Balloon Fiesta

I did it! I got up at 3:30 this morning to go to the balloon fiesta! I got dressed and gathered up a few things that I was unable to get last night. I woke up the kids one by one, oldest to youngest. I got them to the car with a pillow and blanket. They were easy to get down there, which was great. Christen warned me that they wouldn't fall back asleep, and they didn't. The thing I was the most nervous about was finding the place and figuring out where to park. I had read reviews that the parking lot was filled by 4:30 in the morning. Mike sent me step by step directions of how he would get there. They worked like a charm! We arrived around 4:00 in the morning. There were at least 100 other cars there, probably more. Mike texted me this morning and asked how things were going. I sent him this picture.

Skye, Blake & Parker, Larkin

My plan was to have the kids sleep in the car for awhile. They didn't want to do that. I did go and get my ticket while Skye watched the kids. I parked close to the ticket booth, so I wasn't worried. I had to pay $10. Kids 12 and under were free. How great is that! All the kids got in free. The gates opened at 4:30 in the morning. After the giant line died down a bit we headed in. Today was 'kids day' and we wandered around and found a kids table. The Trix rabbit was there! I talked the kids into getting a picture with the rabbit so I could send it to their parents. When we were doing that this lady came and gave each of them a bag full of stuff. I was excited because I packed a whole bunch of snacks that Larkin and Blake could eat, but I forgot a backpack. Now I had a bag to put them in!

Skye and the Trix rabbit

 Parker, Larkin, Blake, Skye, Trix bunny

As soon as the rabbit left a news crew came and asked if they could interview the kids. Larkin, Blake and Parker quickly backed up. Skye was left alone. She was interviewed by Chanel 4 I think. They asked her if she had ever been to kids day before. She hadn't. They had her go through the bag to get her reaction. They asked if she had a favorite balloon. It is the pig. They asked other questions too. She did great!

Skye being interviewed

We went and sat at a picnic table and Parker took the opportunity to eat the Cinnamon Toast Crunch that was in the bag. There was also milk, a spoon, cookies, a pinwheel, a sticker book, and coupons. There might have been more stuff. Good thing they didn't interview Blake. He would be, "Allergic to this, allergic to this, allergic to this." After Parker ate we decided to head back to the car and get an extra jacket. We got turned around and went out the wrong exit. It was a long walk to the car! We got in for a bit and I read them a little of The Thing About Georgie. I then filled up a bag with allergy free food. That was so nice to have!

Blake, Parker, Skye, Larkin

We got back inside in time to watch the Night Patrol. It was so fun to watch these balloons light up and fly away. I let each of the kids pick out one souvenir. Blake and Parker picked swords that light up. Larkin picked a stuffed hamster and Skye picked a green and black ballish kind of thing.

Night patrol

 Blake, Skye, Larkin, Parker

We found a great spot to sit and relax while we watched balloons fill up. It was so cool! We could walk around all of these balloons and even touch them as they were blowing up. It was so beautiful watching hundreds and hundreds of balloons flying right over our heads. I wish my family could have been there!

Blake & Larkin

 The sunrise was pretty too!

 Skye & Larkin, Parker & Blake

 This lady was so proud of her photobomb. I have to admit it was excellent.

My attempt at time-lapse.

We watched the Lindstrand balloon blow up. I had no idea what Lindstrand was. I had never heard of that brand. Later I discovered the Lindstrand booth. They make the baskets for the hot air balloons.

 Blake and Parker touched this balloon as it was blowing up.

 Parker and Blake

 Stephanie ~ my attempt at a selfie. That never ends well.

Spider balloon

 I like that carousel balloon.

 The emoji balloon is the one Blake and Parker touched while it was blowing up. (And me, because I had to!)

 Parker, Skye, Larkin, Blake

 Stork and sad clown. These balloons are awesome!

I tried to send some pictures to Jorja. When I sent them my phone froze. I turned it off and tried to turn it back on. It wouldn't come on. It said the battery was dead. I thought I had 28% left. I wish I would have FaceTimed Jorja instead. That would have been so much fun! I was super disappointed about that because there were so many cool balloons that we saw. The ones I have pictures of are just a small, small sample of what we actually saw. We were super close to Darth Vader and Yoda. They were so cool! There was also a Jesus balloon! I laughed so hard! We saw three different frogs too. We were so lucky with the weather. I only saw a small handful of balloons in the air yesterday. Today there were hundreds!

