Balloon festival 2010

Yesterday we got up at 5:30 to go to Provo's hot air balloon festival. On Thursday night (and when my alarm went off) I was wondering why we do this every year, but once I was up and about I enjoyed the early morning hours.

My kids were cold and glad they had brought sweatshirts and blankets. (I, of course, was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and felt fine.)

Lucas and Eva huddling together.

Following tradition, we got hash browns, biscuits, and o.j. from McDonald's. (I love orange juice. Why do I never buy it? It's like an annual treat.)

Landon didn't show any signs of unusual tiredness!

Once the sun came over the mountains, it really warmed up.

The Coke bottle balloon was a new addition to the arsenal.

early-morning SPT for documentation

Eva got the last pink frisbee and was quite pleased. Here she is working on some moves.

I enjoy the balloons reflected in Jill's glasses.

I decided that this is my favorite balloon – I love the flags hanging off the sides. (I'm generally a fan of anything that cascades.)

A huge line of people helping to collapse and roll up a deflated balloon.

All the kids started running around, playing frisbee and making up all kinds of games. They were very kind to include Eva.

hilarious pyramid

The kids made a tunnel for Eva to crawl through, but she didn't get the concept at first and kept trying to go through the sides rather than the ends!

making a booster seat of some sort

The balloons didn't launch again due to too much wind, but this one lifted off momentarily, and that was as good as it got this year. Too bad, I love it when they all lift off and you can see them from underneath.

For some reason, the usual get-up-and-shake-it music was replaced by decidedly muzak tunes, reaching a new low when Moon River started up. It was weird, and definitely messed with Jill's groove.

But as she says, hey, we did something!

better than last year!

This morning we went to watch the hot air balloon festival in Provo. Last year, when Jessie was in town, we all got up early and drove down there, only to discover that we had missed the whole thing! @$%! I left myself a note on my blog to leave at 6:00 a.m. this year (1/2 hour earlier than last year), so that is what we did. Imagine my surprise when the balloon inflation hadn't even begun! It was too weird.

We made the obligatory stop at McDonald's on our way to the field. We get plain biscuits, hash browns, and o.j. (Lucas opted for milk). He also shocked me by announcing that he prefers the hash browns to the biscuits. What the? I thought my little starchatarian favored bread above all else!

I found it interesting that the balloons look so massive when they are spread out on the ground and filling up, and then when they are fully inflated, they suddenly don't look nearly as big anymore.

Jill was violently opposed to my picture-taking.

Eva was cold, so Max obliged her with some snuggling inside his cozy blanket. For the record, it was not cold at all, even though most years it is chilly before the sun comes up.

We were positioned right next to the Smokey the Bear balloon and got a close-up view of its inflation. It's really quite a process! It takes a whole lot of people to lift and shift the balloon around, and it looks even harder to deflate it and pack it up.

I'm not sure what Whitney was saying here, but I love that I caught her in this dramatic moment.

While it was fun to watch the balloons inflate, it was a bit of a disappointment when they announced that, due to rain in the forecast, they would not actually be taking off. That's my favorite part. And if I were a balloonist, I don't think I'd be too keen on getting it all set up and filled, only to deflate it and pack it all away...

Eva was so tired from the 5:45 wake-up that she spent most of the time crying. She didn't like the smell of the gas (I couldn't smell anything), she didn't like the sound of the balloons filling, she was cold, she wanted to go home and go back to bed. Such a delight. (She did, however, take a 3-hour nap today, woohoo!!)

Jill & Randy's relaxed feet. I'm not sure how they were able to relax with all the crying, but I have to assume it's because it was not their child doing all the crying. Still.

Landon & Lucas. These guys have been great friends for as long as I can remember. I love that.

(Incidentally, I felt like I needed to make a disclaimer on Lucas's long, out of control hair. Jill said the same thing about Landon. I didn't even notice Landon's hair because I was so focused on how much I want Lucas to get a haircut! Too funny.)

Who knew there was a balloonist prayer??

Early morning sp: complete with bedhead, yesterday's makeup, and cold sores. And a completely uncooperative Eva. But it had to be done!

to sum up: It wasn't our best-ever balloon launch experience, but it was still fun, and I'm glad we kept with our tradition. Check!

balloons were a bust

Yesterday we got up with the sun to go to the annual hot air balloon launch.

We thought we'd be okay to arrive around 7:00, but it turns out, that was just wishful thinking. We got there at 6:50 and all the balloons were already in the air!

By the time we parked and walked to the field, they were long gone. I was holding out hope that they would return for the target dart throws...

Max and I walked over to McDonald's to get some breakfast, and I have never seen an eating establishment in such a state of chaos. We were able to order right away, and then we waited for almost 1/2 hour to get our food. By the time we got back to the group and ate, we were pretty much the only people remaining.

(One balloon returned while we were at McDonald's, so Jessie was able to get a couple of photos. Good grief.)

I was having a hard time getting over my disappointment at missing everything, but the kids took it in stride. We also ran into Hannah, her kids and her mom.

Hannah and cute Kaylee

Bella with one of the frisbees that were passed out to all the kids.

At least we were all together, and nothing can be completely awful when you're with people you love.


Note to self: next year, leave the house at 6:00, go through the drive-through at McDonald's, be on the field by 6:30!!