Sandy Balloon Festival- Take 2

We made it!!!!  I got up at 5:00 for the second day in a row!!!  MIRACLE!  And got the kids all ready to go.... MIRACLE!!!  And then we made it out to Sandy and saw all our awesome balloons launch just as planned!  MIRACLE!!  It was awesome.  I think we all had a good time!  I really enjoyed listening to everyone do extra good in the morning, there were lots of nice things said, and a lot of sweet words.  Definitely worth the early morning.  I won't lie, they were very temperamental for a LOT of the day, and there were many spats that normally wouldn't have occurred had everyone not be on their second day of little sleep (of course I let them have a late movie night the night before like a dummy), so I really shouldn't even bring that up, but for reality's sake.... It was a good time!

We parked just up the street from Storm Mountain Park, it was a simple little walk down to the festivities.  That was a blessing.  And just as planned set our blanket just past the potties (this is one of the hardest things about taking the kids somewhere on my own.... the needs for potty breaks.  Who to leave with the stuff, who to send with the potty-er.... just a frustrating dilemma for me! so we alleviated that problem :) ), at the top of the steep drop off into the grassy area.  And when I say steep, I mean STEEP!  We slid down it several times on our blanket :).  It was actually kind of comfortable for a pregnant belly though.... anyway!  

We had a great view of everything!

I let the kids go wait in line for their balloons... kept an eye on them with my camera :)

Then we waited as the balloons were inflated.

Erika was so happy about her balloon. But "Dey didn't have pink ones.  Me wuv pink!"  

Erika was really fun to watch with.  She was LOVING the hot air balloons!  She got SO giddy when she saw the PINK PIGGY one!  She calls it hers now.  She watched that thing til it was a tiny little dot in the sky.

Bradley's always fun at these things too, very interested in the mechanics of it all.  He and I were trying to figure out how they steer them.... I'm still not sure.

These two were my attempt at a picture of everyone.  They had such an audience of people behind me, I think it made them too shy for the picture.  I know it's a sorry attempt.  Poor Kelly and Noah are barely visible and check out Erika's eyebrow!  Funny stuff.  And of course, I had it in Portrait mode for some crazy reason!  (I never use portrait mode... whoever keeps playing with my camera is going to die soon!)

I was loving how excited each kid got about different colors and different balloons... it's a fun way to capture their personalities I think.

Like when lukey caught a glimpse of the "American Flag one!" in the back there... so cute!  He was so into it!  And he watched that one like a hawk the whole time too...

I LOVED this picture of Noah!

The sun still hadn't fully risen, so I'm unhappy with the lighting and coloring of these pictures, but hopefully I'll have some time in the near future to play with them a little....  

Erika wanted to dramatize the sound of the fire going into the balloons.  It really wasn't all that loud from where we were, so I think it was her way of being afraid of the fire without having to say so.... since she's been so tough about fire these last few months :).

This red one was first!  We were all very thrilled that they were launching them this year!

Erika squealed with excitement as her piggy went up!  Then she waved goodbye to it as it turned and left....

It was really a fun time!  

It's really crazy how quickly it all ends.  I mean we were done and back in the car before I usually get out of bed!  But I LOVE this activity.  I think the kids had a good time too.

After the launch, seemed a pity to be all the way out in Sandy, with so much time on our hands (didn't need to be back to Bountiful til 10:30 for a birthday party for Luke's friend), so I decided to drive everyone around and give them a tour of where I grew up :).  Every kid's dream I'm sure.... but they humored me nonetheless.  We drove past my old house on Pine Ridge Road, then down to Draper Park.  That place sure has changed and in the words of Luke, there "wasn't very much to do".  Kind of a weak playground if you ask me.  But the kids made it fun for the short time we were there.

Especially Luke, Charity and Bradley.  They found this toy and the laughter coming from their corner of the playground was just contagious!  They were totally busting up.  Luke braved the thing and actually went all the way around with the help of his older sibs.  It was a pretty fun toy!  Course the fun ended abruptly when Bradley fell on his head... too big for it maybe... but that's how it goes....

Erika started throwing tantrums and I thought maybe changing the scenery might help.  So we drove over to the other side of the park to catch the other playground (or at least see what was in it's place) and it was not even there!  There was a library in it's place!  Can you believe it!  They paved paradise and put up a parking lot!  HA! I'm kidding.  Although I had to laugh when Bradley said, "They tore down something fun to put up something not fun".  We love libraries, don't get us wrong.  But it was funny.  Then we drove up to Spruce Wood Elementary, my ol' stomping ground, and let the kids play on the playground there.  I have to admit Erika's little tantrums were getting to me by this point.  She'd had enough to last me the whole day, so I was running low on patience.  We didn't stay long, and she was ticked about that too, but it was time to go get strapped into her car seat and hopefully fall asleep on the way home.

They still have the little pebbles as the turf, very cool!  Just the sound of the kids running on that brought back memories!  The playground was completely different of course.  And I couldn't believe how short the hill was and how small the field was!  I grew!!

How can she go from this to full out screaming tantrums so quickly?!

It was a lot of fun to see my old neighborhood though.  I miss that place.  Brought back so many memories!  I'll spare you those.  Good times though!  8-11-12