4th of July Weekend - Day 1

We kicked off the 4th of July this year by attending the annual Balloon Fest in Provo. It's really fun to watch all the balloons inflate and lift off. You have to get up pretty early (starts about 6:30am) but it's worth it. You can walk around and see them up close and talk to the pilots and crew. Usually they will have some different races or games in the air, but this year we went on the first day and the balloons weren't allowed to take off due to the winds. It was still fun though. It is amazing to see these enormous hot air balloons go from a small package to fully inflated. We were able to visit with Smokey the Bear and Lauren talked to a few pilots. She was the only one brave enough to ask questions and it paid off. She asked one pilot if the balloon was very heavy. He asked her if she thought she'd be able to lift it off the ground. Of course she said no and he told her to try and as she tried to lift it, he let the balloon float off the ground a bit to make it seem like she had lifted it. Another pilot had her come inside the basket and pull on the flame handle and shoot the flames up. She said it was really hot. He would have taken her up a bit but the winds really picked up right then and about knocked the whole thing over. After that, everyone started packing up the balloons and calling it a day. We too decided to call it a day and headed over to the pancake breakfast and ate while we watched them all pack up.