Labor day Weekend

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, the City of Boise held their annual Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic.  It actually starts on Wednesday and went through Sunday.  They start inflating the balloon right at Sunrise (around 7:00).  On Saturday I bravely woke the boys up before 6:00 in the morning, got them dressed and grabbed some breakfast on our way downtown.  It was a fairly nice morning (last year was really cold) and the boys had a lot of fun.  I was so glad that I had my camera ready and was able to capture these pictures of the boys being very entranced and in awe of the balloons as they started inflating. 

Bauer pointing to one of the balloons.  I just love the face  he is making. 

Deker.  I love how bright blue his eyes are. 

Keagan looking quite entranced.  When I told the boys on Friday night we were doing this, Keagan told me that his technology teacher would be there.  I didn't think we would see her because there are so many people.  But she was actually a crew member for one of the first balloons we saw as we got into the park.  Keagan said hi to her and she showed them the inside of the basket and how the balloons inflate and what her job is.

The balloons as they started inflated and lifting off. 

I love this picture of all the boys as well. 

The Mickey Mouse balloon.

The Balloon Festival is at a park that has a stream running through it.  So of course on our way back to the car the boys had to play in it with sticks and talk to the ducks that are there.  

As we walked back to our car, Deker walked along the water with a long stick dragging in the water. 

I was really looking forward to Labor Day this year.  With Keagan now in school and Andrew's work schedule, there are very few days that we have an entire day to spend together doing fun stuff as a family so we took this opportunity and went to the zoo.  We packed a lunch as well so that we could take as much time as we wanted. 

Here are the boys in their favorite "hut".

This was the last weekend of the Butterfly exhibit.  It costs and extra dollar to get in, but it was really worth it.  The boys and I went last year, but this was Andrew's first time.  It is always fun to see the different colors of butterflies.

This is one of my favorites.  When the butterfly is open like this, it is this pretty blue color, but the other side of its wings are brown. 

Usually when we are there this huge turtle is just sitting there.  This time, it was quite entertaining to watch.  It was trying to climb up on the wall. 

The birds nest.  I love looking back at other pictures and seeing how the boys have grown. 

Next to the zoo is a rose garden that is free to wander around in.  We decided to go look at the flowers (the boys, of course only cared about the water fountain and going through the different paths.   Here are a few pictures we took of the flowers.

We had such a wonderful day and really enjoyed having a day to spend together as a family.