Balloons at sunrise

On Friday morning, it took me nearly 20 minutes to peel myself out of bed. "What is happening today?" I asked myself groggily as I checked my calendar. The only thing on the Friday square besides preschool and xc practice was the Prosser Balloon Rally. "Rats!" I thought to myself. It's already 6:30am and we probably missed it. Quickly I checked the balloon rally's Facebook page. They were still in a pilot's meeting! Hope was restored! I weighed options back and forth for a few minutes, then committed. I gave Jay and Rose the option to stay home and practice piano or hurry up, get ready, and go to see if the balloons would launch. They have hardly ever gotten ready so fast.


We were in the car by 7:05am. We dropped Jeff off at work on our way and drove straight to Prosser, miraculously finding parking at the airport field right next to the balloon launch site. While we were driving, the decision had been made: the weather was not conducive for a safe launch. They still inflated a dozen massive colorful balloons and it was still quite visually stunning with the rising sun lighting the balloons aglow. I took some pictures with my cell phone, having forgotten my good camera at home in the rush. Cell phone cameras get the job done!

We lingered for about an hour, walking around and watching the balloons puff up with people in thick gloves straining to hold their ropes in place. Amber was in awe and kept jumping around saying "WOAH! Look at that one!" My favorite part was standing right behind a balloon as they blew a fan inside to puff it up. The balloons are always impressively huge up close. Somehow I always manage to forget just how BIG they are. We all liked feeling the heat on our faces from the fire blasting into the balloons. 

The Prosser Balloon Rally lasts three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In the past we've gone on Saturday, but I liked going on Friday best. It was far less crowded than the weekend and this year the weather forecast was so bad for the weekend that Friday really was the best day to go see big balloons. And thanks to the elementary school's late start, we made it back to Sunnyside to school in plenty of time for school.

 They were ridiculously reluctant to stand still for pictures so it felt like a circus herding the hooligans.

 Amber clutched her baggie of dry cereal--breakfast on the go.

 A tethered launch--those balloons pull HARD. They tied one of the ropes to a pickup truck to keep it down, and two people were practically dangling from the other rope to hold the balloon in position.

This balloon was hovering right over our heads and it looked like it was going to collapse right on top of us. It was a rush, even though we knew it wouldn't exactly hurt if it did happen to deflate all over our heads. It was just so BIG!

 We loved looking inside the half-inflated balloon.

 Silly Rose smiling but not quite how I expected when I asked her for a picture.

Jay kept regaling me with random unsolicited "dragon facts" from his latest fantasy book series.

 Sometimes Jay is too cool for pictures.

 Another group photo semi-fail.

When I say "stand together and smile at me for a picture!" they hear "start a three way brawl!" 

 Hot air balloons are nice, but they can't hold a candle to some nice soft dry DIRT.

 Balloon in a bag--it's amazing that they can pack down so small.

 Amber begged to take a picture. She took 16 of these.

 Sunlit balloons and ninja-Jay (NinJay) on the offensive.

 When we arrived home after the balloon rally and dropping Jay and Rose off at school, Amber and I took advantage of the gorgeous mellow morning and went on another country ramble.