A colorful sky...

We grabbed our seats on the ground right in front of the "do not cross line." We could feel the warmth of the flames when they lit them to fire up these awesome balloons! I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing and beautiful sights I have ever had the opportunity to see!

Here is Luke, enjoying his apple juice and watching the balloons prepare to launch. The "hare" balloon, the one that all the other balloons chase, is usually the Energizer bunny, but for some reason, it was only tethered and the Macy's balloon was the first to launch.
As you can see we definitely had front row seats to the Children's balloon. Here it is being inflated...
About to take flight...

And finally in the air....
We also had the opportunity to see this balloon inflate...when they had it all filled with air, it was ABOVE us - unbelievable!
Luke kept his finger in the air the entire evening looking at all the great balloons!
More pictures of us in front of the Children's balloon - Nana, Luke, Kristin, Maddie and Papa
And finally, around 7, our day was done...but we had to walk back to the car. Luckily we arrived so early that we had a great parking spot. We just had to get up a hill...good thing Uncle Gene was there to help push Dan up the hill! :)
We have all already talked about going back next year...unfortunately, next time obviously won't be as wonderful as it was this year....maybe we could always celebrate Luke's successful surgery and subsequent hearing at this amazing race!