It's Ballooning Time

The Balloon Festival was upon us once more. There was a bit more participation from Jayden this year! Jayden was seen listening in
at the pilots briefing. This is where
weather forecasts, wind speeds and other news is relayed to the pilot's. Jayden also helped getting the balloon out of the bag...or is it that she wanted to see if she could fit in the bag...? Hmmm.... We had a few new crew members this year helping out. The regulars are all in the green t-shirts. Our pilot's name is Bill. Our balloon is called Heaven! And
what a sight it is to see it float in the air! This year, one of the landings was a
little bumpy. One of the other balloons got in the way and Bill was forced to bring the balloon down in a secluded field that was almost impossible to get to. Mostly because the field belonged to a company that had it's fence locked!! Eventually we got in touch with the owner and he came down to unlock it for us. All in all it was a good weekend to fly and the weather cooperated wonderfully.

The Prestholdt Family Vacation

Dateline: July 17th--July 26th: This year's vacation was unforgettable in more ways than one! First, grandma and grandpa decided that they were going to treat everyone for a Prestholdt Family
vacation!! What they did was rent a house boat on
Lake Powell. It was
a year in planning. Tante and Uncle Bear prepared the menu and drove all the way from Texas with various supplies that we needed for the trip. We also had 'theme days' to make the trip even more interesting. Grandma and grandpa did a Pirate day. Mommy and daddy did a Lady Bug day (after Jayden's nickname), and Tante and Bear did The White Trash day!! It was so much fun. We had props, food and even costumes to match our days. We flew from NJ to Chicago, Chicago to Phoenix and then Phoenix to Page, Arizona. The flight from Phoenix was on a "puddle jumper" plane that only had propellers! Jayden just loved the turbulence!! It made mommy a little uneasy to say the least.
This is Jayden on the plane during the turbulence! Jayden even had her own seat!
That is a picture of our house boat that we had for the week. Grandpa was "Captain Pops" for the week. He navigated the boat through the lake's tributaries very gracefully...except the first day when we got stuck on a large flat rock and had to be pushed and pull off by the Calvary...but who knew it was so sallow there!
Jayden enjoyed the water immensely. We saw big fish that came right up to the boat. Oh yeah, that's Jayden steering the boat! "Look mom...I don't even have to be tall enough to see!" Okay, maybe Jayden didn't say that, but I'm sure she was thinking it!
The scenery was just breath taking. It's just amazing what this Earth of ours has created. Don't you just wish that everyone would see this
and realize that we really must preserve our planet!! We even saw a lightening storm in the distance. Unbelievable sights were seen!