balloon fest

tonight kicked off balloon fest which is part of the pro-football hall of fame induction festivities. unfortunately, the weather wasn't looking great for the weekend and the weather has to be near perfect for the balloons to fly. the kids and i were out watching for the balloons tonight when matt got home. in past years, they have come right to our neighborhood so we were optimistically scanning the skies. daddy told us that he had seen them from the interstate heading in the other direction (away from us) so he encouraged us to jump in the car and try to find them instead of waiting. lucky for us we found some! i was so excited to see them that i didn't get video of manning's reaction. he was pointing everywhere and saying "boon! boon! boon!" totally in heaven!

after seeing several land, we headed back home for a quick dinner and warmer clothes to go to the "balloon glow." manning was disappointed that his sweatshirt didn't have a hood so he was pleased with a hat instead.

this was the first time we have attempted this event. one it is late (9:30pm), two we thought that it might be very crowded. we were pretty pleased with the event and plan on coming earlier next time so that we can take part of the food options too.

the kids loved the balloons lighting up to the music - especially manning!

mason was the only one willing to take a picture in front of an "all glow."

they had started the balloon glow a little earlier than scheduled because the weather was getting ready for a storm. being there was great - leaving was not that great. just a non-moving cluster of cars. the passenger in the car in front of us went out to direct traffic and got us all out of there. thank goodness for him! we would have been there all night. love.