Hot Air Balloon Festival/Weekend at Bert & Becca's

Well last Thursday Grandma was doing well in the hospital so we decided to go ahead with our weekend plans to head to see Bert, Becca, and Breanna for the weekend and go to the hot air balloon festival that was happening where they live.  Matt took off Friday so we decided to go to Benton Thursday night.

 We got up Friday morning and went by and saw MamMa since her birthday was Saturday and then we headed to Bert and Becca's. 

 We were excited to see them--the kids asked all week if was time to go to Bert and Becca's yet!

And, of course, they wanted to see "Baby Breanna!"  Could she be any cuter??  I think not!  We did a lot of swimming while we were there but I didn't get a single picture of that.  Oops!  We forgot the swim buoys (actually we left them at a pool and have permanently "lost" them and had to order new ones) so the kid's had to swim without buoys.  You ALL--they swam like CHAMPS!!!  We are so proud of them!!!  I am so thankful they did their swim lessons a couple of weeks ago because it really strengthened their skills!  (Those will be on the blog one day, too.)

 One of the reasons we headed down there was for the hot air balloon festival.  We headed up one night and got there just in time to see all of the shape balloons.  These were so neat!  They had Noah's Ark--it was huge and so detailed! 

 A huge clown.  The other side was crying.  Cool...a little creepy...but still cool. 

 Gumball Machine.

 Butterfly.  This was Lilly's favorite.

 Bees.

 The Wells Fargo wagon.  The pictures just do not show how HUGE these balloons are!  Ginormous!! 

Jack-in-the-box.  This was the tallest. 

 We had a little while before they started the "glow" so we found the pony rides.  Both kids wanted on and Lilly was very excited UNTIL she found out she had the rogue horse that kept trying to take off before it was time.  Then she wanted off...

 and then he wanted off, too.  So instead of having a pony "ride" they did more of a pony "sit."  There was also a petting zoo, too, but since we had food the goats were a little (A LOT) aggressive and the kids freaked and we had to leave there, too. 

 But outside the petting zoo they had a baby pig and that was right up their alley.  Reid was SO GENTLE with this pig.  He sat so still and just held it and snuggled it. 

Lilly thought it was pretty sweet, too!

 DeDe, Bec-Bec, and Lilly waiting for the glow to start. 

 Hanging out.

Ahhh, the glow.  This is where they all light up at the same time.

 And then the twinkle--where they all light up at different times creating a twinkling. 

 And we had to get a picture of the Dt. Dr. Pepper balloon because Matt runs on DDP.  Ha! 

There was also some sword fighting.  And with glowing/color-changing swords so it was even more awesome than your standard sword fight. 

 Love those two!!

Me and My handsome man!!

 Lilly and Uncle Bert

DeDe and Reid.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Mike stayed home with Breanna so she didn't have to be out in the heat.  (Shhh...he even changed a diaper!  Not a "dirty" one but still--impressive!)

 We went to the Kid Zone after and they had a bunch of inflatables.  The kids were PSYCHED about the obstacle course one.

 They crawled through and under things, squeezed between things, climbed way up...

 and then slid down! 

 On our way home we saw LIGHTNING McQUEEN!!!  We laugh because all Reid wants to wear in Lightning McQueen everything--we joke that he sponsored by Cars.  (He is even wearing a Cars shirt that says his favorite phrase, "I am speed!" on it in the picture below.)

 This was one picture he was willing to take!  We had a great time at the festival!

 Sunday hung out, did a little swimming, and had lunch before it was time to head home.  I had lots of fun loving on this little cutie!!

 Ha!  It looks like she is going to punch Reid in the face here. 

Cousins!

 Reid discovered the fun of an actual Jack-in-the-Box.

And we all had a great time hanging out with family!  We had a great trip back and made good time.  When we got home, though, we discovered our air conditioner had quit working and it was (and I am not exaggerating--it was LITERALLY) 90 degrees in our house.  Why does that always seem to happen when you are out of town??  We were so blessed because my brother-in-law and sister came over and fixed it at 1 o'clock in the morning!!  Now that is LOVE folks!  I was also reminded how blessed we are to have air conditioned homes!