33rd Annual Balloon Festival...

We have been here before...in fact two years ago a VERY largely pregnant Vonnie (Justin was on a beach somewhere) strolled her 2 boys around to check it out...but it never gets old! You can check out those pictures here...it's crazy to look back and see how the boys have grown!

But again we found ourselves getting the boys up at and unearthly hour (5:45) to watch the mass ascension of hot air balloons. This is one of the highlights of Labor Day Weekend here in Colorado. Unfortunately due to a touch of fog, and something about "wind layers" close to the mountains the balloons were not given clearance to launch, but a few did blow up so we could walk around and check them out! Take notice of how Justin is proudly supporting Alabama...the sweatshirt was quickly taken off later on in the afternoon for his favorite team....Go Air Force!!



The Wyoming balloon was going to be the "lead" balloon. Of course this balloon is near and dear to our hearts - but the arrival of the Pink Panther was a big surprise and quite exciting for the kiddos.



Up close and personal - it was a chilly morning, but you could easily feel the heat from the balloons. We watched this one from start to finish, just a couple of feet away.



Eli didn't really care much for the noise. There was no crying, just a lot of him saying "cared cared..."



I would guess there were about 30+ balloons that were inflated...nothing in comparison to the 100 that were supposed to launch.

We had good intentions of getting up early again on Labor Day, but Justin and I just could get ourselves to do it again...the balloons did launch on Monday. Oh well, the boys were still excited to see what we saw! Maybe next year!!