They love it when you wave...

On Saturday night, I went to the Battle Creek Balloon Festival with my family and some friends. While watching the balloons get ready & take off, we were lucky enough to learn ALL about the “sport” of ballooning. Yes I said sport… I bet you didn’t know that Hot Air Ballooning is the most romantic sport. Yes… that’s right, the balloons can “kiss” in the air. The announcer was also kind enough to let us know that the balloonists can hear you when you are talking on the ground and they are in the air, so make sure you are clapping for them… and they really like it when you wave at them. So of course we had a lot of fun with that one!

Since there were fireworks on Friday night, they decided to have the Balloon Illume (where they light the balloons up at night). It was really pretty and I got some good pictures. After the balloon launch we had some time to kill before the much anticipated Balloon Illume, so we decided it would be fun to ride some carnival rides. We might have been wrong.

We of course had to recap all of the bad memories of Carnies (the dreaded carnival workers, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) that my mom has ever had. The first ride we went on was fun and relatively calm. The Carnie looked halfway normal & was definitely not using drugs (at least at the particular moment). The second ride however was another story. The Carnie running the ride I’m pretty sure was drunk. He was talking to his buddies for like 10 minutes while we were all sitting on the ride moving in slow motion. The problem is that he was on a microphone & his buddies weren’t. So you could hear what he was saying & not what they were saying… doesn’t really matter because it was not relevant to the people on the ride…Anyways, this ride was much faster & I’m pretty sure the Carnie passed out for a few minutes while we were riding. I’m glad to say we made it off the ride all still alive and in one piece. However, I did feel like I was going to Ralph the rest of the night.

Here are pictures of the balloons. My favorite was Sugar Bear (after the cereal). There were a lot of Kellogg balloons. The good part for us was that there was virtually no wind. So once the balloons launched, they just kind of hung out in the air right by us. It was pretty cool. It was not so cool for the balloons however. Some of them had issues & began to sink. I had to cheer Sugar Bear on... because you know they can hear everything up there!

Gualie & Jenni watching the balloons.

Mom & Dad (with Rhiannon & Jason behind them)

Here is us before the first ride. Gualie, Jenni, Me & Rhiannon

Don't be intimidated by the sign for the second ride... or maybe you should.

Here are Rhiannon & Jenni during our 10 minute leisure spin while the Carnie was busy being drunk!


Gualie & I after the second ride... we were a little wobbly.

This lady was walking around all night & creeping my sister out (I think Jenni secretly might want to be her). She had glowy things all over, even in her mouth! My mom kept trying to take her picture, but she was moving at the speed of light! No pun intended :)

Here are some of the balloons lit up. Notice Tony the Tiger next to my favorite Sugar Bear.