Country Days

Country days in our small town...

marking the end of summer, back to school soon,

and the beginning of fall festivities.

Every year, our town celebrates with a parade downtown,

free hot dogs and popcorn, crafts, games, pony rides, petting farm,...

just a lot of simple, fun activities for families.

And for the brave-at-heart, there are helicopter rides.

The highlight is the hot air balloon lift offs two evenings in a row!

We sat in "our spot" to watch the parade go by...

this year was pretty hot in the sun, but we're soaking

it in, knowing that in a few months, we'll be longing for that heat, again.

Charlie was the only one to ride the horses this year.

I could tell he felt pretty "big."

Laura liked the baby ducks...

and the lamb. We all laughed because

this was one LOUD lamb!

See the boys wearing their "cool" plastic

firemen hats?

Such a sweet boy!

And see his shirt? It has an NYPD "police badge" on the front.

He made it a point to go up to a local police officer and say, "I'm a policeman, too."

While we were waiting for the hot air balloons to get ready,

the boys played some football...

watched the helicopter fly overhead...

checked on the progress of the ballooners...

watched them unload their baskets...

(really? that's all that's between them and the ground far below?)

played some frisbee...

with his brother...

checked on more progress of the ballooners...

and hung out in a firetruck.

Here we go! This was the lead balloon. No one else

blew up their balloon until this one was in the air.

A little fuller...

almost there...

a little more...

and we have liftoff! The cheers went up from the crowd below!

That was the sign for the rest of the ballooners to "start their engines"

so to speak. I never knew that they used a regular, big fan to blow the air

into their balloons. I guess I never thought much about it, but assumed it was more

complicated than that!

This balloon was just filling with air. It looked like a worm wiggling

as the air blew through it.

Getting fuller. We started guessing as to which one would lift off next.

#2 lift-off with cheers

#3 lift-off...the cowboy balloon

Look at all the balloons below it almost full of air!

#4...the frog

It was cool to see the fire shoot right up into the balloon.

We've lived here for 5 years, and this was the first lift-off we've seen.

Earlier years there have been storms of some kind...but the weather this year

couldn't have been more perfect!

Hangin' out with friends, watching the last few balloons.

A bunch of kids (& parents) ran up to touch the side of the last balloon right before it

was upright. My boys are up there somewhere...

The last balloon...amidst lots of cheering as it ended the lift-off for 2010!

I guess it's official here...

autumn has arrived!