Hot Air Balloons Kinda

This weekend was the Salsa Fest here in town. It is kind of a new thing, this only being the second year they have done it. One of the events that they had planned was a hot air balloon launch. Friday night they lined up the balloons on Main Street & blew them up and let them glow in the dark. We caught the very tail end of that so we only got to see a couple of the balloons from a distance (we were still in the car just pulling up to Main Street). Then this morning they had plans to launch the balloons from the High School Baseball fields. Unfortunately, the wind was just slightly too strong so both the balloon glow & the launch both kinda fell through. I guess they only lit up the balloons for just a few minutes on Friday night and then this morning it was too windy & they were afraid if they took off that they wouldn't have a large enough area to land in. We were kinda bummed out because we got up at 5:30 in the morning to go see the balloons take off at 6:00 & then we waited for over an hour & it didn't even happen. They did blow the balloons up though for a few minutes so that everyone could see them & one finally did take off (only one of quite a few). Right as they started getting a few of them set up Alyssa had to go to the bathroom so Gary had to leave & take her down the street to go find a bathroom at one of the stores & by the time they got back they had already taken down all but one of the balloons. Luckily I took pictures, even though it's not quite as cool as seeing it in person. It was actually really interesting to see how they set the balloons all up & get them ready for take off. I took some pictures & a short video clip of them getting one of them set up. (Sorry, the video gets a little shaky a couple of times because Bryant was scared of the noise the flames made & so I had to keep moving the stroller. You can hear him start to cry a couple of times.)

My Funny, But Not Funny Story

Well here is a funny story for everyone to laugh at. I wasn't laughing at the time even though I knew it was funny. Labor Day Weekend Gary & I had started a project that as usual we didn't get finished as quickly as we would have liked. We decided to take down the railing across our front porch & open it up. Well we had to replace some of the 4x4's which meant sanding down the old & painting them & the new. Well I had already put a first coat on them, but they still needed a second. So Gary asked me before he went to work if I would finish painting them so that when he got home he could hang some lattice work that we had bought to go down the posts. So I put Bryant down for a nap. Went out & got the paint, poured it in the paint pan that already had my roller laying in it, then realized that there was water in the paint pan so all the paint I had just poured in it was all watery. So I picked up the paint pan & was going to go dump the paint out when I spilled the paint ALL OVER the sidewalk. So I put down the paint pan & went to go get the hose that was on the fenced part of the yard & when I opened the gate our new puppy Minnie ran out & went and got the wet, painted roller & started running all over the yard with it. So after I chased her down & took the paint roller away from her & looked to see how much paint she had in her mouth (stupid dog picked it up by the actual roller), I finally got the hose & started spraying the paint off the sidewalk. It wasn't coming off so I knew I was going to have to go to the store & buy paint thinner or something. So as I'm hurrying to turn off the water so that I can get to the store before it closed in like 15 minutes, Alyssa yells to me that a frog just went inside the house. Yes, a little frog had found it's way under our screen door & jumped inside & of all places it went was in our dining room. So I am down on my hands & knees underneath my dining room table & chairs trying to catch this frog with a cup. I finally caught it & put it back outside, woke up Bryant & headed to the store. As I am in the store calling Gary to ask him if he has any suggestions for getting paint off cement, both him & the cashier (a friend of ours) & probably everyone else in the store are laughing at me as I am telling him the story over the phone. So I finally get what I need & head home. And as I pull in the driveway & shut off the car I realize that when I left the house I made sure to go around & lock up every door & that stupidly I had grabbed our SPARE set of car keys that has only car keys on it & that now I was locked out of the house! Just great, right?!?
Well luckily, what I hadn't noticed when I pulled in the driveway was that Gary's work truck was home & he had luckily got home during the few minutes I was gone so I wasn't locked out of the house after all. After some whining to my husband about what a bad experience it had been, Gary helped me to paint the posts & we hung the lattice & got the porch finished. He said that from now on he won't ask me to paint anymore. Oh yeah & we poured paint thinner on our sidewalk & scrubbed the heck out of it but needless to say I still have paint splattered on my sidewalk. :)

Our Cute Kids!

Here are some recent pictures of the kids. It amazes me how much the two of them look alike.

Bryant's 1st Birthday!

On August 20th we celebrated Bryant's 1st Birthday! We had a small party at the Thatcher Park with family. Since we scheduled his party for the evening so that more people could attend, we cooked hot dogs & bratwursts on the grill & let everyone eat dinner. Poor Bryant was so tired & in dire need of a nap. But despite his grumpiness he had fun digging into his cake (Literally) and he even tried a little to open his birthday presents! Unfortunately, there wasn't a hose available at the park. We sure could have used one!