Hot Air Ballooning!

Okay so I know that this is a blog about the babies (errr... toddlers?) but Jason and I went on a Hot Air Balloon Ride yesterday and I just had to share.... it was amazing.

Did you know that the top of a Hot Air Balloon is held together with velcro??? Yeah that was a little unsettling. The crew said that the straps are what hold all the pressure the velcro is just there to help them in the end when they are trying to get the air out and pack it up. Whatever the reason I still found it interesting


This was our balloon as it was being set up. It is a 10 person balloon and there were a total of 8 people. It was quite roomy.


In the other picture you can see how that basket is on it's side, well that is the way that you get it. We were told that it is much easier because once the balloon is up it is much more jumpy.



After a little bit of a bouncy start we were finally up in the air!

It really is quite amazing how calm and peaceful a balloon is. It was such a smooth ride and so not scary. I really though I would end up peeing my pants but it was just calming.





We were through Lancaster and we were over many Amish farms... we went over one and they were all playing volleyball....

It was neat to see all the people come out to wave to us


I really liked this pic... you see our balloon and an Amish buggy


The ride was suppose to be about an hour long and the pilot was having a hard time finding a place to land that was not super muddy so we were up for about an hour and a half. We ended up landing in the middle of an Amish farm. He had wanted to go over some but with the power lines he landed it where he did. The ground crew was missing (it turns out that they got stuck in a muddy driveway and could not get out... so we sat). We became quite the spectacle. We had 15-20 Amish people come up and chat with us. Since we were not able to move the balloon all the guys in the balloon got out and along with the help of the Amish, they pulled us (as the pilot floated us) to the driveway


Jason was able to take a picture of our balloon just before it was let down




There was an amazing sunset



So two and a half hours after we were suppose to be back we finally were. It was such an amazing experience. I never thought that it would end with us hanging out with the Amish.