#225's

Well we were supposed to go camping this weekend. That fell through. Apparently everyone's schedules were full and it was very stressful for each party to try and get up in the mountains. Oh well, we found some things to do tonight that made it 'okay' to cancel the trip.

Joe and I heard about the Sandy Balloon Festival this weekend. Of course the balloon 'launching' was both yesterday morning & today at like 6:30AM!!! That didn't sound to appealing to us, so we decided not to go. But then last minute, I heard about the 'Balloon Glow' that was going on tonight near Sandy City Hall. Apparently they were supposed to light up the balloons so they 'glow' obviously after the sun goes down. (There was a live band and food as well.)

We decided we'd attempt this event, since it was much more appealing that 6:30AM on a Saturday!! It was pretty exciting when we first got there. It drew quite a crowd..I was impressed. We picked a spot on the grass, put up our chairs and just people watched for about 45 minutes. Then they moved all the trailers in and started unloading the balloons. We were lucky and they started setting up a balloon literally 20 feet in front of us. We got to see each step in the process of blowing that magnificent piece of fabric into the air.  They of course stayed grounded for the 'glowing' part of the event, but unfortunately before all the balloons were fully inflated, Mother Nature decided to shake things up a bit with a huge wind storm!! It came out of nowhere!!! Most of the balloons started swaying in the wind, so they took them down before the huge gusts of wind came in. Good thing too!! One of the balloons got severely melted by the fire torch keeping it up. The wind pushed it to far to the right and when the torch went off, the left side of the balloon was right on top of the flame. YIKES! Luckily, no harm was done other than creating a big hole. The crowd around it was huge, so if it had caught fire, we would have been in serious trouble. Not to mention the fact that the balloon guys didn't tell the crowd that they were lowering the balloon...so as it came down, it literally fell on top of a few dozen people!! Many kids were screaming and parents were scrambling to find their families. It was utter chaos.

Then we had to worry about the cluster of traffic in the parking lot as everyone tried to leave before the rain came. Ugh!! There were people & cars EVERYWHERE!!!! We opted to hang out at Target while the jam calmed down a bit. Even though it was completely crazy, it was awesome to see the giant balloon inflate. I've never been that close to a hot air balloon before. Plus Joe and I had fun running around in the chaos - then playing with my sister & her husband at Target...shopping for the most bizarre things!

Here is the actual photo for the day. My #225 - The heat source!  I was completely captivated by this torch the whole time!!

And here are the pictures...step by step! Like I said earlier, they set this up right in front of us. So all the pictures of the balloon from the side were taken from where we were sitting. I had to move around to the back of the balloon to get all the 'basket/inside' pictures.

 Of course they had to lay out the fabric first, then they started pumping air into it with this heavy duty, high pressure fan. It was LOUD!

 The inside of the balloon was SWEET!

 JOE! (This is where we were sitting)

Unfortunately this balloon by us was a pig and I felt like I was looking at its butt the whole time as it inflated. :( 

I would have LOVED to see the 'glow' at night. By looking at how the torch lightens the insides up, it would have looked awesome after it got dark. Too bad the winds came before that ever happened.

These pictures just show you how crowded it was! People everywhere!!! Touching the balloons, pulling on the pigs legs, getting in the way, not paying attention their kids. UGH it was chaotic to say the least!

ALL BLOWN UP! Cute little piggy bank! 

And here are a few pictures of the other 2 balloons that were fully inflated. All the other balloons didn't get too far before the weather started to get bad. :(

See? Would it have been cool to see them all lit up in the dark??? DANG THE WIND!

Tonight was completely random, fun AND crowded, but we had a great time!! Let's hope we can attend next year and the weather is better!!!