Do you Glow?

Every year in St Louis, there is a balloon race. The day before race, all the balloon-ers gather together in a big field and light up their balloons. Which, doesn't sound that exciting. But, when there are 30+ hot air balloons glowing in the dark night sky, it really is an amazing sight!

This is a HUGE event. I'm going to go ahead and estimate there were at least 1000 people there. Or 10,000 people. Tons and tons of people. So, right now I'm going to have to take time out and thank my wonderful husband for agreeing to this at all. He isn't a fan of crowds and certainly not with this many people in a smallish area. Add in the 2.5 year old with no fear and a whole new level of anxiety is reached.

But, I really wanted to go and he agreed. Thank you, wonderful husband.

Because it was our first time attending and because the timing of the event didn't especially work out well with the kids' schedule, we needed to be creative with our timing. So, we got there super early to get a parking space. The glow started at 7pm and we got there at roughly 4:30pm (in fact, we would have gotten there sooner, except I was running late as usual). Our game plan was to park the car somewhat far away from the actual balloon event and facing out of the park so we wouldn't maybe have to sit in so much traffic. The kids are usually tucked into their beds by 8pm and when there aren't....it isn't pretty. Playing with bedtime is like playing with fire. You just aren't sure if you are going to get screaming, crying, angry, naughty or a combination of them. But, regardless, it isn't pretty. Just picturing us sitting in a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg line of cars waiting to exit the park while the kids screamed/cried/etc was enough to raise my bloodpressure several notches. So, we were trying to avoid this scenario.

Because we were so early, we hit the zoo first and found....everyone was not on display or sleeping. We managed to peek at the penguins and watch a sun bear go to the bathroom (William is still talking about this - consider yourself warned: he is only capable of talking about this at one volume. THE BEAR WENT POTTY. ON THE GROUND).

After a short visit at the zoo, we wandered over to roughly where we thought the field was located. We found it super funny that about 10 different people asked us for directions. Because we looked so official and we knew where we were going. Several times it was the people in front of us asking and we had been following them. It was probably close to a two mile hike to the balloon field from the zoo. We had packed a fabulous dinner, drinks, snacks, toys, blankets, diapers, and other emergency items so the stroller was VERY heavy and I ended up pushing it up two gigantic hills in the grass. My legs were burning. Luckily, there was another woman pushing a stroller up the hill and my competitive side wouldn't allow her to reach the top before me. I crowed with delight (or groaned with the pain, maybe?) when she had to stop halfway up the hill to let her toddler get out and walk.

When we got to the field, there were people EVERYWHERE. I knew it was going to be crowded, but it was SO CROWDED even at 6pm. I couldn't even see balloons or where the event would be happening. So, we found a semi vacant spot and squeezed ourselves in to enjoy our picnic. And even though I wasn't planning on it, I quite possibly Amelia in front of the most people ever (discretely, of course).

William is so excited!

People were like this on all sides of us.

William enjoying his PB&J. I am the mother of the year people.

Daddy entertaining Mia while Mama plays with the camera - how FUN it was to play with the camera again! I didn't realize how much I missed it.

I'm not sure what this is all about. Amelia's been doing this awhile. You'll be holding her and suddenly without warning she will flop herself over and smile.
Daddy and his kiddos. The woman behind John on the left was laughing at William's antics while I was trying to take this picture!

Finally it was time to start! William was captivated!
The first balloon up from our vantage pointJohn and William enjoy...
I was trying to take pictures with very little light with the little Miss on my hip. She kept grabbing the camera strap and pull, pull, pulling on it to get to the camera. We finally had to swap kids so I could get some pictures. But, not before I took a picture of the little troublemaker!
The balloon lit up
The energizer bunny balloon
There are at least 6 balloons in this picture - can you see them all?
I loved how the balloons looked with their lights on....so pretty!
In the background of this picture, you can see the movie theatre popcorn balloon! (It is purple) Eight other balloons in this picture.
Suddenly, balloons started popping (not literally popping) up everywhere! It was amazing!
As the sky got darker and darker, the balloons stood out more and more. It was so beautiful, I had a hard time taking my eyes off of them!
The soda can balloon
Nine balloons in the picture by my count
So pretty!
I totally fell in love with the patchwork design balloons! They were gorgeous!
Please recycle!
Look at how funny everyone looks trying to take pictures of the balloons!
Ooohhh....patchwork balloon! I was so inspired by the balloons, I spent at least an hour looking at different quilting patterns when I got home!

I was in heaven: my little family, an absolutely gorgeous evening (mid 70's, slight breeze, no bugs), my camera strap around my neck and beautiful balloons against the night sky. Even more exciting was when a horn sounded, all the balloons lit up at the same time. It was absolutely breath taking.

Sadly, we decided it was time to go about 8pm. I was absolutely NOT ready to leave. The glow officially goes until 8:30 when there is a fireworks display. But, we had a long walk back to the car, a longer drive back home (45ish minutes) and some tired kiddos. So, we packed up and left before everything was over. Which meant traffic was a breeze and the kiddos were tucked into their own beds by 9:30pm. They were tired, and so were we. But, it was a wonderful time - I even got John to admit he liked it and would consider going again next year! Yay!