A storm was rolling in Friday, but I rode my bike anyway, and it didn't rain. I did, however, log my 1,000th mile this year. I'm pretty darned excited!
On the way home from work that day, I had to hang out beneath an overpass while lightning danced all the way around me.
We spent part of the three-day weekend in Colorado Springs for the 43nd Annual Labor Day Lift Off balloon festival. We had arranged to meet one of the adoptive families of my grands there. (The other adoptive family wasn't able to attend this time because they were celebrating one of the kiddo's birthdays in a HUGE way, with all kinds of amazing homemade Harry Potter creations!!!)
The balloons went up before the grands arrived, although we had mostly white sky. My balloon luck stroke kicked in once the grands arrived, and the balloons never went up again the entire three-day weekend. That's typically what happens when I go to a balloon festival.
Pikes Peak logged its first snow accumulation of the coming season. Summer snow! (Calendar autumn doesn't officially arrive for another couple of weeks!)
Each time I went to the International Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque never had the balloonists do a static display, inflating balloons, even though they were grounded due to wind. Colorado Springs' decision to let the pilots inflate their balloons was a huge hit, especially with Star Wars-loving kiddos!
One of the pilots let children roll the air out of the envelope (the balloon) after the wind decided there would be no more fun, blowing down many of the inflated balloons.
Following the balloons, kids of all ages took to the stage each day for a doughnut-eating contest.
We offered to sign up the grands who wanted to participate when they arrived. Unfortunately, the youngest contestant slots sold out before we reached the registration table. So I bought a dozen doughnuts for the kids to eat in their own little contest during the official contest. The kids decided they wanted to go hands-free just like the official contest.
These kids had a chocolate blast!
After the contest, I sat down in the grass to change my camera batteries. Before I knew it, my lap was full!
One of the best weekends in a while. Even though the kids didn't get to see the balloons launch.
that looks like a wonderful time!! and 1000 miles - that is awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteThose are some neat balloons indeed. Yeah, best not to get struck by lightning. The kids sure look to be having fun with their own doughnuts haha
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