Balloon Race Weekend-Friday Night

This past weekend was our area's 25th annual Hot Air Balloon Race. I have enjoyed this event ever since I met Josh ten years ago. It's one of my absolute favorite things to attend. When Josh and I moved here six years ago (can't believe it's been that long) my parents started the tradition of always driving in for the balloon races. This year was no exception! Friday night my mom, Josh, Eli, and I all headed out to the riverfront to go see the Balloon Glow and the fireworks, or "boom booms", as Eli calls them.

This year's Balloon Race was probably the best ever for me for several reasons. 1.) Eli was finally old enough to enjoy the balloons and all the activities surrounding the event. 2.) He was old enough to actually stay awake for the fireworks show. 3.) The weather was absolutely perfect all weekend so we saw TONS of balloons (just wait until you see the post for Saturday!)

Josh, Eli, and Grammy at the Balloon Glow

When we got to the river front on our side of town we saw lots of balloons participating in the glow. The plan was to go watch the balloons glow, walk along the river front, maybe go through the flea market, watch the fireworks and then go home. All that changed for us when my little boy spotted the fair that had magically appeared on the river front. Josh and I didn't remember that there would be a fair on our side of the river so we didn't come prepared at all-translate that into we didn't bring any cash except to eat some food.

As we were walking past the outside edge of the fair, my little boy, who is currently OBSESSED with the movie Cars spotted a ride of little cars going around and around. You would have thought he'd died and gone to heaven. His little mouth dropped open and he shook with excitement as he pointed and said, "Cah!" We went and stood by the ride and watched it for a few minutes before deciding that we'd go ahead and watch the balloon glow and then come back and let him ride the car one time. Eli wasn't happy with that decision, but once we got to the balloons he was okay. He and Grammy went pretty close to one balloon and Eli loved watching all the activity around the balloon, but got scared when they had to fire up the balloon to put more air in it. He was pretty much done with the balloons after that and all he wanted to do was go "Dive cah!" (Drive car).

The ticket line was FOREVER long so my Mom, being the quick thinker that she is, asked a lady already in line to buy her two tickets and promised her she could keep her change. It worked and soon we had two tickets for Eli, who proudly gave them to the lady running the ride. I buckled him in and we waited, and waited, and waited for the ride to start. Finally, it did and my little boy had the best time. He was in awe at all the lights and the sounds, so much that he didn't actually pretend to drive until the ride was almost over. Getting him out of the ride wasn't fun at all though. He was not a happy camper.

Look at that face! He was in love!

After the car ride, we let Eli play one more game before finding a spot to watch the fireworks show. He really enjoyed playing this duck game and would have stayed there all night if we'd let him.

Eli was starting to get pretty cranky at this point so we knew we were pushing it to stay and watch the fireworks show, but we wanted to at least try. We found a spot overlooking the bridge and watched the show. Eli did great. He watched the "boom booms" and seemed to really enjoy them.

Our beautiful bridge :)

Our first night of Balloon Race activities was a success. I love being able to do things like this with my family. It was a wonderful night!