Monday, August 13, 2012

Midwest Balloon Fest 8-11-12

Team Rodgers has a pretty exciting weekend.
On Saturday we packed up all our agility stuff and took it to Uncle Matt's house to practice.  He's got a bigger backyard than we do, and we wanted to practice some of the new commands we've been learning.  Well it ended up being a bit warmer that we anticipated, and Oliver was having none of it.
That night we went to the Midwest Balloon Fest out at the Great Mall of the Great Plains.
It was definitely something to see..if you didn't make it out this year, I suggest you go next year for sure.


I love hot air balloons.  I've always wanted to go up in one.  Hint hint husband. 

There were about a trillion people there, which surprised me, since I've never even heard of this thing before. 

They had tethered balloon rides for $5, and it seemed like everyone was in line for it.  It was sort of lame, they only went up about 15 feet or so. 

The festival took up one whole side of the mall.  They had military stuff, a rock wall, and helicopter rides.

As the sun began to set, they started filling up the shapes balloons.  

It's Nemo!
Actually this balloon's name is Wally..and most of our photos have him in them.

This dragon was huge compared to the other balloons. 

We got the watch them inflate this balloon.  You'd be surprised how quickly they fill them. 

Fire!!

They filled the Farmers balloon so quickly it was swaying a little before they got it under control, it kept bumping Wally. 

Jon and Wally.

Thumbs up for fire!

Once they got them all filled they started some music and the MC talked a little about the balloon pilots.  He told them all when and what type of burn they would be doing.  The audience got to participate in the count downs to the all burns or twinkle burns.  

That is some big fire. 

It's a all burn!
It was really neat as it got darker, you could see the entire balloon glow.

We watched them deflate Wally.  He was one of the bigger balloons, so it took some time.  It take a whole team of volunteers to get him folded up and put away. 

Me, Jon, and Wally.  Pretend the photo isn't grainy.  It was taken with the front camera on my phone..cut it some slack. 

We had a good time.  It's definitely worth a trip if you've never been.  
Everyone was so exhausted from our big day Saturday, we all slept until almost noon on Sunday.  It was wonderful!

Jessica

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