4th of July, Family and Hot Air Balloons

For the 4th of July this year we were blessed to have some family down for the holiday. Jeni and David - and their sweet beagle, Molly - were able to come down from Michigan for two nights. It was so wonderful spending time with them! On the 4th, Jamie's and my parents and some of my aunts, uncles and cousins also joined up for a backyard picnic and the annual Ashland Hot Air Balloon Fesitval. The Hot Air Balloon field is at the end of our street, about a 2 block distance. Unfortunetly, due to all the recent rain the field was too muddy for the balloons to launch from there. After letting Soph get her face painted and buy some "fair" goodies, we headed back home, only to see all the balloons flying right over our very house about an hour later! Some were quite low and it was fun to stand in our own yard to see the beautiful balloons.

Friday night we walked about two blocks from our house, in the other direction, to the high school, where they did the fireworks. It was our first time seeing Ashland's fireworks, and we were pleasantly surprised! They were really great and we didn't have to drive and deal with parking and traffic.

Saturday night, after dark, Sophia and I headed back to the balloon field where there were about 9 balloons set up and lighting their fires so that they would glow. It was really a pretty sight.

Sunday morning Jamie and I woke up to the sound of the balloons "breathing." We woke up Soph and ran outside to see about ten or so balloons flying very low all around our house. Many of them were landing in the grassy areas and parking lots close to our house to pack up and head to their next festival. It was a fun way to say goodbye to the balloons and the weekend.

Dad and me watching the balloons fly over our house on the 4th.

Sophia's pretty rainbow face paint

This is our backyard on Sunday the 6th. You can see how low the balloons were! (you can also see the awesome play structure my dad is building for Soph)

This is the view from the side of our backyard looking towards the high school. You can see the balloons landing to pack up.

Sophia was waving like crazy! She was sad to see the balloons go