Balloon Glow

One of the things we've been wanting to check out for the past several summers was the Wausau Balloon and Rib Festival.  With Grandma Patti's help, we decided we would try and tackle it.  We knew it would be a late night for the kids (the glow doesn't start until almost 9), but we thought it would be worth it.  

Eric and I apparently were not on the same page when it came to the packing. As we were rolling into Wausau, Simon started crying.  Figuring he was hungry, I opened the diaper bag to make a bottle.  I dug for a bottle.  There were no bottles packed.  I thought Eric packed them when he packed the thermos and formula and he thought I packed them since I was packing the rest of the bag.  Simon was getting more and more upset, and we knew we needed to get this situation figured out sooner rather than later.  We found a Target, and while I hurried in to buy some new bottles, Grandma tried to entertain Simon with some singing.  He was hanging on until she started "Big Spender." Then the big lip came out and the real tears started.  We got him a bottle in short order, and though we were later than we planned, we still had plenty of time to get to the rally.  

We parked at Aunt Jackie's house since they only live a few blocks away from the festival.  Kevin and Jamie and their boys joined us, too, and the kids had a great time playing together.  They enjoyed the bouncy houses while Eric stood in line to get food.  After almost an hour of standing in line, we finally met back at our chairs with our dinner.  Apparently the black cloud hanging over us wasn't planning on leaving soon...We set the food on the ledge of one of our chairs while we were getting it set for everyone, and the whole ledge collapsed, dumping $45 worth of food in the dusty dirt.  We were able to piece together enough for the kids to get something to eat.  

Frustration continued when we realized our packing snafu included more than just the bottles.  Wipes, sweatshirts, headphones, and baby socks were also on the list of forgotten things.  It was definitely not our smoothest trip!  However, the balloons were absolutely beautiful and unlike anything I had ever seen before.  It is positively relaxing to watch them float up into the sky, their bright colors shining.  We couldn't stay for the fireworks because Nolan was really worried about them being too loud without his headphones, but on our way out of town, we were able to see the beautiful fireworks go up into the sky.  Livi was so impressed since she has never seen them before.  Overall, it was a cool event, certainly made more memorable by our many bobbles!