Today I am grateful for my dad.

This post is a combination of so many things... My usual Grateful Sunday post, a Flashback post, and a fathers day post all in one! Aren't you so lucky...

I am completely sure that I have the best dad in the whole wide world. He has been such a huge role model and support in my life. I love him so much! I am not afraid to admit that I am such a daddy's girl. I love doing just about everything he does, and I love spending time with him. He has always believed in my dreams and has supported me through every crazy thing I have decided to do.

Lately, I have been searching through old family photographs and found a lot of my daddy that I love. Here are a few of my favorites.

Dad as a kid. He was so cute. I think that we still have that horn. We use as a Christmas decoration. Every year I get it out, go into the back yard, and play it. It sounds like a dying moose and I am pretty sure my neighbors hate me, but it's too fun. It's funny to see a picture of my dad doing the same thing. 

I love hearing old stories about my when my dad was growing up. Some of my favorites are about his band the "Electric Grandmothers". He is the drummer in the cool hat. I have decided that if I ever do start a band I am taking that name, it's classic.

My dad grew up in a little country town called Taft, Texas, where he was one of the few kids who listened to rock and roll. He wore Beatle boots, had Beatle hair, and was bullied by the redneck football players. He said that all of the bullies would corner him and tell him to cut his hair or they would cut it for him. Scary right?! The night this picture was taken my dad and his bandmates had to lock their lead singer in a car so that he wouldn't get beat up by the football team or something. My dad wasn't just hated for being different. His band had some fans too! One time, after they played this concert at the beach these girls came up to the band and said "You guys sounded just like the Beatles!!!". My dad still gushes about that. You can only imagine how one might feel if their music was compared to the Beatles. 

Later, he went off to college to study Photography. Look how handsome he was. 

One morning in Taft my dad's friend knocked on his window and told him to come outside because there was a balloon flying over town.  They followed it and met the pilot after the balloon landed. Thats when he fell in love with hot air ballooning. This is a photo of him at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta that we as a family have been going to since way before I was born. This is why 90% of my childhood photos are of me wearing a ballon fiesta shirt. I think thats all us kids owned at the time. I love hot air ballooning with my dad. He gets so excited to spend a little time flying. I can't think of anything more exhilaratingly peaceful than hot air ballooning.

I have shared this photo before, and I can't help sharing it again. I love jamming with my dad.

This fathers day I am especially grateful for my dad and his love and support. I am happy to be celebrating him today! The family pitched in to get him a nice new record player! Which like a dad he was mad that we bought him something. He is the type of dad that does not want presents for his birthday and Christmas. I have been begging him for his record collection for years but he always said "no" because he still wants to listen to them for a while. But he didn't have a record player!!! So I thought, why not let him enjoy them for a few more years before he finally caves in and lets me have them! He has been sitting there listening to his old records with a big grin on his face. Thats when I know that I got him something good.

Thanks dad for being the best there is. I love you a lot.

Carli

Flashback

Lately I have been wanting to look at pictures from my childhood, and since I am home for the summer I thought this would be the best time. A couple weeks ago I pulled out a huge box of photos. My dads a photographer so you can only imagine the amount of photos he took of his kids. I originally planned to start a series called "Flashback Friday" but for the past two Fridays I have forgotten to post this so I decided that for today it wont be on Friday (that goes to show you how often this post will be on time since I couldn't even do it for the first of the series... my apologies). 

I love this picture. I am such a daddy's girl. There I am wearing a Balloon Fiesta shirt and playing, without a doubt, train sounds on the harmonica while my dad played train songs. Our little "Jam Sessions" are some of my fondest memories from my childhood. My dad passed down to me a lot of the hobbies that I have today, such as my love of music. 

I want to point out a couple things... First, I am incredibly cute. Second, look at that old school boom box. Third, my dad sold that old guitar a couple years ago and got a new one. Now that I am looking at a picture of it I really miss it. It was the first guitar I ever played. Fourth, look how completely legit my dad is with his harmonica holder.

A little reminiscing.
Carli

Road Trip: Before the road trip.

So, I am a big fan of road trips. I love being out on the road and experiencing places that I normally wouldn't. Road trips are a great time to think, talk, jam (my fave), catch up with friends, or get to know new ones. 

Here are a few suggestions to keeping your car ride interesting.

1. Listen to your favorite jams. 

2. Playing car games such as the license plate game, or Would You Rather.

3. Stopping often. If you see a place that catches your eye, don’t just drive on by it. Stop and see what it is. If it is not that cool then just get back in the car and keep going, but if it is cool stay a while and explore. Some of the most amazing things are in between you and your destination.

4. My personal favorite (don’t judge). I like to look out the window at the scenery passing by and imagine myself out there doing extraordinary things. While driving through these wide valleys I imagined myself as a cowgirl being chased by bandits. I sat backwards on my horse, dogged bullets, and sent some flying. Once the gun smoke cleared I discovered that I had came out victorious over all 88 of them bandits. I then stopped at the nearest saloon, walked in through the swinging doors, and ordered me a Sasperilla. Calamity Carli was my name. 

If that is too extreme as a pass time for you then you might as well be bored. 

Don’t get so caught up in moving from point A to point B that you don’t see what your passing by. Sometimes what you overlook could be much better then you destination.


