Balloon Ballet?

Yesterday morning was our 8th time getting up oh so early (5:15am) to attend the Balloon Festival in Provo. It never seems to get easier for me to deal with the early rising, but this is a well-rooted tradition for us so I never consider NOT going.


We arrived at 6:30am and found Michelle and her kids already settled in their spot with their McDonald's breakfast.


Max tried to create his own cozy in the chill of the early morning.

Whitney did too.

Randy and Landon walked over to McDonald's to get our traditional breakfast of hashbrowns, plain biscuits and orange drink.



We all enjoy watching the balloons fill up, but our 2nd favorite part of the morning is usually the fun music they blast. It ends up feeling like a party and everyone ends up singing along, involuntarily dancing, and just feeling good. Well I don't know who the D.J. was this year, but whoever it was ruined the experience for me! He/she played instrumental show tunes and classical music! It was a total snooze. All I could figure was that they were going for a sort of balloon-ballet feel, but it was supposed to be a kick off to the 4th of July Weekend--feel good sort of vibe and it just wasn't. I about lost it when I heard, "Moon River". Seriously.

No comment.

Michelle's camera.

Landon was running around and jumped over Whitney without her knowledge. It was pretty funny so I had him do it again for the camera, I love it that she's clueless about it.


As usual, the whole experience is changed when the sun finally rises over the mountains; everything becomes warm and beautiful.


Eva took advantage of the sun's appearance to entertain herself with her tall shadow.

Oh how I love the way these colors pop in the sunshine.

All this by 7:10am!

Michelle and I braved a scary self-portrait.

We ended up trying to salvage the disappointing morning by walking around under the balloons, which is a change for us since we usually don't leave our seats. It was interesting to be that close to the balloons, to hear them filling up and to feel the heat of the fires, but I was too distracted by the heinous music to enjoy it very much.


I almost wore this same dress, it's a good thing I ended up in jeans and t-shirt instead or we may have been embarrassed.


The kids were creative with their fun and ended up doing all kinds of silly games.


One of which was making this tunnel for Eva to crawl through.


And this game of carrying her around like she was flying. I was surprised she was okay with this one, but she was in excellent form yesterday and very happy to be included in the play.

I'm not going to say this outing was a bust, because it was still fun, but I would really like to know what the thinking was behind the music selection and if it will go back to normal for next year!

Balloon art by Whitney


**Would the music have bugged you?
Does getting up early ever get better?
Would you have taken a nap later?
Ever worn a full-length dress to a balloon launch?**

Comment Window Tidbit: After the balloon festival I went home and slept for 2 hours, then got up and showered and got ready for the day and went to Michelle's for Creative Friday. Phew.

Remember My Name, Remember, Remember

Last Saturday afternoon I met up with my mom and sisters at Thanksgiving Point for lunch and a movie. They ordered lunch while I was over buying the movie tickets, but when I joined them my lunch wasn't ready yet (it was aBBQ beef sandwich). I ended up eating all of my chips while I waited, and they were done eating by the time my sandwich arrived...what the?


Adam dropped Amy off at the theater on his way over to our house, so she wasn't able to join us for lunch but made it in time for the movie.


We were all excited to see "Fame", especially since Kherington from So You Think You Can Dance is in it. We had medium-high expectations going in, but ended up being really disappointed.


It felt like the season premiere of a new TV series or something, like they couldn't jam everything into it that they wanted to but that they had lots of story lines to develop. It felt like a lot of random scenes spliced together with no flow. We probably wouldn't have minded so much if there had been more dancing, but there was disappointingly little.


I grew up listening to the original "Fame" movie soundtrack and know every word of every song. I also loved the TV series that was on in the early 80s and used to watch it on my parents' bed while practicing my splits (which I never was very good at). I had the albums from the TV show too and practically wore them out; it's kind of sad that I have no idea where they are now. Good times.

**Have you seen this movie?
Did you watch the TV show as a kid?
Could/can you do the splits?
Did you have albums?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Is anyone else having a hard time with the weird in-between, seasonal temperature swings going on right now? I love how cool it is at night and in the morning, but then get overheated in the day.