We started making our way to the parking lot. There was a kids area with a ton of blow up toys. Tickets were $9 a piece. Blake and Parker have been asking and asking to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. I told the kids they could either go on one of the rides or go to Chuck-E-Cheese tomorrow, but not both. Parker was the hardest one to convince. He really wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. Finally the older kids convinced him. Skye and Larkin went in this drop blowup ride thing. They loved it. Especially Larkin. She wants that ride to be at her next birthday party. Blake was planning on going on the balls that float on water, but he decided to do the slides with Parker. There were four blow up things that the kids could play 20 minutes on. They spent the entire time on one slide. Blake went 39 times. When his time was up I asked if he ever went on any of the other ones. He said, "We could go on those?" Haha.

I decided to stop at the McDonalds drive thru on the way home. I had the kids figure out exactly what they wanted before I went through the line. When it was our turn they said they were only selling breakfast. Whoops! We had been up for hours and it was only breakfast time!

We just enjoyed the next several hours at home. Skye took a three hour nap. The rest of them stayed wide awake. I took Blake to baseball practice. I stayed and watched him. I was sitting in the stands when I thought I heard my name, which was really weird. Especially since I thought I heard Stephanie Millburn. About five minutes later two girls started talking to some people in front of me. They asked, "Do you know a Stephanie Millburn?" I yelled out that that was me. They had found my drivers license! What? How did I lose that? I was so thankful that they kept searching for me. How would I have gotten home? Guaranteed I would not think I lost my license at the baseball field. I would have been frantically searching Mike and Christen's house! Thank goodness that didn't happen!

Skye came home from soccer practice right as I was about to start reading to Larkin and Blake. I asked her if she could come upstairs before she ate. We read a couple more chapters of The Thing About Georgie. I got Larkin and Blake asleep and then went downstairs where Skye now was. We talked for a long time, until I could barely keep my eyes open. Skye was full of energy though. I asked her if she could put herself to bed. Today was a long, fun day!

Mike sent me pictures today of Preston with his ducks. How I miss that boy! He called me through the Slack app. I didn't know you could do that. It would be awesome if he can get through to me that way, since we don't have a home phone anymore and he doesn't have a cell phone. It was nice to talk to him.

Preston & Quackletta

 Waddluigi eating out of Mike's hand.

 Preston & Quackletta

 Mike with disgusting mealworms. 

 Preston & Quackletta

 Quackletta is not a fan of the homemade duck diaper.

 Quackletta & Waddluigi

Policy

I was able to get about four hours of sleep this morning. I got up early to take Mike and Christen to the airport. The plan was to meet my dad in New York. Too bad my dad only made it as far as Chicago. I got this text from Christen, "So! Your dad just called Mike... an elderly couple got off the plane in Chicago and went MIA.. so your dad is still in Chicago trying to find them. Mike says, 'sooo, I guess I'm in charge?! This is my worst nightmare!'" Hahahaha! I shouldn't think that is funny, but I did. I couldn't stop laughing about it. Mike got the luggage of everyone who was missing and brought it to the hotel. He also had to pay for lunch for everyone who was on the tour. Only over $600, no big deal. My dad should get there around one o'clock in the morning. Turns out the elderly couple was at the front of the plane and my dad was at the back. By the time my dad got off the plane they were gone. They had gone to baggage claim to get their luggage and check it in again for the next flight. When their luggage didn't come off they started wandering. The police found them about eight football fields away. The lady had her passport, but the man's passport was in his luggage. They had Mike go through the guys suitcase. Mike looked forever and reported to my dad he couldn't find anything. Turns out the guy had it with him after all. I think Mike is going to be very, very happy to see my dad. Hopefully he will be able to enjoy the rest of his trip.

I got all the kids dropped off at their schools. It was really cool to see all the balloons in the sky. How fun to be here during the balloon festival! Skye forgot her lunchbox. After I dropped Parker off at his preschool I hurried over to the school to bring Skye her lunchbox. I was hoping it was Skye's and not Larkin's. I gave it to the office lady and told her I wasn't sure if it was Skye's or her sister's at the elementary school. She said she couldn't call her down. I told her that would be fine, but if it isn't Skye's, try and get ahold of me so I can bring the lunchbox to Larkin. Well....they didn't even try to give Skye her lunchbox. She came home without it and very hungry. We hurried back to school to pick up her lunch so she could have it tomorrow. I asked the same lady why they didn't let her know her lunch was in the office. The lady says, "It is up to her to check, we are trying to teach them responsibility." I was furious. This wasn't an easy thing for me to do and they didn't even send Skye a note letting her know to go look for her lunchbox. How would Skye even think that I would bring it? They think it is better to let children go hungry so they can prove a point. I told the lady that that was the stupidest policy I have ever heard. After I had time to think about it I became even more angry. This policy is only hurting kids who don't have cell phones. How is that okay?

The rest of the day was great. Blake's friend's mom even texted and asked if they could bring Blake to his batting practice. How nice was that? I played outside with Parker for awhile. I had never seen the putting green before. It looks so cool! How fun.

