The Great Midwest Balloon Fest

I had participated in a diaper study a few months ago and got a gift card as compensation.  I used a portion of that to get tickets for Ernest and myself to go to the Balloon Fest.  The week before the Balloon Fest I got rather sick.  I thought I was recovered enough to go out with Ernest, especially since we had a sitter (JoAnn) who was willing to let us stay out as late as we wanted.

The day started out not-so-good as I couldn't get Ally to take a nap, so she and I were fighting and yelling about it.  I was thinking that we wouldn't be able to go out because I don't like the idea of leaving anyone to watch her when she hasn't had a nap.  It's not pretty.  JoAnn convinced us we should still go, so we did.

We hadn't been before so weren't sure what to expect.  It was at the Great Mall of the Great Plains, which is NEVER busy at the best of times.  Oh my gosh.  We parked in the grass.  And shortly after we got there we saw lots of people having to park farther away and walk in.  It was so insanely crowded in there!  I really looked like the venue should have been for less than half of the people that were actually there.  Lines were really long for the food vendors and pretty much everything else.  I was so glad that we had opted not to bring the kids.  That wouldn't have worked out well, especially with a stroller. 

It was actually pretty nice out, but when you are on asphalt with that many other people it got pretty warm.  I got an ice cream sundae (oh my gosh - it was incredible - possibly because I have had hardly any sweets over the last three months).  We watched the Silver Wings Paratroopers and then headed in to the mall to cool off and decide what we were going to do.

These guys were VERY cool.

 

The mall inside was probably the busiest I've seen it since the first year it opened, and it still was pretty darn quiet.  We did a little window shopping for books and then wandered through the pet shop. 

 

Feeling recharged, we headed back outside.  And was assaulted by the craziness of the over-crowded venue.  It was maybe half an hour before the balloon glow started (and then the Clay Walker concert - which I was really looking forward to).  We decided to leave.  Ernest was hot and tired and I was just exhausted, apparently not as over my illness earlier in the week as I thought.  As we're walking to the car we're talking about going to the driving range, or to a movie.  We did drive around the parking lot (still insanely busy) and got a few pictures of some of the balloons from a distance.

 

 

And then....  We went to Price Chopper to get groceries and then went home.  It was pathetic.  But we were exhausted.