Balloon balloons

(This post had been languishing in Mama's draft folder for way too long, waylaid by oh so many things, mainly real life and some sort of writer's block. Mama actually had to change the post title just so it was not too obviously (and embarassingly!) late. Let's just say it was during the first half of the year and leave it at that, yes? Anyway, I do hope you'll still enjoy it. Cheers!)

Dawn was breaking on Valentine's day morning when we slowly made our way through the traffic of fellow flying enthusiasts towards the Clark Airfield, because, after a break last year, the Hot Air Balloon festival in Clark was back this year!

Back in its original site, I believe this was the same site as our first attendance, when we did not manage to get into the fair grounds due to the long lines. The second time we came, the fair was held in a different site, closer to the express way, and we went in the afternoon instead of in the morning. This time, we chose the morning balloon flight.

It was a beautiful morning with some cloud cover. The cloud certainly made the sunrise more interesting. We went through the hangar, with Kecil insisting that we hurry, only to .... a magical world on the other side.

There seemed to be more balloons compared to the previous years, quite a few whimsical ones, such as the animal barn behind Mama and Baby above.

Kecil wanted to be carried (for a better look at the balloon, she said). Fair enough. There WAS quite a   lot of people around. Besides, I think Daddy recognize that it wouldn't be too long before she is too heavy to carry so he intended to make full use of his ability to carry her at her current weight.

Once the balloons were released, we were free to roam the grounds to see stuff such as helicopters, planes, kites, people getting ready with their parachute blowers...

Not for nothing the event was called "a weekend for all that flies"....

We also spot this dedicated photographer. Man, those looked heavy! Mama's 'big' camera looked puny in comparison!

Upik looked a bit confused while we poked around the grounds. There were booths for flight schools from around the area. One of them put up the cardboard airplane that Kecil took picture with.

At one corner of the fair grounds, there was also a segway booth where you can rent the segway to navigate through a short maze. Well... a segway does not fly, but since neither Mama and Daddy had ever tried a segway before, we said why not, and took turn baby sitting while the other took the ride. It was quite fun if a bit scary at first. Kecil was not tall enough for one, though, so she just sat with the baby-sitting parent.

As the sun crept higher, it was getting hotter at the fair ground. We made our move back to the car then. We stopped only to buy some balloon lantern to replace Kecil's old one in her room as well as gifts for her friends.

We were walking towards the car when we saw the cavalry paraded by.

What a sight, especially with the flags!  Haha... That was quite some ending to our visit to the balloon fest. We continued to the mall to have some lunch (and aircon!) before we headed back home. It was, all in all, a good daytrip. We might be going again for the next balloon fest. Who knows? Until then. Cheers!

Walkies version 4.3

A jump from version 3.0, you say? Well, of course! After all, it's been a while, isn't it? Upik is nary the little wee babe who just sat in the stroller anymore. Just like her older sister before her, she's one stubborn, opiniated little Lady, and we just adore her like that.

Back to the walkie version, we can rewind a bit to recap.

Thanks to the Dog, we continued with our daily walkies (a necessity for the Dog, both for hygiene purposes, aka toilet, and for her exercise). There were times when walkies happen in the early morning sun...

... perhaps with the Big Sister along, which allowed Mama to take some posed pictures of the 'Offspring'..

Some other time walkies happened after the Big Sis went off to school, leaving Mama with these remaining two... Upik, as you can see, was already sitting up instead of just lying down on the stroller.

There were some quick walkies in the evening without the stroller, just the Dog and 3 mischievous girls....

There were also evening walks just with the Dog and Upik while Big Sis went off playing with her friends, big girl that she is.

However, Upik soon outgrew the stroller. Not quite because she can't fit anymore, but because she started STANDING on the said stroller, even with the belt on!

Well, usually she does that in order to be carried by Mama. Which, of course, is fine for short distance, but definitely not fine for the whole duration of the walkies. So, when her birthday came around, Mama & Daddy got this Little One a tricycle, not quite unlike her sister's old one (which had broken quite a long time ago).

Tadah!
(She just made that face because of the sunlight!) The tricycle was a hit, even with her big sis (and the big sis' friends. I just withhold the pics)

And so everybody was happy (or so Mama likes to think). The Baby got a new, novel ride, Big Sis got to push the Little One, Doggy got her walkies. Even Mama was happy, since the new ride handled the road (and off road) better than the stroller.

