Independence Day Morning 2009

I didn't think there would ever be a time when I thought that waking up at 5:30 in the morning by choice would be worth it, but today it most definitely was. We woke up at 5:30 so we could leave to go to the hot air balloon festival by 6:00am. Last night Aaron and I made muffins and juice and packed bagels and water, and everything else we could think up into our newly acquired wagon. When we woke this morning, all we had to do was dress, and get the boys dressed and we were out the door.

We walked over with some friends from our apartment complex. The field where they were launching them from was only about a block away from our house so we figured it would be easier and fast to walk. We were right. We got there in time to see them spread out a lot of the balloons and start to fill them up with hot air. It was really awesome.


I was surprised at how close we were able to get to the balloons. We were sitting right in the middle of them all, it was like a giant balloon forest. We even had one that needed to be spread out right where we were sitting, so we had to move for a minute, and they spread it out right over our blankets while it filled up. We were able to touch it too. Lincoln was a little bit scared of the balloons and didn't like being too close to them. One flew right over our head and Aaron got a cool shot of the inside.


Here's our family at the balloon festival. While we watched the balloons fill up and lift off we ate our breakfast on the blanket and chatted with Stacey and Rob and their kids.


We tried really hard to capture the sheer quantity of balloons in the air. This picture still doesn't do it but it's the best we got. There were three shaped balloons. Lincoln's favorite was the one shaped like a piggy bank. He would look up into the sky to find it, and then yell "Pig! Pig!" At the top of his lungs. Then I'd ask him what the pig said and he's say, "O-oint"


I'm not sure why exactly, but I really love this picture of Ivan. He was really good during the whole thing. He just let us hold him while we watched the balloons go by. The sky was beautiful this morning, which made for some really awesome pictures.


When the balloon festival was drawing to a close we loaded everything up and headed over to the parade. Lincoln and Jeremiah we the lucky winners who got to ride in the wagon with all the stuff.


Jeremiah enjoyed the wagon ride so much he fell asleep, and slept through most of the parade, firetruck sirens and all. About 20 minutes into the parade it started to rain. Now I know where the saying "Rain of your parade" comes from. :) But it actually was kind of refreshing, and it only lasted about 10 minutes and then the sun was right back out drying everything off. So it didn't ruin the parade at all.

Here are the Baileys, Bennett, Jeremiah, Audrey, Stacey, and Rob, at the parade. Audrey and Bennett had a lot of fun running up to the front to get candy from the floats. It'll be a few more years before Linc and Ivan are old enough to do that.

And of course this is our family at the parade, sporting our awesome 4th of July T-shirts. I love Lincoln and Ivan's shirts, they say "Freedom is Cool" and have a little flag. Mine and Aaron's are just the typical $5 Old Navy Flag T but hey, we look patriotic so that's all that matters. :) After the parade we came home and took much needed naps! Later this afternoon we are headed over to Aaron's Uncle Richard and Aunt Debbie's house for a 4th of July BBQ and to watch Stadium of Fire! Should be fun. I'm sure I'll take pics so check back again soon.