Parker

The kids were able to FaceTime their parents, we watched Studio C, I started reading The Thing About Georgie to Skye, Larkin and Blake. After the kids were asleep I was able to talk to Mike and Jorja. That is a wrap for the day. Except for this picture. I asked Jorja to text me a picture today "Just none of those weird ones of people looking down at the phone while standing in a circle." Immediately I got this picture back. Why does she like these pictures? Weirdos.

Batting Cage and Lagoon in June

Maysen and Stockton left for Youth Conference this morning.  Mike and I walked them over to the church.  We will still in our pajamas.  We get dressed up for things around here!  Maysen is not too excited about going.  Stockton hasn't complained.  He does know that there are platforms where they are going, so that will be fun for him.

We had fun playing in the batting cage this morning.  Blake has such a good swing!  I had no idea that Skye and Larkin bat left.  I didn't expect that.  Kanyon was excellent and it was so much fun to watch Mike!

Blake

 Mike & Blake

Blake was so funny because as soon as he took the batting helmet off he would frantically look for his Dodgers hat.  I tried to get a picture of him, but he kept hiding.  This one was the best I could get. I think it is adorable because Larkin and Blake are making the same face.  Love that!

Larkin & Blake

 Skye

 Larkin

 Kanyon

 Mike

 Hard to see, but Larkin is feeding balls to her Dad

 Jorja's favorite past time

 Mike played baseball with his kids for quite awhile.

Blake

 Larkin

We piled Mike and his three oldest kids in our car and headed to Lagoon.  We had the room since we didn't have Maysen or Stockton with us.  Christen wanted to wait until Parker woke up, and I don't blame her one bit!  We went on Rattlesnake Rapids twice and got soaked to the bone!  It was great!  Especially since I was wearing my swimsuit.  I thought Skye and Larkin looked adorable in their matching My Dad is my BFF shirts.

Larkin & Skye (Blake's back & Jorja's on the fence)

Our pavilion we have had for years is being made into a giant pavilion. I'm guessing it will probably only be used for giant parties.  That is too bad.  It was in a great location.  We've been going to Lagoon as a family since I was little.  I wonder how long that pavilion has been ours?  I think over 25 years, probably more.  The new pavilion was okay, but it was next to the smoking section.  It was only annoying a few times throughout the day.  It also didn't feel as secluded as our old pavilion. It was still a lot of fun!  Grandpa was there.  He's not too happy because his doctor won't let him drive anymore.  He loves driving and has told me on many occasions that it is his favorite past time.  It sure is hard getting old.

Skye went around with Jorja and Preston for most of the days.  She LOVED all the scary rides!  Wicked, Spider, Rocket....she wasn't scared of a thing!  Larkin didn't want to go on any upside down rides, but she LOVED the twisty rides.  Musik Express, Tilt-A-Whirl...things like that. I went on Tilt-A-Whirl with her right before she left.  I told her I could ride it once a day and this was the time. I rode it with Larkin and Blake. We spun so fast!  I couldn't believe it!  I don't think I have ever had that many super fast spins in one ride before.  Larkin loved it!  Blake was terrified.  He was not happy when we got off the ride.  He is completely adorable when he is mad.  He does this growl that is just awesome.

Skye & Jorja

 Skye, Jorja, Preston

Jorja, Skye and Preston went on some rides by themselves.  I let them go before I asked Christen if it was okay.  She said, "Well, it is now!" She had never let Skye go off on her own like that before.  That is the difference between being the oldest child and the youngest.  They had a great time together.  I know they went on the train, the swings and Tidal Wave.  Apparently Preston kept saying, "What's cooking Good Lookin'?" to random people.  I'm guessing Preston might be a handful when he is a teenager.

Mike and Christen left around 9:00 or so, but they let us keep Skye with us.  We had a great time with her!  Lagoon is so much fun when the kids are this age.  Wanting to ride anything!  It was great!  We stayed until the bitter end.  Jorja, Skye and Preston were riding Wicked until the garbage cans were placed in front.  We had such a great time today!

Jorja slept in her room tonight.  Brooke and her family are now camping at Lagoon.  Jorja has been worried about Boing.  She didn't want to check on her before Lagoon because she was worried she died and then she would be sad all day.  Mike and I went and checked on her.  She was alive, but is not looking well.  Jorja has done everything. She has taken her to the vet, given her medicine.  It looked like she recovered for awhile, but that was short lived.  She has not been herself since she broke her leg.  Jorja had her out of her cage and held her for a long time after we got home.  Boing isn't going to be alive much longer. I have a beautiful picture I took of Jorja and Boing, but Jorja does not want me to put it up here.  Poor girl sure loves her frogs.  I'm glad she got a chance to say good-bye to Boing.