Until Upik started standing on her ride again... hah!

I guess it can't be helped. When she wants to be carried, this is what she does. But the other day was a bit different.

She wanted to walk herself!

Until she/Mama got tired, that is. She from walking, Mama from being so slow, hahah.
As for the barefoot? Well, this Mama tries her best to put the baby shoes on, but in the early days, we did forget a few times. Then there are also times when the Little One does NOT want to put on shoes.  She would actually sit down on the asphalt to remove her shoes too!

In any case, there you have it, the whole series from lying down on the stroller to walking behind the tricycle. Ah... babies, they grow up sooo very fast.

Here's to more versions of walkies in the future. Cheers!

Ladder Girls

This was Kecil back in 2010, sometime around Christmas. 

And this, is Kecil's little sister, Upik this year.

We, Indonesians, would say: tidak kakak, tidak adik, sama saja.

Which translates roughly to: Older and younger sister acts the same way.

Even if Kecil was 2 year old and Upik 1 year old when the pictures were taken.

Well... at least we know the younger one most probably would follow closely in her older sister's footstep.

Constant vigilance, Mama!

Indeed....

It is good to be back here, even for a very short post with 3 pictures. Haha... Now that Upik is more than a year old, perhaps Mama can go back behind the computer and started doing what she did with Kecil last time. We'll see, we'll see.

Between the need for constant vigilance, other future plans and extra charges, not to mention the very daunting backlog, I guess we'll just have to try our best.

Cheers!

A long ride

After the nth consecutive good (or at least, fair) weathered weekend, Kecil developed an itch to go for a horse ride. To be fair, I think it's over a year since her last ride, so it was a bit hard to say no, especially since she did show us her cute face, impeccable manner and persistence to achiver this objective. Which was how Mama and Kecil ended up for a horsey date last weekend, leaving the Puny one and Daddy at home.

We went to our usual stable nearby, but we found out that they were having a 'do' at the stables.

It was picture taking day! So all the horses and all the King's men ahem ... Stable hands were out in force on the training field.

They posed for a while, then went on to show off a (simple) quadrille, which was basically some riding in formation. It was definitely something new.

We waited for them because they assured us that it wouldn't take too long (it didn't) and it was something new for both of us to watch. It was fun.

It didn't take long for the quadrille to be done. Kecil had some practice using Mama's Big camera while we waited for our horses to be ready.

Then they told us that the horses were ready. So off we went.

By the way, Kecil rode the horse all by herself. She's one experienced rider, no fear at all! This was not her first time riding solo, after all.

You see? As for this Mama... let's just say that there was that initial unbalanced sensation. But such minor detail shall not stop Mama from taking pictures. After all, the spurs were there for the rider to steady themselves, and as for the camera, we did not get a Tough camera for nothing, yes?

We took the usual route ...

... past the stables and under these familiar trees ...

... above the road (that was new! We took the road before instead of going on a small path above it!) and into the woods...

... straight to the waterfall where we found an imp perched on the large rock. Ha! Would it be that there was our pic together there, unfortunately it seemed that the guide found the Big camera too heavy for the result was marred by a serious case of camera shake. Sigh.....

Thankfully, our other guide did not suffer from the same problem, and there was the pic of Mama and Kecil on our horses with one of the guides from the stables. And, of course, there was always Mama's selfies. Hohoho....

A last story for this episode, this stable dog was following us from the moment we left the stables, all the way to the waterfall and back. We were SO impressed by his (her?) level of energy, especially because he was somewhat lame. See that left foreleg? He did not use it at all throughout the trip. He was seriously walking on three legs, bounding cheerfully through the track with nary a sign of fatigue! I was just rolling my eyes when I thought of the Dog at home. Huh. Perhaps our Dog IS overweight, indeed. Hmmmppphhhtttt!

Anyway, it was a good, fun ride. We took the road back to the stables, just as we did so many years back on our very first ride here. Kecil was bursting with pride at her own achievement, riding the whole hour on her own horse (even with the guide). Perhaps we should come back again some time. Well, you'll never know.

How was your last adventure? Re-visited any old adventures lately?