Full of Hot Air

   This morning we woke to strange noises outside.  The noise itself wasn't so strange, it was the sound of a hot air balloon giving the balloon an occasional burst of hot air to stay afloat.  The strange part was that we were hearing it from inside the house.  That meant that the balloon had to be REALLY close.  We ran out the front door to confirm our suspicions and there it was...a huge hot air balloon barely above the ground just across the street from us.  It was right in the middle of the fenced off area where the Temple is being built.  The kids and I got in the car and went to the new parking lot for the visitor's center for the temple to see if we could get a better view, and boy did we ever.  Turns out the balloon had to land and that parking lot was the only space in that area that he could land on.  We watched as the balloon chasing crew guided the pilot and his passenger down to the ground in just the right spot for the balloon to land, be deflated, and eventually rolled up.  The kids (especially the big one...me) couldn't get enough.  It was soooo much fun to watch this going on just a block from where we live.  Sorry for the bad pics, this is from my camera phone and the camera is obviously not very good.

The balloon is red and black.

Lizzie holding Alexander.  Megan and Dakota  watching the balloon land.

Deflating the ultimate balloon.

Still deflating.  It takes awhile to let out so much air.

Talk about big things from little packages.

   If that wasn't enough, the pilot let the kids help fold up the balloon and put it away (actually, the pilots love it when the audience volunteers to help because it is such a big and heavy job that they welcome as many hands as they can get to make it faster and easier for them.)  Dakota was the one who jumped right in to help when the pilot gave the okay.  As the balloon was being rolled up we were allowed to take pictures of the kids in the basket and the pilot and I had a really good little chat about ballooning and how he ended up in our neighborhood.  Turns out the pilot lives in Santaquin, just 5 miles south of us, and ballooning is just his family's hobby.  He is training to get his balloon engineer license.  He has only a few flight hours left before he takes his test flight and can finally fly his family any time the winds permit.  He and his instructor lift off from Santaquin quite frequently and fly south but today the winds picked up faster than they anticipated and it took them north.  His instructor lives in Payson so they decided to touch the ground in the middle of the temple site before packing up the balloon for the day and sending the instructor home.  What a fun hobby and a great start to our weekend.

Dakota helping to pack the balloon in the bag.

Dakota holding Alex while sitting on the balloon bag to get all the air out.

Alexander, Dakota, Megan, and Lizzie in the basket.