Hot Air Balloons

Ok, so it took me a while, but I am now finally getting to blog about the 4th of July. It is my favorite holiday so I have to blog it even if I am a slacker! I was actually just overwhelmed with all the cute photos I have to post and couldn't decide which ones to use:)

So we started the day off bright and early, oh wait, dark and early. There was no light at 4am when I had to get up and function in preparations for the Hot Air Balloon Competition that started in Provo at 6am. Dan's mom has gone to it every year for quite some time now, but this is the first year the kids and I joined. People are CRAZY, and now so are we, but we had a great time and I think it is going to be a yearly tradition. The kids stared in amazement as the many balloons were filled with air and released into the sky, it really is a pretty cool thing to watch with lots of color and excitement. Dan's sister Tracey, her husband Craig and Dan's niece Brianna were also with us and we had a great time! I took a ton of pictures though and Zoe did her fair share of picture taking, so between the two of us we didn't miss a single kodak moment.

Max was uncertain about the flames, but he ended up fascinated in no time!

This was the balloon that Zoe was so excited for because we thought it was a bull dog. She wanted to stand right next to this one until it was up, however it ended up being Smokey Bear and she was quite disappointed it wasn't the bull dog she was all hiped up about:(

Here we all are at 6am, the kids look like they are still half asleep.

Max pointed at the balloons until he could point no longer, which was an impressive amount of time.

And I think Zoe could've layed there and taken pictures of the balloons all day (or until she filled up my memory card with the same picture of her favorite flower balloon and all of the people around us.) She had to take a picture of the sad baby walking by, and about twenty of Max on daddy's shoulders, but I was pretty impressed with how well she did. She actually got some pretty good shots. I think she is getting the hang of this photography thing. Here's one of them:

Max always responds better to the camera when Zoe is behind it. Come to think of it, so does Dan.
We actually didn't even stay for the whole competition, so I don't know if Zoe's flower balloon was the winner. After so long Max was fully awake, energized and ready to run. Chasing him through crowds of people didn't seem too appealing, as fun as it may have been for him. On the way to the car Zoe spotted two motorcyles. She has an obsession with motorcycles because her Uncle Sam has one and she thinks he is the coolest. She actually has a little mini one of her own now and drives it around very well. (I'll post pics of that soon, it is so dang cute watching her cruise around on her little red pocket bike) Everytime she sees one parked she has to stand by it and always asks for a picture by it. Well, this time I was prepared!
This is the view when we were leaving as the sun was finally starting to rise. I was hoping to sleep with the kids when we got home, but no such luck. They slept for an hour on the way home and were awake and ready to go again by the time we arrived, but it was all worth it!