Antelope Island Balloon Stampede

Saturday morning we awoke to a blustery day. Of course it was windy... we were supposed to go watch the hot air balloons lift off and they won't go up if the weather isn't right! Just like the last festival we went to, a cold front was blowing in, promising to mess up our plans. Fortunately the wind subsided for a little while and our outing wasn't a bust.

We drove out to Antelope Island, on the Great Salt Lake, even though the wind was blowing pretty hard. Several people were leaving as we drove in. Their loss. We stuck around for a little while, looking at the typical festival booths, and were rewarded for our patience. We witnessed four balloons being filled and three of them launching. It's a neat thing to witness if you never have. The whole process takes timing. As soon as the balloon is filled you'd better be ready to go. It's hard to keep the balloon on the ground for very long if it isn't tethered.

Zoe was pretty interested and just patiently watched. She liked seeing the balloons float up into the sky and would exclaim "Balloon up in sky!"

Afterward we stopped at McDonald's for brunch and to let Zoe play. She enjoyed playing basketball with her daddy in the play land area. They have so much fun together. Matt took off to go fishing for the afternoon and Zoe napped while I enjoyed three thunderstorms rolling in. We got a lot of much needed rain, and I got to enjoy the rare thunder and lightening. I do love a good storm. (Especially now that we're out of the threat of tornadoes)

All in all, it was a fun Saturday.

Enjoy the pictures!

Just plain silly

Our daughter has quite the personality. You just never know what she's going to come up with. For example, she decided on the way home from the airport on Labor Day that this is what people say:

Then she found one of my winter hats in a box and has decided that she has to wear it around the house.

What will she do next? :)

Oh, and then there's her new talent:

Labor Day fun

This year we were blessed to be able to go to Lovelady, TX to visit our friends. We went last year, but this year's attendance was probably twice that of last year. I think there were 34 of us that stayed at the Rollo's house. We had a full house on Saturday with friends from Fort Worth and Lovelady coming for fajitas and games. I think the adults were close to being outnumbered by the children. :) Well, maybe not, but there were a lot of kids running around. It's a fun sound to hear children playing together.

Zoe enjoyed being around all the children. We have a book of pictures of all our Texas friends that we went over and over with her before we left, so she was able to identify a lot of people. By the end of the weekend she was calling people by their names without having to be prompted. Even now, when we look at pictures she knows who people are. She's just amazing.

Zoe had her first exposure to fishing. Well, she's been with us on hikes before when Matt's fished, but this time she actually got to hold the rod. Matt let her "help" him with his pole for a little while. They I tried to show her how with a kiddie pole. We tried to cast, and of course she wanted to do it herself. She swished the thing around a few times and then threw the entire pole into the pond. Brian and Howard were frantically trying to get it out before it sank and someone had to go for a swim. Thankfully they were successful in retrieving the pole without getting wet. We quickly ended our fishing lesson after that. :)

We had a lot of fun and hope we're able to go again next year. Check out our pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jenny.crill/LaborDayWeekend2008#

and our friend Jenny's pictures at
http://drennonfamily.com/brewton/gallery/lovelady08/