The Great Balloon Race

First, on a completely unrelated note:  Boy is it HOT!  Like, miserably hot.  Crazy hot.  If you're reading this on the regular site, you'll notice a different background--the name is "Sun Dried."  The didn't have anything called "Desert Wasteland." :)

Ok.  Now that I got that out of my system...

Last week my sister Debbie asked if we would be interested in going with her, Eli, and Joe to the Great East Texas Balloon Race in Longview.  It went something like this:

Deb: Would you all like to go to the balloon races with us?
Me: Sure!  We would LOVE to do that!

Deb: We have to leave at 5 a.m.
Me: I'm sorry, what?

Apparently, the balloon festival is a weekend event, and if you want to see the balloons on the ground, you can pretty much do that any time; but the actual RACE part, the COOL part, starts at 6:30.  In the morning.

Ugh.

Ridiculously early departure time aside, I still thought this would be something the kids would love.  I've always wanted to see it myself.  I told Debbie we were in (along with my brother Andy and three of his girls)and made plans to leave at 5.  I also started planning ways to minimize early morning drama--kids slept in their clothes, I took my makeup with me (there was a strict "no makeup allowed" rule in our car--I was totally okay with that). 

Despite the fact that they got up at 4:30, the kids were really excited about our adventure. Nobody slept the entire way. Since it was Sunday, we got in for free, got great parking, and were pretty much as close to the "target zone" as we wanted to be.

After we got settled, we didn't have to wait long before the first balloon appeared on the horizon. It was a very cool experience, especially toward the end, when the special balloons started to appear--bumblebees, spiders, purple people eaters, Noah's ark,...

The Dr. Pepper balloon was Sadie's favorite! :)

It was a wonderful experience for us. If you live within driving distance of Longview, you should make a point to go to the Great East Texas Balloon Festival. I'm pretty sure we will be getting up before dawn next year too. :)