Balloon Festival

The first weekend in August we took a VERY quick trip to Craig, CO. Doug did most of his growing up there, and his mom still lives there. His mom arrived for a visit the last day or so in July on her way home from visiting her siblings in Illinois. We decided to drive her home because Craig was having their annual balloon festival over the weekend.

We took off early Friday afternoon after I finished my work for the day.

The trip turned out MUCH longer than we planned. Mary needed a few stops. She hasn't been carsick in a while, but it came back with a vengeance. So we took a little walk while we waited for her dramamine to work. We walked until we saw roadkill ahead and then turned back.

We finally made it by 8:00 and had dinner. Then it took forever to get the kids settled for bed. Shocking, right? Kid can't settle down on a road trip? I'm sure that never happens to anyone else, right?

We got to bed insanely late and then had to get up early to see the balloons. We missed the actual launch, but we saw some of them in the air.

After the balloons launched they had some other activities at the park. The kids' favorite was the bouncy castle slide. 

Craig has a wood carving festival earlier in the year. Some of the carvers were selling their work and doing a little demo. These welcome bears were ADORABLE.

Of course here's what I want to put out for the sales people who come by the house, especially those pesky siding salesman. No, I can't afford it, and no, I'm not willing to finance it.

The local fire department brought one of the trucks out for kids to "tour." The kids really enjoyed that. 

They also got to do some art. Unfortunately, Mary's the only one we got a picture of. I was frankly surprised Alex even wanted to do it. He's not big on art. Adam as usual painted a picture of angry birds and pigs, his favorite things to draw. He's really getting quite good at it.

So after hanging around the festival for a few hours on Saturday we started the drive home. Fortunately the trip didn't take us as long as the trip to Craig. Mary learned a new trick to take her dramamine. She takes a drink of soda, puts the pill in, and then swallows them together.