Franson Fusion: Magic in the Sky

I have discovered that a great way to find out all the funnest family activities to do when you move to a new city is to follow people on InstaGram who do fun stuff with their kids. That is how I found out about the hot air balloon festival here in Boise that is held every Labor Day weekend (hey Em and Kacie...maybe next year...?).

Friday night we went to the Night Glow. I thought that the balloons would actually be launching, but it was just a light show which was underwhelming from where we had gone to watch. It would have been a cool view if the balloons had actually taken off. That night everyone was complaining, complaining, complaining and I was a bit disappointed since I had wanted to see the balloons launch since I had never seen that before. I decided I was going to get up early on Sunday morning to attend the big launch, the culmination of the entire festival. I was not expecting any of the kids to want to wake up at 6am to come and I wasn't going to force them or even encourage them to come with me after such a fiasco for the Night Glow, but much to my surprise all 6 kids wanted to go and got up! I'm so glad they did because it was so amazing!!!

Night Glow

When we arrived at the park on the morning of the big launch I was surprised to see that all of the balloons were flat on the ground.

The kids were still half asleep.

It was surprising how fast all the balloons went up!

I bribed them saying if they smiled for the pictures and cooperated I would buy them ice cream the next day. Can you tell how much they like ice cream? A LOT!