{"id":4085,"date":"2016-04-04T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2016-04-03T20:57:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T01:57:12","slug":"colorado-discoveries-48-cos-labor-day-balloon-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/04\/colorado-discoveries-48-cos-labor-day-balloon-fest.html","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Discoveries 48: Colorado Springs Labor Day Liftoff Balloon Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Okay,<\/a>

Okay, so I was a bit of a madwoman photographing all the balloons.<\/p><\/div>\n

In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t write quite as much as I used to. Blame my full time work, but you can also blame this lack of motivation issue that I have these days. After a full day of work, I tend to come home, make dinner, and then not want to do much.<\/p>\n

This evening I was cleaning up the photos on my iPhone and realized how many things we’ve done over the past couple seasons that I have failed to share here. Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen some of this before, but in case you just follow my blog, let’s catch up with some of the things we did.<\/p>\n

Over Labor Day weekend, Colorado Springs held its annual “Labor Day Liftoff” Balloon Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those who know me well know how much I love hot air balloons. The colors, the science behind them, and the peace and quiet one enjoys while riding them are all beautiful. No, I’ve never been on a hot air balloon ride, but I’ll do it one day. There’s time.<\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta<\/a> has been on my personal bucket list<\/a>\u00a0(#7) since I was a young girl. I had a subscription to National Geographic Kids magazine when I was a pre-teen and one issue featured the Fiesta and came with a beautiful poster that I promptly taped to my wall. I remember the “Tony the Tiger<\/a>” balloon on the front cover of the magazine, in fact.<\/p>\n

Here in Colorado Springs, the Labor Day Liftoff<\/a> was a triumphant return for an event that had been discontinued after 2014\u00a0(formerly known as the Colorado Balloon\u00a0Classic). Dave, Timmy, and I made a trip out to downtown’s Memorial Park to see the action.<\/p>\n

This meant getting up VERY early. Each day of the event there were two liftoffs, one at 7am and the other around 7:30am. Our family was a little slow going to get out to the park, but made it on site just as the end of the first group of balloons was lifting off.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>

From a distance we saw Darth Vader and Yoda lifting off. This was on our walk from the car to the park.<\/p><\/div>\n

During the day there were numerous activities, vendors, and live music. There is also an evening “balloon glow” where the flames from the heating elements light up the sky. However, we arrived at about 7:30am and we didn’t stay for too long after the second wave lifted off. We watched the Wells Fargo balloon<\/a> inflate and upright itself, then listened to the emcee announce each balloon as it lifted off.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The first wave. The weather was perfect! These balloons need winds of less than 10 mph to fly, and they were given those conditions each day of the event.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"We<\/a>

We had a front-row view of this balloon inflating.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I<\/a>

I got a kick out of seeing this Re-Max balloon, since its the companys logo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hot<\/a>

Hot air balloons bright colors have always brought me happiness.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This was a fun balloon to watch inflate and lift off.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSC_0394\"<\/a>

A closeup of the girl dangling off the shoelace.<\/p><\/div>\n

Timmy enjoyed the liftoffs, but after they left he grew bored so we didn’t stay for too much longer. We stayed about 90 minutes total.<\/p>\n

We hit a fun nearby\u00a0doughnut shop on the way home<\/a>\u00a0(along with hundreds\u00a0of others who were at the event), and many of the balloons were floating over us while we waited in line for our dozen.<\/p>\n

The event is held in at Memorial Park in downtown Colorado Springs every Labor Day weekend. Keep up with this year’s events at their website<\/a>. I think I might like to register to be a crew volunteer one day.<\/p>\n

If you don’t live near Colorado Springs or Albuquerque, you can find hot air balloon festivals throughout the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t write quite as much as I used to. Blame my full time work, but you can also blame this lack of motivation issue that I have these days. After a full day of work, I tend to come home, make dinner, and then not want to do much. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,386,410,649],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-13T","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2598,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/09\/colorado-discoveries-12-colorado-springs-pioneer-museum.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":0},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 12: The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum","date":"27 September 13","format":false,"excerpt":"For a Cub Scout field trip, in mid-September our family visited the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in the heart of downtown. The museum is free of charge (donations are always welcome), and has numerous artifacts from Colorado Springs' past and current histories. The interior of the museum is beautifully maintained,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is in the old city hall. This museum reminded me of the Old Florida State Capitol.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_7448-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3205,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/05\/colorado-discoveries-34-sky-sox.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":1},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 34: Colorado Springs Sky Sox with Timmy’s Little League Team","date":"27 May 14","format":false,"excerpt":"The first weekend of May, Timmy's Little League baseball team did the Little League fan experience thing** with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the AAA Minor League Baseball team that plays right up the street from us. They're the Colorado Rockies AAA affiliate team. **It took me a second to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"baseball\"","img":{"alt_text":"Timmy is #2.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_10101-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2302,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/07\/colorado-discoveries-6-garden-of-the-gods-park.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":2},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 6: Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado Springs","date":"15 July 13","format":false,"excerpt":"While we were in Colorado in May to buy our house, we took some spare time to visit the Garden of the Gods park, which is along the western edge of Colorado Springs. The Garden of the Gods park is a gift to the City of Colorado Springs. In 1879,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"A beautiful day at a beautiful park.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_6390-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2455,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/08\/colorado-discoveries-8-manitou-cliff-dwellings.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":3},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 8: Manitou Cliff Dwellings, Manitou Springs","date":"11 August 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Our family took a day trip to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. A Facebook advertisement featuring wolves from the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center? visiting for the day got my attention. The boys were immediately interested.","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings is a part-day attraction you can roll in with other activities in the Manitou Springs\/Ute Pass areas of Colorado.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DSC_3303-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2695,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/10\/colorado-discoveries-17-spruce-mountain-open-space.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 17: Spruce Mountain Open Space","date":"29 October 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Colorado basks in their \"open spaces\". I'm not sure if it's a special category of park or what, but there are many in our community, and there are several between Colorado Springs and Denver. That's where my latest adventure took me. Just north of the towns of Monument and Palmer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The parking lot was packed! You can see that it's not a huge \"mountain\".","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/IMG_0001_2-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2726,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/11\/the-all-colorado-beer-festival.html","url_meta":{"origin":4085,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 18: The (Tax Exempt) All Colorado Beer Festival","date":"03 November 13","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Saturday night Dave and I joined some friends for a fun evening in Colorado Springs celebrating Colorado craft beers at the All Colorado Beer Festival. I didn't take any good pictures during the evening, unfortunately, but I did want to show off our take of stickers that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"all colorado beer festival\"","img":{"alt_text":"The All Colorado Beer Festival is a great fund raiser hidden in the guise of a fun party.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/1403585_568955599825217_86077079_o-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4100,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}