Up, Up and Away

Every year here in our beautiful Ogden Valley there is a hot air balloon festival.  This year it happened to be held in Eden Park, which happens to be a block from our house.  When we first decided to move here, this was one of the things that made me most excited about our location.  A lot of the locals (especially the ones who live right next to the park) have expressed some annoyance at the crowds and noise and commotion that disrupts their otherwise peaceful abode, but I must say I loved it.  (It was only my first year, after all.)  It was so fun to wake up and see beautiful, colorful balloons rising from the park and floating over our house.  I loved being close enough to walk over to see the happenings whenever we had the urge.  The evening balloon glow was pretty awesome.  And even the bands that played all day and into the evening, which we could hear perfectly from our deck, were not half bad.  So, for the record, we're fans of the festival and can't wait to see more balloons next year.

Not only did we enjoy balloon fun for the weekend, we also had lots of family visitors who came to play and see the festival, too.  Callie was in heaven with cousins and aunts and grandpas and grandmas non-stop.  Have we mentioned we're happy to be back in Utah?

First, Heather and the boys came over Thursday night after their soccer games.  Callie was already in bed, and we just visited for a bit before all heading to bed ourselves.  The next morning we woke up, and realized the balloons were already starting to go up, so we rushed to get dressed and out the door.  We made it to the park in time to see lots of balloons in the air, but none left to launch (besides the tethered Remax one that stayed there all day).  We opted against the pricey (albeit fundraising for a good cause) breakfast, and headed back home for some French Toast instead.  Then, because the booths were not up and running till later in the afternoon, and it was blasted hot outside, we headed to the beach for a little dip in Pineview.  Back home we headed for lunch and a nap for Cal, and shortly after Callie was asleep, Paul and Kim arrived.  We loaded up in Heather's van for a little excursion to the Huntsville Monastery. where we visited with a nice monk in the gift shop (Baby Dos even got a special blessing from him!) and peeked inside the chapel.  When we got back home, we lounged about in the heat for a while until it was time for some Papa Murphy's for dinner.  Then we all headed over to the park to check out the booths and wait for the evening launch.  Unfortunately, Gregg was not feeling well (at all), so he and I made a little visit to Ogden to see the doctor while Callie was spoiled rotten by her cousins and aunt and grandparents.  The heat kept them from seeing any launching balloons (seeing as hot air balloons need cooler air around them so they can rise), but they entertained themselves with bubbles and ice cream.  (And p.s. Gregg was just fine, so it turns out we got a little "date" in that evening, too.)

A peek at the park from our driveway.

Playing in Pineview - with cousins!

Gorgeous clouds all weekend long.

Visiting the monastery.

Ready to go to the park!

Heather bought Cal and the boys a ticket to play in one of the
blow up toys - exactly what Callie was wanting to do since she
laid eyes on them.

Back on the deck for a little bubble action.

Saturday morning Cal and Gregg slept in while I popped over to the park to see a few launching balloons up close.  We visited the booths and played at the playground for a while that afternoon and otherwise just hung out at home.  That evening, the Elwood Grandparents and Ky dropped by for dinner (with dinner, actually - man we were spoiled this weekend!) and we enjoyed that on the deck, listening to the tunes wafting from the park.  We all wandered over to watch a couple balloons launch that evening (it was much cooler that day, but the wind was a little trickier - so you just never know what you're going to get at a balloon festival depending on the weather!).  After a while at the park we came home to get Callie to bed and then I walked back with my parents and sister to watch the after-dark show: the balloon glow.  Turns out hot air balloons are pretty spectacular any time of day!

That's our house under those balloons!

There's a tiny speck near the right edge in the cloud - that happens
to be the parachuter bringing the flag into the park to "open"
the festival Saturday morning.  I lucked out that I was standing in
my driveway just as it was coming in.

One more of the parachute and flag (speck).

The view from our backyard.

Some pretty impressive firepower is used to lift
those things!  It was fun to be so close - you could
feel the heat.

Who wants to join us for the party next year?  ;)

Photos from Phones - July 2015 Round Up

Well, I guess it's time for another Photos from Phones photo dump on the ol' blog, seeing as it's halfway through August (how did that happen?!) and I haven't posted everything from July yet.  (I'm this far behind and I don't even have a newborn yet!  Oh boy.)  So.  July.  Our summer consists of much of the same: beach time, hiking time, family time, good times.

7.1.15
(our first of quite a few fun beach outings at
Pineview with some ward friends)

7.1.15

7.2.15
(on a Monday Night Hike in Northfork Park -
this part was much too steep for me to attempt)

7.2.15
(the view Cal and Gregg got at the bottom of that crazy hill)

7.2.15
(some really nice sunsets from our yard this summer)

7.2.15

7.3.15
(for a few weeks I was waking up so early and
not being able to get back to sleep - and that
combined with the fact that it was super hot
for that stretch, too, meant I wasn't getting out
on my walks as much as I was hoping.  enter
the early morning solo walk - which I only did once,
but it was entirely lovely.)

