Great Midwest Balloon Fest

Had an awesome time Friday night at the balloon fest in Overland Park. There were 36 balloonists that participated. We arrived around 4:30 for the festivities and food. About 6:00 half of the hot air balloons lifted off. Then more food, fun, and music. When it got dark the other half stuck around for what they call the Night Glow. This is where the balloons are fully expanded but they run the propane fire to light them up. What a spectacular view. Can't wait until they do it again next year!

 

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

Once again we have a 3rd grader that had to do an insect display. Needless to say I left this up to Daddy. I can handle the monarch butterfly but everything else was just too gross. However she did get an A!!!

 

Colorado Springs

We bought tickets back in April for the BYU/Air Force game this past weekend. It is only a 9 hour drive from here so it was doable. Mike didn't get out of the hospital until late so we drove as far as Salina KS on Thursday. Up on Friday to go the rest of the way. We wanted to stay in Manitou Springs and had this fun little motel called the Rainbow Inn. It was on the main drag into Manitou Springs and allowed pets. Since Lacie will have to stay in the kennel when we go to Disneyland we decided to take her with us on this trip. She loves roadtrips. First day we went to explore the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Let me tell you, I am so glad for modern conveniences, though they were pretty cool. Went to this place called The Mason Jar which claims to have the best country fried steak in the nation. It was pretty good.

 

After dinner we wanted to check out all the shops. However we found it was similar to Keystone SD where they all closed up around 6p except for the dining establishments. So we were just able to walk up and down looking through the windows.

 

Saturday morning we dropped Lacie off at doggie day care and went horseback riding through Garden of the Gods. It was real pretty. About an hour on a horse is about all I can stand. Wasn't planning on getting as dusty as I did with all the red rock dust. The girls had an absolute blast though.

 

Saturday afternoon was the BYU/AF game. Unfortunately we were sitting on the side facing the sun and it was hot. Didn't matter that we were at an elevation of 6000 feet and the wind was blowing....it was still hot. Seeing the jets fly over was pretty cool but we ended up leaving during the 4th quarter because the cougars were loosing. I did run into an old high school friend though. We wanted to get some miles behind us that night so we made it as far as Hays KS before stopping for the night.

 

The game was a bust, but the weekend in and of itself was a lot of fun.

Labor Day Fun

It seems weird to spend Labor Day at home this year. This is normally the time we are doing our annual Disneyland trip. However, we are doing that later this year so we spent the holiday at home. Our ward had a breakfast at the lake at Shawnee Mission Park. We had pancakes, breakfast cassarole, fruits, muffins, donuts and juice. We however cooked up some of our own bacon and brought it with us. We had an inflatable jumer for the kids, volleyball, and the guys played touch football. It was an absolute beautiful morning!

 

The weather was perfect and the lake looked absolutely divine so we decided to go back that afternoon for a little boating. You can only have non-motorized watercraft so we hauled our inflatable raft over for a little fun. We even took little Lacie for a cruise. Not so sure she liked the water but this was her first time in a lake. We then took her over to the off-leash dog area and walked down to their "swimming beach". I think she was the smallest one there.

 

After an exhausting day outdoors we came home, showered, got KFC and watched Boise State win their football game. All in all a great holiday!