Our Labor Day tradition - Watching Hot Air Balloons!

Okay, I know it is waaay past Labor Day, but I'm doing my best here! I'm not used to this blogging thing yet! =) Anyway, as you can probably tell from the title, we go to the Balloon Classic here in Colorado Springs every year with our family at the crack of dawn to watch hot air balloons inflate and take off. It's one of our favorite traditions. So I always take a million pictures, so I have PLENTY to share!

Here we are at the Balloons - aren't we cute?

Trister, Cam, and Becca.

We had donuts for breakfast while we were waiting for the balloons to start blowing up - can you tell?

Cameron was a little annoyed that he had to turn his attention away from the balloon to pose for a picture!
This point of view makes you feel like you are really there.

On a swamp tour with...ALLIGATORS!

Yes, you heard right! We took our 4 small children, by our own free will and choice, on a tour of a swamp infested with alligators! It was actually a lot of fun, and quite safe. The tour guide gave us a lot of interesting information about the swamp and occasionally lured alligators to the side of our boat with ...marshmallows! Did you know that alligators like marshmallows? The tour guide also put hot dogs on a long stick and held it over the side of the boat, so we could see the alligators jump, as you can see below. (We think he may be a little crazy!)

Anyway, the scenery was beautiful. We learned that a swamp is simply a forest that is underwater. And there were actually no bugs swarming around us! No mosquitos or cursed deer flies like the ones that attacked us every time we went outside anywhere else in the South! Apparently, the reason the water is brown (and bug repellant) is because of the Cypress trees that are partially underwater. They fill the water with tanic acid, which kills any eggs those yucky bugs lay, which, happily for those of us on the swamp tour, means no bugs!!! The only insects we came in contact with were dragonflies, which were very pretty and added to the swampiness of the experience.

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, I just so happen to have a ton of pictures from our vacation (I was a little "camera happy"), so I think I'll continue sharing about all the fun we had. I'll start at the beginning.

I don't know if you have ever flown on an airplane with 4 small children, but we can now say that we have! Is there a T-shirt for that? =) Anyway, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but we packed some very detailed carry-ons for each child (plus a DVD player our good friends Ryan and Michelle loaned us!) and we actually did rather well.

Cameron especially loved the plane. He is 2, and loves any kind of plane, train, or automobile. We had a layover in Houston, so we stopped to eat lunch. As soon as he finished eating Cameron announced, "all done! Go on airplane!" I guess it was a good thing we had a layover and got to go on 2 airplane rides that day, or we may have had one unhappy little boy!

Look, Mom, I learned how to blog!

Wow, this is scary! I hope this works! Well, this is the first time we have ever attempted blogging, so don't laugh too hard at our efforts please!

Also, please don't laugh at this picture. I know it's a little bold to post a picture where some of us are showing off a little too much skin, but it is the only recent photo of our entire family. Plus, I think it is cool that you can see my dad's shadow taking our picture. We will get to work right away on posing for group shots that do not involve bathing suits!

A little background about this picture - We just got back from a week long vacation to see my dad. He lives in Diamondhead, Mississippi (wow, that is hard to type!), which is very near the Gulf Coast. We had a great time doing some sight seeing and letting my dad and step-mom get in some good bonding time with the kiddos. The picture above is actually us posing on a beach in Pensacola, Florida. It was beautiful! The kids loved the beach. Becca told me she wished we could have a beach in Colorado!