The title of this post and preliminary comments may be a bit deceiving because I wasn't actually road tripping when I took these pictures... I took them the day before my dad and I left for Texas. He had just flown in so I decided to take him into a canyon and then show him around Salt Lake. I just wanted to preface what is to come in the next week. I will be sharing some of my adventures and photographs from my drive!

First we went...

  to Emigration Canyon

 

Time flies when your having fun.

It is completely impossible for me to wear matching socks.

Then we went...

 to Temple Square and saw the...

enormous amounts of flowers.

I am not kidding. I have never seen so many flowers in one place in my entire life. We could smell the flowers by just walking by them. It was magical.

Carli

Up, Up, & Away!

Balloon Fiesta History: The fiesta began 40 years ago in a parking lot of a mall. About 15 balloons were in attendance. It has now grown to over 1000 balloons (that was way too many for Albuquerque to handle), so it dropped back down to 750. Pilots come from all over the world to take to the skies with fellow balloonists. Spectators come from all around to witness the polka dot sky.The fiesta is always the first week of October and lasts nine days. If you are not a morning person I have to say that you may be turned off by the fact that in order to witness this spectacular event you have to awake before the sun. It is probably the most glorious thing you will ever witness. 

My dad has been hot air ballooning since 1972 and has been coming to the fiesta since 1977. I have been going my entire life. I am so lucky to be able to miss an entire week of school to spend my days soaring across the New Mexico sky.

If you have never seen & or heard of a balloon fiesta I highly suggest you look at the following pictures….

This year my dad was not able to bring his balloon due to an accident three years ago. His balloon was tangled in barbed wire during a windy landing. Suffice to say, it has a few holes that cost an arm and a leg to fix. So this year we came a spectators. Soooonot as fun as coming as a balloon crew. I was so incredibly jealous of all the balloon crews. Especially on the first day when I saw this guy holding the ropes which is MY job.  I even became somewhat emotional. The following is a list of things, in no particular order, that I was extremely jealous of because I was not part of a balloon crew. 

1. Staying in a really nice hotel for free.

2. Getting free breakfast and lunch from the hospitality tent.

3. Being able to park onto the field.

4. Being able to sleep in the car until the pilots get their weather briefing.

5. Getting to go to the zoo for a party with food for free.

6. Getting free admission to all balloon fiesta events.

7. Being that really cool kid riding in the back of the chase crew vehicle while everyone else stares in envy.

8. Riding in the balloon.

9. Setting up the balloon.

10. Chasing the balloon.

By the way. It is an awesome thing to be browsing the post cards and seeing your dads balloon on one of them. Rodeo Joe is the black balloon with the yellow longhorn.

Flying in a balloon is so amazing. It feels like you are flying. Once you reach about 100 feet it is silent. You don’t here the busy city noises any more. Just the sound of the burner warming the balloons air. It is so peaceful & awe-inspiring. A balloon ride is something everyone must do.

Carli

Balloon Fiesta Update.

It is my last night in Albuquerque. Tomorrow morning is the last opportunity I have to see a hot air balloon fly. Yep. Thats right… I have yet to see any balloons fly. I saw them inflate yesterday but none off the ground. 

Why in the world does winter have to come two months early?!?! 

Usually I like the rain, but today i dislike it very much so.

I am hoping that the weather clears before tomorrow morning. 

Carli

P.S. I am having a wonderful time…. but it would be a million times better if the weather was perfect.

Just Saying.

Tomorrow I am flying to Albuquerque NM to meet my daddy at the International Balloon Fiesta. 

I am so much more then excited! Not only to have a vacation from work, to see 750 balloons fly in the Albuquerque sky, or to spend my days shopping old town…. I am just excited to spend time with my wonderful father!!

Sweet dreams.

Carli :)

The Other Stuff.

The wedding was not the only thing I had going on this weekend. My Dad came in to town! He was the official wedding photographer. When he drove me up to Utah in February we had hardly had any time to explore Salt Lake together. We only got to go to Temple Square for roughly 30 minutes before it closed. My Dad didn’t get to stay too long this time either, but it was much longer then the couple hours we had in February.

 Friday I took him to down town Salt Lake, showed him my school, got some grub sandwiches and then went to Liberty Park to eat them. The weather was stunning, except for the heat… I am now a pansy when it comes to the heat. Ridiculous right?! We did have a great time. Of course Friday night and all day Saturday was dedicated to the wedding, but Sunday we were free to do as we pleased. I took my Dad out to Antelope Island so that he could experience the unusual beauty of the Salt Lake. We had a great time. The following are several pictures from the island.

So all along the shore were these little black rocks. When I got closer to them they started moving. It felt like I was parting the seas as I walked. They weren’t rocks. They were gnats. Bellow is a photograph that is intended to capture this sickness. I think  I succeeded.

The heat was like a dementor sucking the life out of our bodies. I got tired really quick, but I was enjoying the time with my Dad and the scenery. I particularly love how the mountains and clouds are reflected in the water, and how the road curves with the terrain. My dad taught me some photography techniques that will come in handy next time I photograph scenery.

The only thing that upset me was the fact that we didn’t see many buffalo. We saw a few but they were all far away….

Already missing my daddy.

Carli