Look Who Turned One Last Month! The Disney Balloon!

Okay, admittedly this is pretty sad.

I'm amazed I kept this balloon for over a year.  During the first week of February, 2017, my Mom and I took two of my nieces to Disneyland for a week.  Loads of fun.  Crazy times.  Two little girls for a week, but it was good.  Usually when I go to Disneyland I want to get a balloon, but never do.  This time I finally got one and wanted to see how long it would last.

Air stayed in the balloon for over a year.  Pretty good.  But every time I looked at it amusement grew to sadness, so the pink Mickey balloon had to go.

I popped it and with no fanfare it ended up in the trash.

Pink Mickey Balloon, it was fun.

-_-;;

Balloon Fail

 Sometimes when I write these blog posts I'm not quite sure what to title these stories.  Balloon Fail.  Nothing tragic happened.  I completely spaced last week that the 4th of July was this week!  June was a little crazy and flew by fast.  Though, the fireworks that went off in the neighborhood over the weekend woke me up to our proper time of the year.

I didn't really partake in any of the festivities.  And with my Dad having had surgery a couple weeks ago I didn't think he would be volunteering this year.  He did, which I found out Monday night.  Tuesday morning I texted him just after 7:00 in the morning to ask how he was doing, and he mentioned the balloons we're beautiful.

The hot air balloons!!

The last few times I tried to see them launch the wind was too strong, so they were grounded.  Seeing the balloons over a decade ago when I was going to BYU during the Summer is still one of my favorite 4th of July memories.  Seeing a sky full of color is such a delight, and I've been wanting to see it again, but keep having bad luck.

So I hopped in the car, and just before 8 I was in Provo.  Sadly many of the balloons were landing, but I still was able to see a few of them in the sky.  The drive to Provo was very pleasant, the roads clear, the morning air a nice warm with touches of cool temperature.  Making the effort was nice, and I don't regret trying.

Maybe next year, right!!?

 My Dad got a good picture while the parade was setting up.

This year my 4th of July was pretty chill.  Spent several hours researching my Stufflebeam ancestor who fought in the war: John Stufflebean.  (Glad the N was cemented into an M a couple generations later.)  Discovered John may have started the war as a Hessian.  Still researching what that means, but I have reasons to doubt this accusation made by distant relatives.  I'm forming a for and against argument for fun.  John's story is really quite interesting.

 My brother Steven and I got fireworks.  We debated splurging on one of those $50 20+ shot boxes in gold, but the instructions said to make sure there's a 25 meter clearance, and we knew we wouldn't have that space.  We chose safety and not burning down the neighbors house and went with smaller fireworks.  Our neighbors, on the other hand, went with the gusto.  A great neighborhood show that lasted well over an hour or two.  Good fun.

Anywho, the 4h is over!

And we're closer to Christmas than last years New Years.

Crazy Sauce.

 

An Uplifting Blog Post to Lighten the Day

Happy . . . late Halloween Day!

Today is Election Day, which is scarier than Halloween, so today I chose to remember happy times, those less than scary days, and write about a balloon.

This isn't about any ol' balloon.  It's a special balloon.  Purple in color.  Latex in material.  And it came into being October 20, 2016.  As of today it's still afloat, along with its Mallard cousins from the dollar store.

The latex balloon was a gift to my Mom on the day we were gathering party supplies for the Halloween festivities that night, and while we were at Partyland the salesperson accidentally made an extra balloon for another customers order, so, out of nowhere, he gave the balloon to my Mom exclaiming, "You've won a prize!"  And it just so happens that we earlier picked up three balloons from the dollar store needing a fourth to balance the look.  Happy timing.

And still today, 19 days old, all four balloons are standing tall.

And we're all quite baffled and amazed by it.

And I'm honestly curious how long they will last.

All the other balloons we got that day have given up the ghost.

What manner of wizardry went into the creation of these balloons?

 

Magical Balloon Powers, Or Possibly One of the Hardest Disneyland Jobs

Last week my family had a combined May birthday party.  Four of us kids (in-laws included) are May babes.  Which means more then half of us are Tauruses.  And three of the four birthdays fall on the same week.  That's a LOT of cake and ice-cream.  So to make life simpler we celebrate brithdays separately (if possible . . . heh), and then throw a combined party.

My Mom loves balloons.  Loves them.  A party isn't a party unless we have them.  So off to Smiths my Mom and I went, and she bought 15 latex balloons.  That's pretty standard for us, and didn't seem like a big deal--15 balloons, in groups of three, loosely bound together--until I got outside.

It was windy!

Super windy!

Out of no-where windy!

And the balloons decided to throw an early party and started dancing about, intertwining, until they formed a crazy complex braid.

I noticed too late what was happening, and immediately let out a moan.

Suddenly, in my mind, I envisioned Disneyland, remembering those cast members assigned to sale balloon.  30+ balloons bound together!  A happy, glorious assortment of colors in the shape of Mickey heads.  How do they do it?  I wondered.  How do they keep all those balloons sorted, ready to pull one down and out to give to a kid with a few dollars in his/her outstretched hand?  And then I wondered if that was one of the hardest jobs at Disneyland.

Can you imagine having to keep all those balloons from getting tangled!!??

 

When we got home it was my job to untangle them.

I slumped on the couch and quickly assessed the situation: Top to bottom.  That was the only way.  To be honest I was grumbly through the whole of it, which wouldn't fly at Disneyland.  Grumbly as I looked at my watch and then up again to see the slow progress.  5 minutes, then 10, 20 30, and finaly 45 minutes.  It took me 45 minutes.

By that time the family had all arrived, and my Mom took the groups of three and spread them throughout the house, all five bunches.

At the bottom of the stairs my little nephew tried to get a green balloon, pulling as hard as he could, to no avail.  He exclaimed, "It's stuck!"  And those of us downstairs giggling at his cuteness recommended he look for Grammy to ask if he could have the balloon.  He looked down the open hallway, went into the creative room, and then out, arms up and shrugged in a question mark.

It was adorable.

Soon enough he had his balloon.

And suddenly those 45 minutes spent untangling the balloons were completely worth it.

"Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon."

 ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-The-Pooh