sunrise hot air balloons

one of the benefits of making 4 runs out of the house every day is that i get to listen to a lot of radio. i have never been so "informed"! haha one day last week, i heard on the radio that there was going to be a hot air balloon festival. i took note of the name of it and when i got home i googled it to get more information. what i found out was that on saturday morning, they were planning a mass assention of the balloons at sunrise! i thought it would be pretty awesome and so i texted several of our friends and said, "if you would like an adventure, meet at our house at 5:30 saturday morning with a picnic breakfast, blanket and $5 donation." they had no idea what i was planning. saturday dawned clear and as i was loading my very sleepy family into our car i said a silent prayer that it would be fun and everyone would be glad they had come. 

 we spread out our blankets and waited in anticipation. i had made lemon muffins and carrot cake to share. a bribe if you will.

 micah took this picture. he has been into borrowing my camera lately. once in awhile he takes a really amazing one. the two fires are at the top of the balloon baskets. it is what heats the air so that they rise.

 we patiently waited an hour and half. when a lady finally came on the loud speaker and announced that the balloons were not going to be able to go up that morning due to winds, we were all disappointed. as we were watching though, two vans drove into the middle of the field and began inflating two balloons. they did it to show eveyone who had waited what the balloons looked like. nicole and her boyfriend daniel walked the kids down to watch close up.

 greg and matt kept joking that they were going to get the college where they both work, PBA, to purchase a hot air balloon. and they would be in charge of taking it around the country to advertise for the school. they joked about it, but i thought it was actually a good marketing idea. there are not too many colleges out there that would use a hot air balloon to advertise.

 it was a really fun morning. i have to admit i got a little teary eyed when we got out of our car and were greeted at 6:00 in the morning by some of our best friends. it was a great way to start the day.