Up Up & Away

What happens when hundreds of RV families live together for two weeks at the world's largest balloon festival? We found out. Everyone else came to Albuquerque to watch the balloons. We came to live inside them. For two weeks, our family parked in an RV village with hundreds of other full-time traveling families — right as 500+ hot air balloons launched into the sunrise around us, morning after morning. This isn't another "Balloon Fiesta vlog." This is what it actually feels like to choose the road: the 4:17 AM alarms, the kids making friends with strangers who became family by day three, the mornings so cold our coffee went cold faster than we could drink it, and the nights the entire sky lit up like it was breathing fire. We didn't just watch the Mass Ascension. We got invited to crew a balloon. We asked 25 other RV families the question we ask ourselves every day: why did you leave normal life? Their answers will stay with you long after the balloons land. This is the first stop in a series we're calling our favorite thing we've ever filmed. If you've ever wondered what's actually on the other side of "we sold our house and bought an RV" — this is it. 🎈 In this video: – Arriving and setting up inside the Fulltime Families balloon camp – What 4:30 AM really looks like when 500 balloons are about to launch – Our kids experiencing it all without a single screen in sight – The community that made two weeks feel like two years of friendship – The moment we almost didn't want to leave 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Who we are: We're the Griffins — Our Family Routes — a full-time family living the RV life on the road, roadschooling our girls, and documenting the real version of this lifestyle: the beautiful parts and the hard parts, honestly. 🔔 Subscribe for the rest of the Balloon Fiesta series — including the night everything lit up, the balloon that drifted straight toward our campsite, and the real cost breakdown of two weeks living at the world's biggest balloon festival. 👇 Tell us in the comments: would you trade your routine for two weeks like this? #BalloonFiesta #RVLife #FullTimeFamily #Roadschooling #AlbuquerqueBalloonFiesta #OurFamilyRoutes #FulltimeFamilies #RVLiving #FamilyTravel