Missing: Balloons

One summer evening, John took us to a local hot air balloon rally on free admission night.  Aside from the exotic, chocolate-covered bananas he bought for us, the highlight of the evening was this free climbing tower.  Annika stared at it with palpable longing for several minutes, wondering how much it cost, before we realized it was free, a perfect way to usher youth into the military, and we set all the children loose on it.  So far, nary a one has signed up for the armed services, though they have great memories of the climbing wall.

Piper, Zeke, and Millie ascend.  Millie steadied Zeke's line as a show of solidarity

...then left him in her wake.

Poor Pip was on the harder side where even the greatest concentration couldn't stand in for longer limbs.

My settings were wrong when Annika began climbing, and she was so speedy I barely had time to change them before she rang the bell on the top and started coming down again.

I've called Luci our little tree frog since birth.  Here, she proved it.

 

Birdie spreads her proverbial wings.

Apart from the bananas and the climbing wall, we mostly walked around and avoided the camera.

 

The balloons were set to launch the following morning, so we didn't see the biggest attraction, but Aidan may not have been able to handle it, anyway.

He was greatly disturbed by the one balloonist who repeatedly set off a single flame; imagine if he was surrounded by dozens of them!