautiful balloons were not enough, the festival had the longest hot air balloon in the United States! It was in the shape of the Space Shuttle.  It was amazing!

We had such a great time!  This will certainly be a Spencer family tradition while we are in the panhandle.  After the festival, we ran some Amarillo errands and had an awesome brunch at one of our favorites, Joe Taco!  Yum!  On the way out of town, we happened upon an AKC Dog Show!  What luck!  We went in and watched for a bit.  Organized chaos would be a good description of the show!  Lots of primping dogs and nervous handlers were running around!  We had a great time and Allison yelled, "Dog! Dog!" the whole time.  She had a rough time dealing with the fact that she could not pet these dogs!
We had such a great Halloween weekend!  2010 has a lot to live up to, but I do know, it only gets better!  Happy Monday!