Balloons Over Boise

This morning, we got up at 4:30 a.m. (gulp) so that we could make it to to Ann Morrison Park in Boise, in time to see the final launch of the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic, and it was spectacular. It has been going on for the past 3 days, and on Wednesday and Thursday, as Camden and I were commuting to work and school, we'd see all the hot air balloons flying over Boise, so we thought it would be neat to actually go see them launch. Each morning, the balloonists competed for a different goal, either to fly for distance or speed, direction or other tasks that test their piloting skills. Although Camden loved watching them in the sky earlier in the week, he suffered a couple of major meltdowns, once we were amongst all of the balloons. The poor kid screamed in utter terror! Luckily, after lots of consoling from his parents, he calmed down enough to actually enjoy himself. I don't think he was quite prepared for how large the balloons were "in person", the flames from the fuel that lift the balloons into the sky, or even the loudness of the emcee's voice over the speaker system.
The turnout was amazing - - we weren't sure how many people would actually get up that early, but there had to be nearly a thousand people, young and old. There were probably about 25 balloons in all, and they were absolutely beautiful.
After we left the park, we headed for Hyde Park and had a lovely breakfast at Java Cafe, and then headed back home. We intend to spend the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out. The boys are planning to pitch a tent in the back yard and camp out tonight.

The Alpo Dog Food Can was Camden's favorite balloon

I have a bunch of other great pictures, but once again, Blogger isn't letting me post any more than I've already added to this post. I'll try again tomorrow.