7.3.15

7.3.15

7.3.15

7.3.15

7.3.15

7.3.15
(Cal finally got the guts to try the slide
and Grandpa and Grandma Elwood's house
while we were there for the fireworks party.
She LOVED it!)

7.4.15
(we spent a few hours in my happy place on the Fourth
of July - Tony Grove!)

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15

7.4.15
(she's a little fish, that one)

7.4.15

7.4.15

bonus video!

"row, row, row your boat - lake style"

7.4.15

7.6.15
(getting braver with other slides after the success
at Grandma's - this time at the Huntsville Park
aka "library park")

7.6.15

7.6.15
(another Monday Night Hike on top of the North Ogden Divide)

7.6.15

7.6.15

7.6.15

7.6.15
(from our stopping point we had amazing views
of the "oggen vowie")

7.6.15
(our house is down there!)

7.6.15
(this is looking back toward the road over the pass
and down into Ogden and the Great Salt Lake)

7.6.15

7.6.15
(Cal clearly loves family selfies)

7.6.15

7.7.15
(we had a fun playdate with my college friend Michelle and her
darling little boy, Taylor)

7.7.15
(we went on a little hike on the Pineview Trail)

7.7.15

7.9.15
(freckle hand!)

7.9.15
(Minnie goes everywhere - this time to the church
park)

7.9.15
(curb kids)

then we went on our Red Canyon/Flaming Gorge camping adventure, 

which amazingly enough, I have already blogged about here

bonus video 2!

"can we keep him?"

7.12.15

bonus video 3!

"jumping!"

(or getting closer, anyway)

7.13.15

7.15.15
(baby's first nail polish - "I yike it!")

7.15.15
(matchy matchy green squared)

7.16.15
(just another day at the beach for my beach babe)

7.16.15

7.16.15

7.16.15
(such a good helper with her "sharp, sharp knife")

7.16.15

7.18.15
(with my cousins Emory and Macie at the Hyde
Park Founders Day/Pioneer Day parade)

7.18.15

7.18.15
(it was Cal's first parade and I don't think she really
knew what to think of it)

7.18.15
(after the parade we went to the Logan airport to see the open
house and air show they had going on that day)

7.18.15
(Callie got to sit in the cockpit with Macie and
MaKinna - she still talks about it when we see
and airplane fly by)

7.18.15

7.18.15

7.18.15

7.20.15
(Monday Night Hikin' in Middle Fork)

7.20.15

7.20.15

7.20.15
(I sure do like this view of my little fam and the "oggen vowie")

7.21.15
(from our daily strollin' along the "triangle")

7.21.15
(sometimes our daily strollin' leads us to the
Pineview Trail where we do a little "hiking" too)

7.21.15

7.21.15

7.22.15

7.22.15
(I watched that giant branch fall off our scary
dead tree from the kitchen window - yikes!)

7.22.15

7.22.15

and then we left the next day for our Blanchard family reunion,

hundreds of pictures of which you can find here

7.28.15
(More Monday Night Hikin' - on a Tuesday - on the
Wheeler Creek Trail from the Art Nord Trailhead)

7.28.15

7.28.15

7.28.15
(that's Snowbasin up yonder)

7.28.15

7.28.15

7.28.15

bonus video 4!

"a little trail running"

7.28.15

7.28.15

7.29.15
(we've seen up to three of these Great Horned Owls at a time up in our tree!)

7.30.15
(not the best pic - but I liked how her hair turned out
so I had to document it)

7.30.15
(a little pool time!)

7.30.15

7.30.15

7.30.15
(such a rarity these days - a genuine smile
and looking at the camera!)

bonus videos 5-6!

(she was singing while playing in the water and I just

couldn't resist recording some of them)

"in spanish"

"child of God"

7.30.15

7.31.15
(Gregg and I got to get away on a fun day date thanks to my parents
offering to babysit Cal as a b-day present for Gregg - we went to the
temple in the morning, then came back home for a wardrobe change
and headed up to Snowbasin for a scenic gondola ride and gormet
burger lunch at the Needles Lodge on the top of the mountain.  Pretty
great way to spend a Saturday!)

7.31.15
(Lovely view from our gondola cabin)

7.31.15
(after lunch, we took a little hike to the top of the ridge where we
were greeted with this view of the "other side of the mountain" -
Hill Air Force Base is right there in the middle)

7.31.15
(there's the Pineview side we know and love)

7.31.15
(the ridgeline)

7.31.15

7.31.15
(someone was feeling more adventurous than me)

7.31.15
(the flowers were quite lovely up on top!)

7.31.15

7.31.15
(me and my dishy)

7.31.15

7.31.15

7.31.15

All the round ups here: 
2015: June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2014: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2013: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June