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

Huzzah!

Last Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival.

Aunt KT went with us, and we met her friend Leah up there for a little while. It started off with a bang, meaning a huge down pour. After it cleared up it was mostly nice. The mud and leaves made for a nasty pomeranian, but nothing a bath couldn't cure.


Ye Olde Pet Look-a-like contest. The girl in the gray coat is holding a pomeranian, a blue merle pomeranian to be specific. Oliver's future brother might be coming from their household...
The Scottie with a knife won. I wouldn't mess with a Scottie with a knife.
I'm the fantastic fairy on the left...the less fantastic fairy is KT.

She loves the cutout boards..she wanted to stop at every one..(no not really..)
Trying on hats is a must.
Ok, this guy (well he's a kid really) was standing on a board that he was balancing on a ball and juggling. As if that wasn't impressive enough, he was juggling knives...AND juggling an apple and eating it at the same time...amazing!
Fairies and the may pole.

It was pet weekend, so they had a little agility course set up. We gave it a go...it could have been worse. The 2 contacts we've never done before. Running on-leash complicated things as well. We came in 4th place.
We're getting really close to vacation time! Tomorrow morning to be exact. I'll be posting Team Rodgers adventures every evening, so if you're in to following along, tune in. Same bat time, same bat channel.
Jessica