Balloon Glow & Deer Spotting

This year, we went to the balloon glow with Sara, Nathan and Ian, and met Pat, Kristy, Jeff and Jules at Forest Park. We hoped to see our friends, the Forths and the Olliges' when we were there, but with such a huge crowd (as you can see below) it was nearly impossible to find ANYONE. We even lost Pat & Kristy shortly after we found them. We had a great time, well, most of us. Charlotte was pretty excited about the balloons the entire day, but once we arrived, she was terrified of all the noises, the fire, and the huge balloons hovering above. She was like velcro, we didn't even need to hang on to her, a bonus since we carried her the whole time.

Ian and "velcro" getting ready to touch the bunny balloon feet.

The fire from the bunny balloon illuminating all the rest.

Look at all the people.

Mom, Dad and "velcro". She kept her head burried in my shoulder, so scared. Even when I tried to talk to her and get her to lighten up and look around she would say "Keep head down right heeeer." She didn't even like the suggestion and would push my face away when I would ask her to look up. Silly girl.

The Hemmanns - Ian trying out his walking legs in the grass.

Charlotte's tear stained face, somehow we got her to look up for a picture. After this, I decided that we weren't going to play the "I'm scared" game and I threw her up in the air and twirled her around until she lightened up, smiled and even giggled a little. Anything to snap her out of it.

Sister - Sister

Another way we tried to lighten Charlotte up was by making her get on Chris' shoulders. She burried her head in his hair even then, but just as we were leaving the park, she began to look around and smile. Typical Charlotte.

The next day, after such a traumatic experience at the balloon glow, what did she talk about? "Go to balloon glow Mommy! Yeah!" - we may never understand.




Oh DEER!

We frequently walk in some of the neighborhoods near our house that back to woods in hopes of seeing deer. We have this one hot spot that we go to on every walk and see deer there about 80% of the time because the family that lives in this particular lot feed the deer. It is so fun to go looking for them on our walks/bike rides. All summer, we have been watching the babies grow up. This day, we saw 4 Doe and 4 Fawns all at once, and then another Doe and Fawn in another lot. This is one of the best pictures we have gotten of the deer because it wasn't as dark yet. They aren't all in the picture, but it is still really neat.

Our other neighbors.

The Hawn Family