Balloon Classic 2011

Last month, we celebrated a long weekend for Labor Day by enjoying the Balloon Classic.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the park despite the windy weather but quickly gave up and headed to breakfast when we saw no balloons ascending.  Then, the balloons flew over our house on Sunday morning and Jack was enamored by them!  We headed to the balloon glow that night.  And the next morning, we made it to the park for the mass ascension.  Jack has been talking about it ever since.  He points to balloons in books and then points outside and says, "ba-oon, ba-oon!"  When we take him outside, sometimes he points to the sky and says, "ba-oon!"  We even gave him some of his own pictures from the event so he could carry them around, look at them, and show others.  It was fun to see an event that has special meaning for Nathan and me become so meaningful for Jack.

Balloon Festival... Again

We made it to the Balloon Festival twice this year! We figured that since Jack is always up bright and early anyway, we might as well take advantage of it. So, on Sunday we went with Daddy Dan (an early bird like Jack!) to watch the balloons take off, and we got some great pictures...

Balloon Classic 2008

Some of you may remember last Labor Day weekend when Nathan and I attended the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic. I posted pictures and wrote about the event at the time. What I didn't write about was the reluctance with which Nathan agreed to attend last year (and, come to think of it, even the year before). The past two years, I've been dragging Nathan to Memorial Park at o'dark thirty to view the lift-off or at dusk to watch the balloons glow. It was always with resigned hesitation, and a deep desire to be sleeping (or better yet, listening to rock 'n' roll) somewhere anywhere else, that Nathan would allow himself to be woken early on a weekend to placate his girlfriend.

This year, the story went a little differently. Nathan came home on Friday evening and asked me (with an unmistakable tinge of excitement in his voice) if the Balloon Classic was this weekend. I had not heard even a whispered rumbling of the upcoming event, and was shocked to realize that this was indeed the long Labor Day weekend known locally for the balloons. (Is it just me, or did Labor Day come early this year?) Nathan willingly eagerly made plans for us to attend the very next morning, even going so far as to call other friends and invite them to join us!

When the alarm buzzed at a ridiculous hour the next morning, Nathan popped up out of bed and, humming cheerfully, jumped into the shower while I, groaning, huddled down deeper into the nest of warm blankets and, later, peeled my eyelids open against the new morning sunlight.

Be careful what you wish for.

Manitou Springs with Mary

Nathan's aunt, Mary, is visiting Colorado for a few days and today Nathan and I spent the afternoon showing her around Manitou Springs. The quirky little shops in Manitou have so much character, and we had a delightful time seeing what they had in... store! Living in Colorado Springs, I sometimes take for granted the wonderful places to visit that are only a few miles down the road, and it was fun to look at Manitou through the eyes (and lens) of a tourist.

You know you're from Colorado if....

...you'll eat ice cream in the winter.

...when the weather report says it's going to be 65 degrees, you shave your legs and wear a skirt.

...it snows 5 inches and you don't expect school to be cancelled.

...you'll wear flip-flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature.

...you have no accent at all, but can hear other people's; and then you make fun of them.

...'humid' is over 25%.

...your sense of direction is: Toward the mountains and Away from the mountains.

...you say 'the interstate' and everybody knows which one.

...you think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard.

...you grew up planning your Halloween costumes around your coat.

...you know what the Continental Divide is.

...you don't think Coors beer is that big a deal.

...you went to Casa Bonita as a kid.

...you've gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities.

...you always know the elevation of where you are.

...you wake up to a beautiful, 80-degree day and you wonder if it's going to snow tomorrow.

...you don't care that some company renamed it; the Broncos still play at Mile High.

...every movie theater has military and student discounts.

...everybody wears jeans to church.

...you actually know that South Park is a real place not just a show on TV.

...you know what a 'trust fund hippy' is, and you know its natural habitat is Boulder.

...you know you're talking to a fellow Coloradoan when they call it Elitches, not Six Flags.

...a bear on your front porch doesn't bother you.

...your two favorite teams are the Broncos and whoever is beating the crap out of the Raiders.

...you've been to the original Chipotle near the DU campus on Evans.

...when people out East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.

...you go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels 'sticky' and you notice the sky is no longer blue.

Balloon Classic 2007

I have a high school friend who lives in Fort Collins, CO- not too far from Colorado Springs. I remember talking with her shortly after moving to Colorado and she was asking me how I liked living here. She mentioned that the times she had been in the Springs, she hadn't been too impressed. It just didn't seem like a nice looking city to her. I was amazed! For me, this is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Of course, like every city, there are neighborhoods that are nicer than others, but I still admire the mountains with awe almost every day I drive home from work. I haven't gotten used to the beauty of Colorado Springs, even after living here for more than five years.

One event that always highlights the beauty of this area is the Balloon Classic, held every labor day weekend. Bright and early on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings the hot air balloons (a ton of them!) are launched from Memorial Park, and it is quite a sight! At night there is the Balloon Glow. The balloons are set up just as it gets dark and, once the sun goes down, the fire torches are lit up so you see the glow of the balloons all around you. That is also quite amazing!

This year, with the excitement of the wedding planning, I was surprised to realize on Friday that the Balloon Classic was this weekend. I knew it was labor day weekend but I was thinking of it as a chance to get a lot of invitations made, forgetting completely about the Balloon Classic until a co-worker mentioned her plans to attend. I can't imagine how disappointed I would have been if I had missed it!

Nathan and I went to the Balloon Glow on Saturday night but were disappointed to find out that it had been canceled due to wind earlier in the evening. This morning, we went to the balloon launch. Here are just a few pictures to illustrate what it was like. Hopefully someday my friend in Fort Collins will be able to come down and watch this event. Perhaps her opinion of Colorado Springs would be different after the sight of all these hot air balloons!